Chapter LXIII: {victoria. 1851} (2)

Although public disturbances and assassinations were less common in 1851 than was usual in Ireland, there were some heartless proofs of class and religious animosity. In the month of July a singular trial took place evincing this. A gentleman named Smyth, of landed property, and considerable influence in his county, was, with one Helier, put upon his trial for the murder of his own mother, for the purpose of inheriting her property. Witnesses were called who swore to complicity, or a knowledge of complicity on the part of others, in a conspiracy, in which Mr. Blood Smyth was the moving person, for the murder of his mother. The evidence of these persons revealed a state of moral feeling, in the south of Ireland, among the peasant and low farmer class, perfectly atrocious. The result of the trial was, that the clearest proof was obtained that the deceased lady had died a natural death; that no attempt to murder her had ever been made; that the alleged criminals had really no motive for such a crime; that they were innocent, and that the accusation was the fruit of a conspiracy among dismissed servants and tenants of the accused, in order to be revenged upon him. The family of the accused were considered over zealous Protestants, and this formed an additional incitement to combine for the purpose of a legal assassination more cruel and terrible than if he had, like so many other Irish gentlemen, been shot down upon the public road. The latter terrible fate befell Mr. E. White, of Abbeleix, for asserting his right to some peat land which he had purchased. This circumstance offended the “Ribband” men, who in open day lodged a bullet in his heart, in a populous neighbourhood. The murderers were well known, but the populace sympathised with them. In the north of Ireland several gentlemen and men of humble note fell victims to the weapons of the “Ribband” assassins, under circumstances plainly indicating the complicity of the great mass of the peasantry of the Roman Catholic communion. Mr. Bateson, brother of Sir Robert Bateson, was beaten to death with bludgeons on the road near Castle Blayney. Men were arrested against whom the strongest proofs of guilt were produced, but the jury refused to convict. The difficulty of obtaining Roman Catholic members of juries to convict in Ribband cases, even upon the clearest evidence, greatly impeded the course of justice in Ireland. Mr. Eastwood, a magistrate, and deputy-lieutenant of a county, incurred a fate similar to that of Mr. Bateson. It was generally felt by the peaceable and loyal in Ireland, and by the people of England generally, that justice was not scrupulously administered by the whig party in Ireland. Anxious to preserve their majority by the votes of the Irish Roman Catholic members, and of latitudinarian members who represented Roman Catholic constituencies, the Whigs were unwilling to do anything, however called for by equity or imperial policy, which offended the popular party in Ireland, unless a _quid pro quo_ were attainable in increased English support. The ecclesiastical titles bill, however imperfect (designedly so), secured an amount of British support which more than balanced any loss of Irish members; but in Ireland the priest party were coaxed by the Whigs, and concessions made to them unworthy the dignity of imperial administration. The whig government in Ireland was utterly unprincipled and corrupt. At the close of the year a great law case established that in a singular manner. The case is given in law reports as Birch _versus_ Somerville, Bart. Birch was a Dublin newspaper proprietor; Somerville, Bart., the Irish secretary. The action was for £7,000 “for work and labour done.” The work and labour was the support of the whig government in _The World_ newspaper, in a mode and for ends utterly disreputable. The Earl of Clarendon, Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and Sir W. Somerville, personally prompted this Birch, whose paper had an infamous reputation. These high officers of state disposed of the public money, and it may be also their own, to bribe this Birch. The Earl of Clarendon was examined, and admitted that Birch had been in his pay for years to support law and order; and acknowledged that independent of the money given to Birch in Ireland, he had also received money in London for the same object. The moral effect of this trial was so damaging to the government of Lord Clarendon, that it lost all hold upon the support of the respectable classes in Ireland. Lord Naas subsequently brought the subject under the notice of the House of Commons, when its damaging effects upon the existence of the Russell ministry was such as would probably have led to its downfall, irrespective of all casual circumstances or internal feuds.

The census of Ireland, taken this year, revealed the following facts as compared with 1841. In the metropolitan province of Leinster, in 1841, the number of houses was 320,051; a diminution had taken place of considerably more than 40,000 houses—the number being 277,552. The reduction in the number of families was nearly the same, from 362,134 to 321,991. The population was lessened from 1,973,731 to 1,667,771. The reduction in the other provinces was even greater in proportion; so that, in all Ireland, the number of houses was decreased, within the decade, from 1,384,360 to 1,115,007; and the population from 8,175,124 to 6,515,794; a decrease of more than twenty per cent.—the total decrease being 1,659,330.

With a population of more than six millions and a half, a fertile soil, and temperate climate, it was felt that Ireland ought to become a powerful and prosperous country. Belgium, Holland, Portugal, Switzerland, all the different states of Italy, Germany, and Scandinavia, were inferior to Ireland in the number of inhabitants and in national resources. Good government, and good conduct on the part of the people, it was generally believed, would develop the country to a condition of prosperity rivalling that of most other lands.

THE COURT.

