initial commit of ebook 13103HEADmain

115 files changed, 19269 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/13103-8.txt b/old/13103-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e1053be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,6069 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Great Britain and Her Queen, by Anne E.
+Keeling
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Great Britain and Her Queen
+
+Author: Anne E. Keeling
+
+Release Date: August 3, 2004  [eBook #13103]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT BRITAIN AND HER QUEEN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Roy Brown
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 13103-h.htm or 13103-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/0/13103/13103-h/13103-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/0/13103/13103-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+GREAT BRITAIN AND HER QUEEN
+
+by
+
+ANNE E. KEELING
+
+Author of "General Gordon: Hero and Saint," "The Oakhurst
+Chronicles," "Andrew Golding," etc.
+
+Second Edition. Revised and Enlarged, 1897
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Queen Victoria]
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Claremont]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER I.
+THE GIRL QUEEN AND HER KINGDOM
+
+CHAPTER II.
+STORM AND SUNSHINE
+
+CHAPTER III.
+FRANCE AND ENGLAND
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+THE CRIMEAN WAR
+
+CHAPTER V.
+INDIA
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+THE BEGINNINGS OF SORROWS
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+CHANGES GOOD AND EVIL
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+OUR COLONIES
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL PROGRESS
+
+CHAPTER X.
+PROGRESS OF THE EMPIRE FROM 1887 TO 1897
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+PROGRESS OF WESLEYAN METHODISM UNDER QUEEN VICTORIA, 1837-1897
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+Queen Victoria
+Claremont
+The Coronation of Queen Victoria
+Kensington Palace
+Duchess of Kent
+Elizabeth Fry
+Rowland Hill
+Father Mathew
+George Stephenson
+Wheatstone
+St. James's Palace
+Prince Albert
+The Queen in Her Wedding-Dress
+Sir Robert Peel
+Daniel O'Connell
+Richard Cobden
+John Bright
+Lord John Russell
+Thomas Chalmers
+John Henry Newmann
+Balmoral
+Buckingham Palace
+Napoleon III
+The Crystal Palace, 1851
+Lord Ashley
+Earl of Derby
+Duke of Wellington
+Florence Nightingale
+Lord Canning
+Sir Colin Campbell
+Henry Havelock
+Sir John Lawrence
+Windsor Castle
+Prince Frederick William
+Princess Royal
+Charles Kingsley
+Lord Palmerston
+Abraham Lincoln and his son
+Princess Alice
+The Mausoleum
+Dr. Norman Macleod
+Prince of Wales
+Princess of Wales
+Osborne House
+Sir Robert Napier
+Mr. Gladstone
+Lord Beaconsfield
+Lord Salisbury
+General Gordon
+Duke of Albany
+Duchess of Albany
+Sydney Heads
+Robert Southey
+William Wordsworth
+Alfred Tennyson
+Robert Browning
+Charles Dickens
+W. M. Thackeray
+Charlotte Brontė
+Lord Macaulay
+Thomas Carlyle
+William Whewell, D.D.
+Sir David Brewster
+Sir James Y. Simpson
+Michael Faraday
+David Livingstone
+Sir John Franklin
+John Ruskin
+Dean Stanley
+"I was sick, and ye visited me"
+Duke of Connaught
+The Imperial Institute
+Duke of Clarence
+Duke of York
+Duchess of York
+Princess Henry of Battenberg
+Prince Henry of Battenberg
+The Czarina of Russia
+H. M. Stanley
+Dr. Fridtjof Nansen
+Miss Kingsley
+J. M. Barrie
+Richard Jefferies
+Rev. J. G. Wood
+Dean Church
+Professor Huxley
+Professor Tyndall
+C. H. Spurgeon
+Dr. Horatius Bonar
+Sir J. E. Millais, P.R.A.
+Sir Frederick Leighton, P.R.A.
+Wesley preaching on his father's tomb
+Group of Presidents:--No. 1
+Centenary Meeting at Manchester
+Key to Centenary Meeting
+Wesleyan Centenary Hall
+Group of Presidents:--No. 2
+Sir Francis Lycett
+The Methodist Settlement, Bermondsey. London, S.E.
+Theological Institution, Richmond
+Theological Institution, Didsbury
+Theological Institution, Headingley
+Theological Institution, Handsworth
+Kingswood School, Bath
+The North House, Leys School, Cambridge
+Queen's College, Taunton
+Wesley College, Sheffield
+Children's Home, Bolton
+Westminster Training College and Schools
+Group of Presidents:--No. 3
+
+[Illustration: The Coronation of Queen Victoria]
+
+
+
+GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  HER  QUEEN.
+
+[Illustration: Kensington Palace]
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE GIRL-QUEEN AND HER KINGDOM.
+
+Rather more than one mortal lifetime, as we average life in these
+later days, has elapsed since that June morning of 1837, when
+Victoria of England, then a fair young princess of eighteen, was
+roused from her tranquil sleep in the old palace at Kensington, and
+bidden to rise and meet the Primate, and his dignified associates the
+Lord Chamberlain and the royal physician, who "were come on business
+of state to the Queen"--words of startling import, for they meant
+that, while the royal maiden lay sleeping, the aged King, whose
+heiress she was, had passed into the deeper sleep of death. It is
+already an often-told story how promptly, on receiving that summons,
+the young Queen rose and came to meet her first homagers, standing
+before them in hastily assumed wrappings, her hair hanging loosely,
+her feet in slippers, but in all her hearing such royally firm
+composure as deeply impressed those heralds of her greatness, who
+noticed at the same moment that her eyes were full of tears. This
+little scene is not only charming and touching, it is very
+significant, suggesting a combination of such qualities as are not
+always found united: sovereign good sense and readiness, blending
+with quick, artless feeling that sought no disguise--such feeling as
+again betrayed itself when on her ensuing proclamation the new
+Sovereign had to meet her people face to face, and stood before them
+at her palace window, composed but sad, the tears running unchecked
+down her fair pale face.
