Sixty Years a Queen Part 23

[Ill.u.s.tration: _R. Simkin._}

A. Gunner, Artillery.

B. Sapper, Engineers.

C. Officer Queen's Westminster.

D. Officer, Victoria Rifles.

E. Private, Six-foot Guards.

F. Private, Artists.

UNIFORMS OF VOLUNTEERS, 1860.]

It was an unlucky device. The Bill was not a very formidable one, but it disturbed a great question. Two members of the Cabinet, Mr. Walpole and Mr. Henley, threw up their offices rather than join in work which they, in common with most Conservatives in the country, considered alien from Conservative principles. The Whigs and Radicals would have no hand in such a measure, which they exposed as a sham, and Russell persuaded the House to reject it by a majority of thirty-nine. Neither did the Bill serve its author's purpose in the country. When Lord Derby appealed to the const.i.tuencies, the response came, at the end of May 1859, in the form of a feeble accession to Conservative numbers, not strong enough to avert defeat by thirteen votes on a vote of want of confidence, moved by a young member put up by the combined Whigs, Radicals, and Peelites--the Marquis of Hartington (now Duke of Devonshire). The only effects of Disraeli's stratagem had been to disgust and disunite his own party, and to cause his opponents to sink their differences in united action.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _R. Simkin._}

A. Private, London Rifles.

B. Gunner, Artillery.

C. Sapper, Engineers.

D. Officer, 1st Middles.e.x.

E. Officer, and V.B. Royal Fusiliers.

F. Private, Artists.

G. Private, London Scottish.

UNIFORMS OF VOLUNTEER BATTALIONS, 1897.]

[Sidenote: Lord Palmerston's Second Administration.]

[Sidenote: Threatened French Invasion.]

[Sidenote: The Volunteers.]

On Lord Derby's resignation, Lord Palmerston formed a strong Cabinet, including Lord Granville, Mr. Gladstone, Sir George Cornewall-Lewis, Mr.

Sidney Herbert, and Mr. Cardwell. Lord John Russell refused any post except that of Foreign Secretary, which shut out Lord Clarendon, who declined any other appointment. At the moment, as it happened, England was keeping scrupulously clear of the conflict between France and Austria. The Queen's speech to the new Parliament had announced that "a strict and impartial neutrality" should be maintained, and this was done in spite of persistent attempts on the part of Louis Napoleon to secure the a.s.sistance of Great Britain in the deliverance of Italy, in spite, too, of the strong sympathy entertained by Mr. Gladstone and others in the Cabinet for the cause of Italian nationality. There was, however, a shrewd distrust of the French Emperor growing in the minds of the British public at this time, which made it easier than it had otherwise been for the Government to steer clear of foreign complications. In fact, the development of the a.r.s.enal at Cherbourg and the a.s.sembly there of a powerful fleet were interpreted, perhaps not without justice, as indicating a contemplated invasion of England. The Volunteer movement first a.s.sumed important proportions in the year 1859 under this feeling of apprehension.

"Form, form, riflemen, form!

Ready--be ready, to meet the storm"--

sang the Laureate, and the storm was expected to come from the French quarter. However, whatever aggressive intentions may have pa.s.sed through the mind of Napoleon III. were dissipated by the formidable front a.s.sumed by the people of Great Britain. The immense improvement which had been recently effected in arms of precision caused irregular troops to a.s.sume far greater importance in the calculations of an intending invader than they ever had before; and the same cause, by encouraging fine marksmanship and developing compet.i.tive skill at the targets, has imparted to the Volunteers of 1859 a permanence quite without precedent in the history of similar martial movements.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _H. Edridge, A.R.A._} {_National Portrait Gallery._

ROBERT SOUTHEY, LL.D., 1774-1843.

Poet Laureate 1813-1843.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _H. W. Pickersgill, R.A._} {_National Portrait Gallery._

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, 1770-1850.

Poet Laureate 1843-1850.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _G. F. Watts, R.A._} {_From Photo by H. H. Cameron._

LORD TENNYSON, 1809-1892.

Appointed Poet Laureate 1850. His first published verses appeared in a volume of "Poems by Two Brothers" in 1827. He was created Baron Tennyson in 1884.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _G. F. Watts, R.A._} {_National Portrait Gallery._

ROBERT BROWNING, 1812-1889.

Poet. His last volume, "Asolando," was published on the day of his death, December 12, 1889. He and Tennyson lie in adjoining graves in "Poet's Corner," Westminster Abbey.]

[Sidenote: Question of the Paper Duty.]

Mr. Gladstone's Budget of 1860 contained a proposal which brought about his final rupture with the Conservative party. He proposed to repeal the paper duty. Now the burdens upon journalism, originally imposed with the deliberate intention of limiting the number and regulating the political character of newspapers, had already been greatly reduced since the beginning of the reign. The stamp duty had stood at a penny on each copy of a newspaper till 1855, when it was abolished; but there remained still a pretty heavy tax on paper. Mr. Gladstone's proposal to abolish it was met with strong opposition from all sections of politicians, and, strangely enough, from paper manufacturers themselves, as well as from the proprietors of high-priced journals. There was, besides, a vague, but very general, dread of the effect on the public mind of the multiplication of cheap literature. Nevertheless, the Budget Resolutions removing the paper tax pa.s.sed through Committee, though the last of them was only carried by a majority of nine votes. At the present day, the Chancellor of the Exchequer's proposals, having pa.s.sed through that ordeal, would be regarded as impregnable. It was otherwise in 1860. Lord Lyndhurst, then in his eighty-ninth year, and so frail in body that a rail had to be fixed opposite his seat to support him in speaking, joined the opposition raised in the House of Lords to the repeal of the paper tax, and made a marvellously vigorous and effective attack on the proposal. The Lords vetoed the repeal by a majority of eighty-nine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _J. Phillip, R.A._} {_By permission of Messrs. Graves, Pall Mall._

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN 1860.

1. Rt. Hon. Edward Ellice.

2. Rt. Hon. Sir Francis T. Baring.

3. Lord H. G. Vane.

4. Richard Cobden, Esq.

5. John Bright, Esq.

6. Lord Elcho.

7. Rt. Hon. Edward Cardwell, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

8. Sir Roundell Palmer.

9. Rt. Hon. Milner Gibson, President of Board of Trade.

10. Rt. Hon. Charles Pelham Villiers, President of Poor Law Board.

11. W. Ma.s.sey, Esq.

12. Viscount Palmerston, First Lord of the Treasury.

13. Sir Denis Le Marchant, Bart.

14. Rt. Hon. the Speaker.

15. Thomas Erskine May, Esq. C.B.

16. Lord Charles Russell.

17. Mr. Lee.

18. Rt. Hon. Sir John Pakington.

19. Sir Hugh M'Calmont Cairns.

20. Col. J. W. Patten.

21. Rt. Hon. Sotheron Estcourt.

22. Lord John Manners.

23. Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer Lytton, Bart.

24. Rt. Hon. Major-General J. Peel.

25. Lord Stanley.

26. Rt. Hon. B. Disraeli.

27. Rt. Hon. Spencer H. Walpole.

28. Rt. Hon. J. W. Henley.