The incidents of the year affecting royalty were few. On the 27th of August her majesty, consort, and several of the royal children, left the marine residence at Osborne, Isle of Wight, for Balmoral, in the Scottish Highlands. The royal progress was marked by the usual manifestations of loyalty. On the 7th of October the court left Balmoral. Two accidents occurred on the railway to the train in which her majesty travelled; the first on the journey to Edinburgh, when, after leaving Forfar, the axle of a carriage-truck became heated by friction, and some delay occurred, which caused alarm at Edinburgh. It gratified the inhabitants of the Scottish capital that her majesty and suite took up their brief abode at Holyrood Palace. Between Glasgow and Edinburgh, while the train was driven at the rate of thirty miles an hour, one of the feeding pipes from the tender to the engine burst with a loud explosion; the train was obscured in steam, and came to a stand at Kirkliston, where it was obliged to remain until assistance arrived from Edinburgh. During these accidents the composure and courage of the queen struck all observers with astonishment. It had been arranged that Liverpool should be visited by the royal travellers; and a magnificent reception was prepared for them. Her majesty was not, however, favoured upon the occasion with that beautiful weather which generally smiles upon her voyages, journeys and public appearances in her great cities. One of the most gloomy and rainy days ever known at Liverpool frowned upon the loyal efforts of its inhabitants. This did not repress their enthusiasm. A vast concourse filled the streets, and made the most hearty demonstrations of welcome to their queen. From Liverpool the court proceeded to Worsley Hall, the mansion of the Earl of Ellesmere. This was probably, the most remarkable of all her majesty’s previous journeys. The queen and suite embarked at Liverpool, in barges, and proceeded by the Bridgewater Canal to Worsley. While at Worsley, only a few miles from Manchester, her majesty paid a visit to that great city. On no occasion, even in the metropolis, was so vast a multitude of persons collected to see the queen; and, probably, on no occasion was she ever welcomed in a provincial city with so prodigal an expenditure and splendid a display of loyalty. Manchester and Salford were both traversed in their great principal thoroughfares by the royal procession, attended with military pomp, and many persons of very great eminence in the nation were in her suite. The profuse expenditure, displayed in flags and decorations, attracted the notice of the royal lady so much, that she expressed her regret that the citizens of Manchester should have gone to so great an expense on her account. A large public pleasure-ground in Salford, set apart by public subscriptions for the recreation of the people, and designated Peel Park, in honour of the free-trade champion, lay in the route taken by the royal _cortège_. In that park one of the most extraordinary fights was presented to her majesty ever witnessed by a monarch—eighty thousand Sunday-school children, of all religious denominations, were assembled to see their queen. The bringing together of such a mass of young persons, and the arrangements for placing them in a proper position to see and to be seen, was a work of anxiety and toil of which those only can form a conception who took part in it. Much of the credit of the occasion was due to the late Robert Needham, Esq., solicitor, of Manchester, who, with extraordinary toil, from the effects of which he never recovered, arranged and carried out the vast work. The writer of this history was present on the occasion, and can never forget the spectacle, which partook of the sublime and the affecting. Together with the vast host of children, dressed in holiday array, and with the fair and open countenances for which the children of Saxon Lancashire are remarkable, there were their teachers and ministers, and in the rear a vast multitude consisting of the parents and friends of these children, and of the religious congregations whose zeal and liberality provided instruction for their juvenile charge. There were fourteen tiers of galleries around the chief carriage-way of the park. These tiers were so arranged that the _cortège_, passing along the road, could see at once the whole array, and the children from every tier see the queen and her attendants. As her majesty entered the park, the whole host raised their voices and began the national anthem. For a few moments the effect was sublime; it was, however, only during the first verse. The boys of the Irish Roman Catholic schools burst the limitations of their orders, and of their positions, and raised a tumultuous shout, which was caught up in an instant by the other children, and almost as soon by the vast multitudes who filled the park. The author of these pages has witnessed many public entries of royal persons into great cities, and many, especially, in the great metropolis of these islands, but never were sounds or scenes presented to his senses so imposing and inspiring as on that occasion. The queen was evidently much affected, and the great Duke of Wellington, who was in her suite, and was an object of nearly as hearty demonstrations as even her majesty, showed emotion, and was heard to say that he had never witnessed so interesting a scene. The young members of the royal household were naturally objects of intense interest to the multitude of children, and they, by their greetings and eager expression of countenance, showed how much they felt the excitement which such a multitude of young persons was calculated to inspire in princes and princesses of their own age. Probably, when many more years have run their course, and some of these royal children shall sit on thrones, they will remember a lesson profitable to royalty—the loyal spirit of the juvenile population of Manchester, and of all that population, in the year 1851. Doubtless the same virtues which, on the part of their royal parents, commanded respect and affection, will characterise those scions of the royal house of England, who already tread with early, but no uncertain step, the path of honour and goodness in which their queenly exemplar and teacher has conducted them. The great Manchester demonstration was followed by illuminations so general and so costly that her majesty and her suite were represented as taking an interest in them, such as pyrotechnical displays did not usually excite. From Worsley the queen and a portion of her suite proceeded to Windsor.

