Sixty Years a Queen Part 22

[Sidenote: End of the East India Company's Rule.]

It was not possible that such a convulsion should pa.s.s through the peninsula of Hindostan without shaking down everything that could be shaken in its inst.i.tutions. The English public--the average English Parliament man--knew of the existence of British rule in India, and could lay finger on Calcutta in the map. But that was about the utmost precise knowledge of Indian affairs possessed by most people, until attention was violently forced to them by the Great Mutiny. Then it dawned upon them that this mighty dominion was governed by the directors of a trading company, who exercised all the powers of empire, civil and military, deriving their authority from a charter signed by Queen Elizabeth. Various limitations and reforms, indeed, had been imposed by Parliament on "John Company"; still, the whole system had become an archaism, as uncertain in practice as it was indefensible in theory. The time for sweeping changes had come, not because the directors of the East India Company had abused their authority; but the safety of the Empire required that the Crown should enter now upon the heritage won by the commercial enterprise of its subjects. The Act for the better government of India was framed on a series of Resolutions laid before a Committee of the whole House, and became law in the autumn of 1858. It provided that the Administration of India should pa.s.s wholly out of the hands of the Company into those of the Queen, governing through a Secretary of State and a Council of fifteen, seven of whom were to be nominated by the Court of Directors and eight by the Crown. The Governor-General was made a Viceroy, the Indian Navy was discontinued, and the twenty-four European Regiments in the Company's Service were amalgamated with the Royal army.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _F. Winterhalter._}

HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS ROYAL AT THE TIME OF HER MARRIAGE.]

[Sidenote: Marriage of the Princess Royal.]

Notice must be paid here to a happy event, which brought to a close the unpleasant feelings subsisting between the Courts of Great Britain and Prussia, owing to the unfriendly and insincere conduct of the King of Prussia during the Crimean Campaign. On January 25, 1858, the Princess Royal was married in the Chapel Royal, St. James's, to the Crown Prince of Prussia, who, in later years, bore such a distinguished part as the Emperor Frederick William of Germany.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _J. Philip, R.A._} {_From the Royal Collection._

1. Her Majesty the Queen.

2. Prince Consort.

3. Princess Royal.

4. Crown Prince of Prussia.

5. Prince of Wales.

6. Prince Alfred.

7. Prince Arthur.

8. Prince Leopold.

9. Princess Alice.

10. Princess Helena.

11. Princess Louise.

12. King of Prussia.

13. Queen of Prussia.

14. Duke of Saxe-Coburg.

15. Archbishop of Canterbury.

16. King of the Belgians.

17. d.u.c.h.ess of Kent.

18. Duke of Cambridge.

19. d.u.c.h.ess of Cambridge.

20. Princess Mary of Cambridge.

21. Lady Cecilia Lennox.

22. Lady Villiers.

23. Lady Stanley.

24. Lady Murray.

25. Lady Molyneaux.

26. Lady Susan Pelham Clinton.

27. Earl of St. Germans.

28. Marquess of Breadalbane.

29. Earl of Clarendon.

THE MARRIAGE OF T.R.H. THE PRINCESS ROYAL AND THE CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA, January 25, 1858.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo by Valentine, Dundee._}

BALMORAL CASTLE.

Her Majesty's Highland residence was built in 1853 from designs by H.R.H. the Prince Consort. It is of white Crathie granite. There are 30,000 acres of deer forest within the bounds of the royal demesne.]

CHAPTER XI.

1858-1860.

Commercial Panic in London--Suspension of the Bank Charter Act--The Orsini Plot--The Conspiracy to Murder Bill--Defeat and Resignation of the Government--Lord Derby's Second Administration--Disraeli's Reform Bill--Vote of No Confidence--Defeat and Resignation of the Government--Lord Palmerston's Second Administration--Threatened French Invasion--The Volunteers--The Paper Duty Repealed by the Commons and Restored by the Lords--A Const.i.tutional Problem--Its Solution--War with China--British and French Defeat at Pei-ho--Return of Lord Elgin to China--Wreck of the _Malabar_--Capture of the Tangku and Taku Forts--Occupation of Tien-tsin--Murder of British Officers and others--Capitulation of Pekin--Destruction of the Summer Palace--Treaty with China.

[Sidenote: Commercial Panic.]

Palmerston's Government, apparently one of the most popular that had ever been formed, had to bow under the adverse influence of events beyond its control. In addition to the commotion radiating from the centre of disturbance in India, there had been widespread commercial disaster at home, following on a period of excited speculation. On November 12 the Bank Charter Act had been suspended, and the Bank of England received authority to exceed the statutory limits in meeting demands for discount and advances, because of the numerous failures and prevailing money-panic.