On the 18th of November the court received, by electric telegraph, intelligence of the death of the King of Hanover, her majesty’s uncle, in the 81st year of his age. He had never been regarded as kind to her majesty when Princess Victoria; and had been by far the most unpopular prince in the family of George III. A considerable party among the Tories, both in England and Ireland, gave rather open expression to their desire that the Duke of Cumberland (King of Hanover), rather than the rightful claimant, the Princess Victoria, should come to the throne on the decease of William IV. Great indignation was excited at the time by the supposed existence of a conspiracy to effect this object, for the success of which there could have been no hope, so thorough was the detestation of the people to the Duke of Cumberland, and so generous their recollections of the Duke of Kent, and their feeling to his only child—their rightful sovereign. Whatever might have been the feeling of her majesty on these matters, she commanded the court to go into mourning upon her uncle’s decease.

COLONIAL AFFAIRS.

_The Cape of Good Hope_.—The earliest important events of the year connected with our colonial empire occurred in the Cape settlements. During the autumn and winter of the previous year the governor, Sir Harry Smith, suppressed all indications of rebellion, deposed the chief, Sandilia, and proclaimed his mother sutee in his stead. Sandilia, however, prowled about the English borders making incursions for plunder. Sir Harry directed a column, six hundred strong, under the command of Colonel Mackinnon, to disperse the marauders. That officer committed the error so common on the part of British commanders—he marched without flanking parties, or an advanced guard, except a party of Caffre police, who of course led him into an ambuscade, at the expense of a number of officers and men killed and wounded. This success on the part of the savages led to a general rising of the tribes, especially the brave and cruel Gaikas; the English colonists lost much property and many lives. No adequate means had been adopted either by the government or colonists to guard against the deceit common among uncivilized races. Sir Harry Smith, and the troops which he commanded, were in imminent peril at Fort Cox. By the beginning of the year 1851 the Caffres had penetrated to the very heart of the colony. Sir Harry Smith escaped from Fort Cox, at the head of a flying escort, to King William’s Town, where he established his head-quarters throughout the war. On the 21st of January the first general action was fought at Fort Hare and the Fingo village of Abee. The Caffres were the assailants, and numbered about six thousand men. There were two 24–pounders in Fort Hare, and their fire drove back the aggressors, who had suffered severely during their repeated assaults. The garrison made a sortie at a moment of confusion in the Caffre ranks, caused by the havoc of the guns; the sortie was successful, but not until after a fierce conflict at close quarters. The force at Sir Harry Smith’s command was totally inadequate to suppress such an insurrection, unless, indeed, by singular good fortune, and with most severe loss. The Hottentots, encouraged by the success of the Caffres, burst into sudden rebellion, and committed numerous murders upon the settlers, as well as inflicting loss upon the armed bands of loyalists, and troops, with whom constant skirmishes were maintained. The natives in the English pay, even the Cape Mounted Rifles, deserted in great numbers, and strove earnestly to organize Caffres and Hottentots for more effective war. Colonel Somerset, now promoted to the rank of major-general, succeeded in coming upon the main force of the Hottentots with two columns of British, one six hundred and the other three hundred strong. The general committed precisely the same errors, and in the same manner, as Lord Clyde and his lieutenants in India, in the mutiny of 1857, afterwards made the English nation accustomed to expect from British officers—the stronghold of the Hottentots was so carelessly invested that they escaped, and the war, which, so far as they were concerned, might have been terminated, was consequently prolonged. In various actions which took place the Caffres and Hottentots fought well; the Fingoes, the allies of the British, fought indifferently. The English suffered from successful ambushes on the part of the enemy, and from being badly supplied with ammunition. Colonel Fordyce, who was very active, but not always successful, in command of separate columns under the orders of General Somerset, was killed, and many brave officers and men fell.

On the 31st of October a draft of a constitution for the colony, dispatched by Earl Grey, arrived at Cape Town. It was transmitted to the Cape for the approval of the legislative council, in order eventually, by the queen’s sanction, to become law. According to that document the parliament of the colony was to consist of the governor, the legislative council, and a house of assembly. The legislative council was to be elective, the members retiring by rotation at intervals of five years, until ten years had expired, when the members should hold their places in the council for ten years. The house of assembly to consist of members elected for five years. The franchise to be possessed by occupiers of tenements of the value of £25. The sessions were to be annual. The colonists received this constitution with unbounded joy, and petitioned the queen to grant this as the charter of the colony, without any reference to the legislative council then existing, in which the petition declared that the people had no confidence. The granting of a constitution to the Cape was the result of the energetic requests of the colonists, their dissatisfaction with the administration of Earl Grey in the colonial office in London, and the demands of the English House of Commons: the matter was also expedited by the enormous charges for the Caffre war upon the imperial exchequer, which the English government and parliament were anxious to escape; the readiest and safest mode of accomplishing which the House of Commons declared was by granting to the colonists self-government. Lord Derby, regretting the liberty conceded to the colonists, threw obstacles in the way of the measure, but, by a very small majority, he was defeated in the House of Lords.

The rebellion at the Cape of Good Hope was prolonged during the opening months of 1851, and finally died out from the exhaustion of the enemy, in the presence of reinforcements of British troops. As tidings of its progress arrived in England, they occasioned grave discussions in the press, and party debates in parliament.

The Cape of Good Hope alone, of all the British colonies, was a source of public anxiety during the year 1851. India, so often the field of conflict, triumph, and disaster, afforded comparatively few incidents of great public interest suited to the records of a general history. Peace, loyalty, material development, and prosperity characterised the colonial chronicle of the year.

_Discovery of Gold in Australia_.—In September news reached England of the discovery of gold fields at Bathurst, in New South Wales. Before the close of the year intelligence was received in England of fresh discoveries; these were in Victoria. The immediate consequence of the gold discoveries was disadvantageous to the colonies, as men of all trades and professions forsook their callings to repair to the “diggings,” and the shepherds abandoned their flocks, so that hundreds of thousands of stock were lost, or perished. The ultimate effect upon British Australia was, however, most prosperous—several of the colonies of that vast region becoming enriched with mineral wealth. Although the public announcement of the treasures contained in the mineral resources of certain of the Australian settlements was made at the period above referred to, it was known to the authorities many years previously that gold might be obtained, but, under the influence of a false policy, the fact was concealed.

_Hostility of the Arabs at Aden_.—The British settlement at Aden, important because of the command of the Arabian Sea, which it enabled the English to maintain, suffered this year in various ways. The station was most sickly, and the Europeans, and Bombay sepoys, in garrison, were alike exposed to heavy mortality. The Arabs resorted to violence and assassination; British officers were murdered if they strayed beyond the limits of the garrison. The crews of British merchantmen on the coast were attacked, and some wrecked mariners were massacred.

The Mohammedan populations of the British empire showed indications of intense irritability against the English, and, indeed, everywhere amongst Mohammedans, animosity to Europeans appeared to increase.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS—EUROPEAN RELATIONS.

_France_.—The relations of the United Kingdom with France, are not only more important in themselves than those which the former sustains with any other nation, but they influence the whole foreign policy of the British government. France is ascendant upon the continent notwithstanding the rivalry of Russia, and the policy of France often complicates the relations of England with other powers. This has arisen frequently from national jealousy, and as frequently from the sudden and extreme changes to which the government of France is liable in its form and principles. The revolution of 1848 brought France morally nearer to England. Louis Philippe had much difficulty in holding in rein the war spirit, which for, his own selfish and crooked policy, he had himself evoked. After that corrupt prince was driven from the throne by the people he had betrayed, a friendly feeling sprung up towards England. The moderate republican party regarded Great Britain as a land of freedom, and the natural ally of France. That party, however, maintained its ascendancy but for a short time. The Napoleonists, red republicans, priests, and peasants, united in the support of Charles Louis Napoleon Buonaparte. He was elected president of the republic, and 1851 witnessed, through his instrumentality, events of great magnitude, and which exercised potent influence upon the public mind and policy of England.

There can be no doubt that from the hour Louis Napoleon took his place in the National Assembly he had resolved, by the aid of the partizans of his name, the priests, and their agents connected with the press, to undermine the assembly, and hold it up to the ridicule and resentment of the country. The hostility of that body to universal suffrage, and the advocacy of that political theory by the Buonapartists, gave to the president of the French republic a popularity with the “reds,” which otherwise he never could have obtained.

In the latter part of 1850, a great review of troops took place at Sartory, during which cries, from many of the soldiers, of “Vive l’Empereur” were heard, and were encouraged by the generals in the Buonapartist interest. Some officers who repressed those exclamations, and others who refused to join in them, were dismissed by Louis Napoleon’s executive. These circumstances raised formidable debates in the assembly, and afterwards led to votes and demonstrations hostile to Louis Napoleon. On the other hand a large number of the representatives, who were indebted for their return chiefly to the priesthood, and what remained of a landed aristocracy, used every instrumentality they could bring into requisition to damage the executive, to lower the authority of the president, and to create a monarchical reaction. While they brought forth as a crime the fact that the soldiers had cried “Vive l’Empereur” they took every opportunity themselves to utter the party shouts of “Vivent les Bourbons!” or “Vivent les Orleans!” A singular circumstance exhibited the efforts of a large proportion of the assembly to bring about a monarchical reaction. During the prorogation a permanent committee was formed, in which a small minority of republicans was placed by the votes of the assembly. There were twelve reactionists; these men were found to be in constant communication with the two branches of the exiled Bourbons. Six of them spent most of the time of the prorogation at Wiesbaden, with the _pseudo_. court of the elder Bourbon branch; the other six went to England, and were constantly at Claremont with the Orleanist branch of the exregal house. As M. Flaudin taunted these sections of the assembly with desiring, they really purposed that Louis Napoleon should be a _president fainéant_, while yet permitted to retain the nominal functions of government. Louis Napoleon strengthened himself by a new ministry, in which the assembly, by a large majority, declared its want of confidence. M. Montalembert and some others, who were expected to vote on the side of the opposition, voted with the Buonapartists. This made it evident that a strong party among the priesthood deemed it the best policy to support Louis Napoleon, as the friend of the pope’s temporal power at Rome, and of the Roman Catholic religion in France. A very large number of the priests, and of the lay devotees, refused to trust Louis Napoleon as a friend of the church. They did not forget that his first public act, on arriving at the estate of manhood, was to create, or at all events aid in council, and in the field, an insurrection against the pope. Neither did they forget that, although a French army garrisoned Rome, to support the pope under the auspices of the president of the French republic, that the president in his less fortunate days had animadverted in severe terms upon the education and patriotism of the Roman Catholic clergy of France. He had in one of his works drawn invidious comparisons between them and the German clergy, much to the disadvantage of the former. The following was especially quoted by that section of the French clergy and laity who were unwilling to give the president a warm support:—“The clergy will cease to be ultramontane when they shall be obliged, as formerly, to distinguish themselves by learning, and to obtain their education from the same sources as the generality of’ citizens. Southern Germany, without contradiction, is the country in which the Roman Catholic clergy are the best instructed, the most tolerant, and the most liberal; and why are they so? Because the young men who in Germany destine themselves to the priesthood, learn theology in common with students destined for other professions. Instead of being from infancy sequestered from the world, and obtaining in ecclesiastical seminaries a spirit hostile to the society in the midst of which they have to live, they learn at an early age to be citizens, before being priests. The consequence is that the German Catholic clergy are distinguished by great enlightenment and ardent patriotism. There are no sacrifices which they are not ready to make for the triumph of liberty, and for the independence of Germany. In their eyes to be a priest is to teach morality and charity; is to make common cause with all the oppressed; to preach justice and toleration; to predict the reign of equality; and to teach men that political redemption must follow religious liberty. Let the education of the clergy be the same in France as it is in Germany, and it will produce the same results. By the union of priests and laymen there will be a double action which will be favourable to society; priests will become citizens, and citizens will become more religious. Then—but then only—we shall be happy to see, as in Germany, the ministers of religion at the head of education, teaching youth the morality of Christ, which destroyed slavery, taught men, that they are equal, and impressed on them that God has placed in their hearts faith and love, in order to believe in what is right, and to love one another.”*