[Sidenote: The Orsini Plot.]

[Sidenote: Government Defeat and Resignation.]

But the squall that was to overturn the Ministry came from a quarter which n.o.body could have foreseen. On January 14 a murderous attack was made on the Emperor and Empress of the French in Paris. An Italian refugee, Felice Orsini, well known in England, waited, with a number of fellow-ruffians, at the door of the Opera House in the Rue Lepelletier, and threw three bombs, charged with a powerful explosive, at the Imperial carriage as it drew up. The effect was appalling: the intended victims escaped unhurt, but ten persons were blown to death among the bystanders, and no less than 156 were wounded, of whom Orsini himself was one. All this was dreadful enough, and yet the connection thereof with the stability of Palmerston's Administration might seem exceedingly remote. It was established in the following way. Orsini, a man of good birth and attractive exterior, had been very well received in English society, and his appeals on behalf of the Italian provinces of Austria had received polite attention, and, among enthusiastic advocates of freedom, a great deal of sympathy. London was then, as it remains to this day, a sanctuary for political refugees from all the ends of the earth. Palmerston, however, had enough common-sense and honesty to recognise that it was one thing to allow fugitives to shelter in England, and quite another to take no precautions as to their good behaviour, and he prepared and introduced a Bill to strengthen the law dealing with conspiracy to murder. This was vehemently opposed on the first reading by Lord John Russell, but Disraeli and the Conservatives helped to carry that stage by a large majority. In the interval, however, before the second reading, public opinion had undergone a marked change. The tone of the French Press had become intensely insulting towards Great Britain; people in London had got it in their heads that the Conspiracy to Murder Bill had been prepared at the dictation of the French Amba.s.sador, and Palmerston was suspected of being at his old game of truckling to Louis Napoleon. The suspicion was fatal to him. An amendment to the second reading, moved by Mr. Milner Gibson, was supported by Disraeli and 146 Conservatives, and carried against the Government by a majority of nineteen. Palmerston resigned at once, and Lord Derby began his second administration with his eldest son, Lord Stanley, at the Colonial Office, Lord Malmesbury at the Foreign Office, and Disraeli leading the House of Commons as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Samuel Lawrence._} {_From a Crayon Drawing._

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY,

1811-1863

Thackeray, whose father was in the Indian Civil Service, was born at Calcutta and educated at the Charterhouse and Cambridge. He studied in Paris as an artist, but took to literature and wrote for _Fraser's Magazine_ and (from 1842) for _Punch_. It was not until 1847 that, with the publication of "Vanity Fair," he became a serious compet.i.tor for popular favour with d.i.c.kens. In 1859 he became the first editor of the _Cornhill Magazine_.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Sir W. Gordon._} {_From an Engraving._

LORD MACAULAY, 1800-1859.

Thomas Babington Macaulay was the son of Zachary Macaulay the philanthropist. Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, he was called to the Bar in 1826. In 1834 he went to Calcutta as a member of the Supreme Council; on his return he became Secretary at War, and, in 1846, Paymaster to the Forces. His "Essays" began to appear in the _Edinburgh Review_ in 1825; his "Lays of Ancient Rome" were published in 1842. He was engaged on the final chapters of his "History of England" when he died, in 1859. He was raised to the peerage in 1857.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: KANDY LAKE, CEYLON.

The Island of Ceylon has a population exceeding 3,000,000. Its princ.i.p.al product is tea, of which in 1896 over 100,000,000 lbs. were exported.

The chief town is Colombo. Kandy, situated on a beautiful lake in the interior, was the capital of the native kingdom before its annexation by the British in 1815.]

[Sidenote: Disraeli's Reform Bill.]

Disraeli had once taunted Palmerston with having no domestic policy.

"His external system," he said, "was turbulent and aggressive, that his rule at home may be tranquil and una.s.sailed." That was, in truth, the greater part of the secret of Palmerston's popularity; he refrained from exciting apprehension and stirring combustible questions. He made no enemies at home, though he might be careless in giving offence abroad.

But that was a role not at all suited to Disraeli's ambition. He knew that at any moment something might happen to drive his party out of office, and he resolved to prepare a soft place to fall on. It would be a fine stroke to take Lord John Russell's favourite project out of his hands, to "dish the Whigs" by lowering the franchise. John Bright had returned to active politics and was stirring up the people in the north to agitate for Reform. He would take the wind out of Bright's sails too; and he persuaded Lord Derby to let him bring in a Reform Bill of his own.