* “Complete Works of the Emperor Napoleon III.,” vol. ii.
Chapter on “The Clergy and the State.”

The espousal of the president’s cause by M. Montalembert, then recognised as the lay leader of the ultramontane party, decided many waverers, notwithstanding their affection for the elder Bourbons, and their horror of such liberal enunciations by Louis Napoleon.

When the president’s ministry of favourites was turned out by the vote of the assembly, he resorted to the extraordinary measure of forming a ministry of men who had no votes in that body. This he alleged was only a provisional ministry, but the assembly did not place faith in these assurances, and offered it every opposition. The new ministry were allowed to sit in the assembly as ministers, to answer any interpellations, or make any statements connected with their offices. This ministry remained in office until the 11th of April, when it gave place to that which it had provisionally succeeded, and which in its turn encountered the opposition of the assembly.

During the months of April and May petitions were got up in Paris, and the provinces, in favour of a revision in the constitution Of 1848. On the 28th of May the assembly was entitled, by its original constitution, to entertain the question of a general revision of the constitution of the state, but no alteration could take place unless approved by three-fourths of the entire votes. Motions for an alteration in the constitution were made by the Buonapartists, and supported in various details by the monarchists of both branches of the Bourbons. The great aim of these parties was the prolongation of the president’s official term, and the enacting of laws to prohibit and punish public banquets and public meetings of a political nature. For this purpose, and for any purpose of repression (as he had said in a speech at Djion), the assembly was always ready to respond to the demands of the president of the republic. Although so ready to uphold the ministry in their repressive measures there was a determination in the assembly to frustrate their power as the ministry of Louis Napoleon. This they soon effected by a formal vote of censure, for using improper influence in order to obtain from the provinces, through the medium of the public functionaries, petitions for a revision of the constitution.

The new ministry was still in the interest of the president of the republic. The assembly, which had been prorogued on the 10th of August, recommenced its duties on the 4th of November. Business began by a long “message” presented in the name of the president of the republic, the main feature of which, and that which excited most attention in the assembly, and in France, was a proposal to abolish the electoral law of the 31st of May, 1850, and to re-establish the electoral law of the 15th of March, 1849. The last named provided that all citizens of age, who have resided six months in the commune were electors. The law of May, 1850, abolished universal suffrage. That act of the legislature was a revolution; the assembly by passing it virtually abolished the constitution, which could be only legitimate as the act of a constituent assembly. The assembly was to a large extent elected under the influence of the priests, who struggled incessantly to accomplish a reactionary policy. From the moment that universal suffrage was abolished, the great mass of the people abetted the pretensions of the president of the republic, whose writings had always advocated universal suffrage. Thus the assembly secured the ascendancy of Louis Napoleon by the very means which they believed most efficacious in thwarting his power and restoring that of the Bourbons. When the reading of the message of the president of the republic terminated, the assembly presented a scene of strange agitation, which was rendered still more intense when the minister by whom the message was read, M. Thurigny, demanded “urgency.” A violent discussion ensued upon this demand. The discussion took its tone from the known ambition of Louis Napoleon Buonaparte, and his open attempts to tamper with the army. To prevent a _coup d’état_, of which many became apprehensive, the assembly began a struggle to obtain more direct power over the troops. A _projet de loi_ was brought forward by the questors to that effect. The ministry and the Buonapartists demanded that the sole power over the army should be vested in the chief of the state—the president of the republic, and not in the president of the legislative assembly. General St. Arnaud, afterwards commander-inchief of the French army in the Crimea, was foremost in the interest of Louis Napoleon. It would be difficult to say which of the two parties, that consisting of the Buonapartists and the executive on the one hand, or the majority of the assembly on the other, was the more unconstitutional, faithless, and ambitious. The allegation of M. Cremieux was true, “the majority of the assembly had no great attachment to the republic. It incessantly invoked the constitution, which it every day trampled under foot. The assembly was afraid because it did not feel behind it that force which supported assemblies.” The assembly voted against the government by a large majority. The conflict between that body and the executive increased from day to day. Both parties contemplated a _coup d’etat_, and each proceeded to its execution characteristically. The assembly prepared a bill, the real object of which was to facilitate the impeachment of the president of the republic. Numerous causes for impeachment were provided, such as the president taking command of the armed force in person, inciting his own re-election to the presidency, or attempting to change the form of government. The most serious provision of this _projet de loi_, was that whenever the president of the republic was accused, “_the accused immediately ceases his functions_.” By the introduction of this project things were brought to a pass, between the assembly and the president of the republic, in which the power of one or other must perish. If Louis Napoleon permitted the project to become law his personal destruction would be effected by the legitimist majority. If he were not re-elected president of the republic, and descended into private life, he would be politically ruined, for he was heavily in debt, and no pecuniary resources were at his disposal sufficient for his maintenance as a public man. Then or never must he make some bold and comprehensive movement to countervail the majority of the assembly. The issue of this conflict has been presented by the author, in another of his works, with such brevity, that he cannot hope to offer a more complete condensation. It was as follows:—“On the 1st of December a proclamation was put forth dissolving the assembly, and calling upon the people by universal suffrage to accept a government identical with the scheme of Napoleon I. when first consul. The proclamation made known the desire of the president to surrender his position into the hands of the people, or to accept the headship of a new government on the plan he proposed, and resting on universal suffrage. These proclamations were posted on all the walls of Paris by dawn of the 2nd of December; all the leading men of the assembly were arrested; Paris was filled with troops. After struggles on the part of the assembly, and many casualties in the streets, the eventful day of the 2nd of December wore away. On the 3rd the people awoke from the stupefaction with which the suddenness of the _coup_ struck them, and preparations were made by the republicans and red republicans for resistance. On the 4th that resistance was offered; barricades were erected, and every token of a fierce contest quickened into life. Whenever an opportunity occurred, the soldiery were assassinated, and the military retaliated with savage vengeance. Men, women, and children were swept from the streets by discharges of musketry and grape. By the night of the 4th, the conflict was over. The president ruled all things. The ‘ticket’ put to the electors was as follows:—‘The French people wills the maintenance of Louis Napoleon Buonaparte’s authority, and delegates to him the powers necessary to frame a constitution on the basis of his proclamation of the 2nd of December.’ This was to be carried by a simple affirmative or negative by all Frenchmen twenty-one years of age, in possession of their civil rights. On the 20th and 21st of December the ballot took place, and the result was that more than eight millions of men voted in the affirmative. The votes of the army were taken separately. The army in France voted almost unanimously for Buonaparte; in Algiers a large majority was against him. Before twelve months the empire was proclaimed.”*

* Nolan’s “History of the War against Russia,” vol. ii.,
chap, lxxvii. J. S, Virtue, City Road.

Events of domestic interest to France have been treated at this length under the head of our own foreign relations, because upon the event just related turned the European policy of England during many years. The closing events of 1851, in France, influence materially the foreign relations, and even the domestic policy, of England, while these sheets are passing through the press, at the close of 1859. Eight years have rolled away, and yet the power of Louis Napoleon in France, achieved by the revolution which he effected by the _coup d’état_ of 1851, was the hinge upon which turned the foreign policy of the United Kingdom, even in 1860, not only in Europe, but in Asia, not only in the eastern but in the western hemisphere.

When the tidings arrived in England of the strange, sudden, and daring occurrences at Paris, men’s minds were greatly agitated. A conflict of opinion arose in parliament and throughout the nation. Some regarded the _coup d’état_ as Montalembert regarded it in 1859, as a violation of conscience, a treason, a perjury, a sanguinary violation of the rights of the French people; others deemed it an advantage gained by order, and even freedom, over anarchy and the despotism of red republicanism; they spoke of it as Montalembert did in 1851, when he addressed his countrymen, and told them that “to vote against Louis Napoleon would be to declare in favour of the socialist revolution, the only thing which can at present succeed the existing government.” It will, however, belong to other chapters of this history to depict the effect upon English affairs, and English public opinion, of the policy and power of him who seized the reins of government, in France, with a hand as daring as that of his renowned uncle.

DISCUSSIONS IN THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT CONCERNING THE STATE OF AFFAIRS AT NAPLES.

Throughout the year 1851 the state of the kingdom of Naples attracted the attention of the civilized world, but made most impression in England. The King of Naples was a bigot and a tyrant, a man of obstinate will, and he exhibited a fierce hatred to both civil and religious liberty. During the European struggle for freedom, in 1848, he swore to give a constitution to his subjects, and to observe it for ever. Utterly faithless in his own character, he violated his oath when the opportunity of power permitted. The description Milton gives as the probable result of restoring Satan and his fallen host to their primitive glory, on professions of repentance, depicts the actual conduct of the Neapolitan Bourbon when he attained to power, after being spared by his subjects the humiliation so generally the lot of European princes in the great year of revolutions—

“Height would recall high thought, and ease recant
Vows made in pain, as violent and void.”

A pamphlet, written by Mr. Gladstone, roused intelligent persons in England, and in Europe generally, to the atrocities perpetrated upon virtuous, loyal, and even illustrious subjects, in sheer wantonness of power, by the Neapolitan king. Lord Palmerston, then at the head of foreign affairs, sent a copy of the pamphlet to the English minister at every court of Europe, with the design of calling the attention of all civilized nations to the oppression with which the people of the kingdom of Naples were overwhelmed by their perjurious prince. This announcement was received by enthusiastic cheers in the House of Commons. Lord Palmerston, however, was disappointed in his expectation that the moral influence of Europe would be brought to bear upon the Neapolitan government, in favour of humanity. Some of the European states upheld the conduct of the King of Naples, and the pope especially lent him his moral support, although twenty thousand citizens of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies were incarcerated for expressing liberal opinions, or demanding the institutions which the king had sworn to respect. Thus supported by the despotic states, and the sovereign pontiff, he bid defiance to the constitutional states of Europe, and even increased the cruelties of his stern absolutism.

DIPLOMATIC DISPUTE WITH AUSTRIA AND TUSCANY, ARISING FROM AN OUTRAGE UPON A YOUNG ENGLISH GENTLEMAN AT FLORENCE.

It was early in January, 1852, that the tidings arrived in England of one of the most unprovoked and barbarous outrages ever perpetrated upon one of her sons, but the event itself occurred in 1851. The events of this chapter relate to that year, but as the transactions at Florence, in which England suffered so much humiliation, extended into 1852, it is proper the narrative should also extend into that year, so far as they are concerned.

It appears that a young English gentleman, Mr. Erskine Mather, about nineteen years of age, and his younger brother, Mr. Thomas M. Mather, about sixteen, had been for some time in Paris, where their parents had placed them to promote their education. The elder brother being delicate, had been ordered south as the winter approached. In this search after health they had a desire, at the same time, to acquire in the country a knowledge of the language of Italy, and of the art for which that land is celebrated. They had already spent two or three months at Nice, and in November had moved down to Genoa, and then on to Florence, where they meant to reside for the winter; at which place the injury and insult were inflicted. On the 29th of December Earl Granville, the foreign minister of England, in writing to the Honourable P. C. Scarlett, the _charge d’affaires_ at Florence, thus speaks of these young Englishmen, and the outrage:*—

* From No. 3 Despatch, in Official Documents.

“The story of the young men is so candidly told, and they appear, from the tenor of another letter which has been shown to me, to be such well-conditioned and inoffensive persons, that I cannot question the truth of their statement, or entertain any doubt that a cowardly and cruel injury has been inflicted on the elder of them.” The following are the facts of the case as detailed by the young gentleman himself to M. Salvagnoli, the distinguished Tuscan lawyer, and which were afterwards confirmed, in every point, by the evidence of Italian and French witnesses who saw the deed committed.

STATEMENT OF MR. ERSKINE MATHER TO M. SALVAGNOLI.*

* From 2 in No. 13, Official Papers

On the 29th of December, 1851, my brother and I set out to go and breakfast at a _café_ in the Piazza del Duomo.

Passing by the Piazza San Marco we stopped to look at the band of the regiment, and other soldiers standing about; after waiting three or four minutes we passed on, leaving them still there. When we arrived about the middle of the Via Langa we again heard the music, and, as they were marching the same way, we walked on their right hand nearly to the end of the Via Martelli. That street being very narrow, as you are aware, and at this time rendered more so by a carriage passing along, as our _café_ was on the other side we were obliged to cross between the band and the guard, where they had left a space of about forty or fifty feet, and many other persons were crossing at the same time. While walking arm in arm with my brother I suddenly received a violent blow on my back, making me turn short round. I then perceived that it was given by the officer in advance of the guard, who held in his hand his naked sword, with the flat edge of which he had struck me.

I asked him somewhat angrily, but without threat or gesticulation, in the best Italian I knew, why he had struck me, using nearly these words, “_Perche m’aveti dato questo?_’” While I was speaking to the officer I was suddenly interrupted by another person, dressed in the Austrian uniform, who placed himself between the officer and me, at the same time giving me a blow in the face which drew blood. The blow made me start and fall back; before I could recover myself I received another cut, on the head, from the first officer, which stunned me; it passed through my hat, making a wound nearly three inches and a half in length, and down to the bone, causing the blood to flow violently.

A short time after I begged my brother to follow the officer, that he might recognise him; and I was taken to the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, where I was obliged to remain three weeks before I could return home. As it has been said that I used threatening language to the officer after the first blow, I solemnly assure you that it is utterly false and without foundation, which the following reasons will prove:—

1st. It is impossible to believe that I could for a single instant have contemplated an act so full of folly and madness, as alone, and, unarmed, to threaten a man with his sword in hand, at the head of a large body of men by whom he was supported.

2nd. If I had contemplated the folly of opposing an officer under such circumstances, I should have done so by a sudden and instantaneous blow, and not by taking a position, and thus inviting the irresistible assailment of so many armed men.

3rd. Another proof that I was not in a menacing attitude, and was not prepared for any personal attack, is the fact of the second assailant giving me, without opposition or hindrance, a violent blow on the face.

4th. If I had been in a menacing attitude, or prepared for defence, with my arm raised, instead of receiving the blow on my head he would have struck my raised arm.

5th. The wound, which I to this moment bear, was not given, holding the sword short, near the point, as all the military officers who have examined it can testify; which proves that I was at a considerable space from him, only reached by a sword or other weapon: thus he was beyond any threatening attitude of mine, as I was without sword or arms.

Thus I have proved the absurdity of the assertion that I made any threatening resistance; equally untrue is the assertion that the blow was given because wearing a white hat they thought I was a Tuscan. If the first reason had been sufficient, the other, miserable as it is, had not been necessary. But all the defence is palpably false, contradictory, and nothing worth. An untruth defended cannot become truth. All these facts, without troubling you further, prove the truth of my statement, which it has been my duty to give you.

I am, &c,

James Ekskine O. Mather.

The British residents and travellers then at Florence were strongly indignant at so cowardly and unjustifiable an attack on their young countryman. The British residents were the pride and ornament of the Tuscan court on days of high ceremony and festival, but on the grand reception day, the first day of the year, they unanimously intimated officially that they would mark their dissatisfaction of the disgraceful assault by abstaining from presenting themselves, without the fullest investigation and redress were granted. This feeling of indignation rose so high that it was with difficulty the many young Englishmen at Florence could be restrained from making an attack upon the officers of the Croat regiment, Kinsky, amongst whom was Lieutenant Forshalier, the brutal assailant.

After much negotiation at Florence and Vienna, the British _charge d’affaires_ was at length informed, on the 15th of January, by Prince Lichtenstein, that he had been authorized by Marshal Radetzky to state that the marshal approved that an inquiry should be instituted into the affair. This inquiry was gone into in secret, without any professional man being permitted to be present in the interests of justice, or in defence or support of the wounded Englishman. The city of Florence in command of Austrian troops,—its duke replaced on his throne and there supported by them,—all the official men and courts existing, as it were, by the tolerance of those troops, an inquiry to investigate fairly a charge, by those thus humbly protected, against one of the officers of their proud protectors would seem hopeless. Yet such were the manly independence, veracity, and courage of the Italian and French witnesses that the whole truth came out, and, as the British _chargé d’affaires_ afterwards writes to the Duc de Casigliano, the foreign minister of Tuscany, “the evidence which has thus been obtained, conclusively establishes that a most unprovoked outrage was committed on an unarmed and unoffending British subject;” and the British government were satisfied, he said, that “the government of Tuscany must be anxious to mark their abhorrence of this outrage inflicted upon an innocent individual.”*

* Official Papers, No. 18.

Of that evidence Mr. Scarlett, the _chargé d’affaires_, writes to Earl Granville** that, “All the witnesses concur, more or less, in bearing out Mather’s statement.

** Official Papers, No. 18.

None are in contradiction with it. Perhaps the most important evidence is that of Pini, which exactly corroborates Mather’s statement, and certainly there is not a single syllable, from first to last, at variance with it.” Thus speaks Giovanni Pini, the important witness of the scene of blood and outrage:—“On the day in question, about twelve o’clock, more or less, I was in the Via Martelli, about half way down, when I heard coming towards me the Austrian military band, which was accompanying, as usual, the detachment intended to relieve the guard of the city. As soon as the band had passed, I stationed myself on the path where the people were, that is between the band and the soldiers who were behind. The street being rather narrow the people who were close by the band, I may say in a crowd, were pressing upon each other. A few steps further on I observed an Austrian officer, who had a cap on, and was therefore at the time off duty, strike, with his left hand, a young man who was on that side of him, with a blow which hit him on the face, and I suppose it was given with some force, for the young man who received it staggered backwards; and I observed that, as soon as he had recovered himself, another Austrian officer, who was the one at the head of the soldiers, and marching with them with his drawn sword, strike with it the same young man on the head, inflicting a wound on his forehead, from which blood began to flow in such quantities, as wine from a broken bottle. I immediately ran to the assistance of the poor youth, who had been so unreasonably ill-treated, since I could not find that he had offended the soldiers in any manner. Besides myself he was assisted by a gentleman who showed that he was his brother, although he could not speak Italian, and a Frenchman whom I do not know. There was also a priest, who was moreover unknown to me. There were other persons, also, who witnessed the transaction like myself, but I could not discover among them any of my acquaintance. The wounded person, whom I understood to be an Englishman, signified to me his gratitude for the assistance I had afforded him, but said little, as he spoke only in his own language to his brother, who started off from us immediately in order to look at the officer, who had inflicted the wound, so as to be able to recognise him, and then came back directly. He overtook the officer at the Piazza del Duomo, because the detachment was going towards the Piazza del Gran Duca. I and the brother of the wounded man then conveyed him to the first doctor’s shop, which is on the Piazza del Duomo, at the corner of the Via Martelli; but, finding that the apothecary could not treat him, we went off forthwith to the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, where the wounded man, having lost much blood, fainted away, and after having been brought to, was put into bed.... From the wounded man himself, as well as from the medical men who were attending in the room, I heard that if the Englishman had not had on his head a rather stout hat, he might have been killed on the spot; but I do not know how deep the wound was.”*

* Page 51 of Official Papers.