+
+That rare spectacle of simple human emotion, at a time when a selfish
+or thoughtless spirit would have leaped in exultation, touched the
+heart of England deeply, and was rightly held of happy omen. The
+nation's feeling is aptly expressed in the glowing verse of Mrs.
+Browning, praying Heaven's blessing on the "weeping Queen," and
+prophesying for her the love, happiness, and honour which have been
+hers in no stinted measure. "Thou shalt be well beloved," said the
+poetess; there are very few sovereigns of whom it could be so truly
+said that they _have_ been well beloved, for not many have so well
+deserved it. The faith of the singer has been amply justified, as
+time has made manifest the rarer qualities joyfully divined in those
+early days in the royal child, the single darling hope of the nation.
+
+Once before in the recent annals of our land had expectations and
+desires equally ardent centred themselves on one young head. Much of
+the loyal devotion which had been alienated from the immediate family
+of George III. had transferred itself to his grandchild, the Princess
+Charlotte, sole offspring of the unhappy marriage between George,
+Prince of Wales, and Caroline of Brunswick. The people had watched
+with vivid interest the young romance of Princess Charlotte's happy
+marriage, and had bitterly lamented her too early death--an event
+which had overshadowed all English hearts with forebodings of
+disaster. Since that dark day a little of the old attachment of
+England to its sovereigns had revived for the frank-mannered sailor
+and "patriot king," William IV; but the hopes crushed by the death
+of the much-regretted Charlotte had renewed themselves with even
+better warrant for Victoria. She was the child of no ill-omened,
+miserable marriage, but of a fitting union; her parents had been
+sundered only by death, not by wretched domestic dissensions. People
+heard that the mortal malady which deprived her of a father had been
+brought about by the Duke of Kent's simple delight in his baby
+princess, which kept him playing with the child when he should have
+been changing his wet outdoor garb; and they found something touching
+and tender in the tragic little circumstance. And everything that
+could be noticed of the manner in which the bereaved duchess was
+training up her precious charge spoke well for the mother's wisdom
+and affection, and for the future of the daughter.
+
+It was indeed a happy day for England when Edward, Duke of Kent, the
+fourth son of George III, was wedded to Victoria of Saxe-Coburg, the
+widowed Princess of Leiningen--happy, not only because of the
+admirable skill with which that lady conducted her illustrious
+child's education, and because of the pure, upright principles, the
+frank, noble character, which she transmitted to that child, but
+because the family connection established through that marriage was
+to be yet further serviceable to the interests of our realm. Prince
+Albert of Saxe-Coburg was second son of the Duchess of Kent's eldest
+brother, and thus first cousin of the Princess Victoria--"the
+Mayflower," as, in fond allusion to the month of her birth, her
+mother's kinsfolk loved to call her: and it has been made plain that
+dreams of a possible union between the two young cousins, very nearly
+of an age, were early cherished by the elders who loved and admired
+both.
+
+[Illustration: Duchess of Kent. From an Engraving by Messrs. P. & D.
+Colnaghi & Co., Pall Mall East.]
+
+The Princess's life, however, was sedulously guarded from all
+disturbing influences. She grew up in healthy simplicity and
+seclusion; she was not apprised of her nearness to the throne till
+she was twelve years old; she had been little at Court, little in
+sight, but had been made familiar with her own land and its history,
+having received the higher education so essential to her great
+position; while simple truth and rigid honesty were the very
+atmosphere of her existence. From such a training much might be
+hoped; but even those who knew most and hoped most were not quite
+prepared for the strong individual character and power of
+self-determination that revealed themselves in the girlish being so
+suddenly transferred "from the nursery to the throne." It was quickly
+noticed that the part of Queen and mistress seemed native to her, and
+that she filled it with not more grace than propriety. "She always
+strikes me as possessed of singular penetration, firmness, and
+independence," wrote Dr. Norman Macleod in 1860; acute observers in
+1837 took note of the same traits, rarer far in youth than in full
+maturity, and closely connected with the "reasoning, searching"
+quality of her mind, "anxious to get at the root and reality of
+things, and abhorring all shams, whether in word or deed." [Footnote]
+
+[Footnote: "Life of Norman Macleod, D.D." vol. ii.]
+
+It was well for England that its young Sovereign could exemplify
+virile strength as well as womanly sweetness; for it was indeed a
+cloudy and dark day when she was called to her post of lonely
+grandeur and hard responsibility; and to fill that post rightly would
+have overtasked and overwhelmed a feebler nature. It is true that the
+peace of Europe, won at Waterloo, was still unbroken. But already,
+within our borders and without them, there were the signs of coming
+storm. The condition of Ireland was chronically bad; the condition of
+England was full of danger; on the Continent a new period of
+earth-shaking revolution announced itself not doubtfully.
+
+It would be hardly possible to exaggerate the wretched state of the
+sister isle, where fires of recent hate were still smouldering, and
+where the poor inhabitants, guilty and guiltless, were daily living
+on the verge of famine, over which they were soon to be driven. Their
+ill condition much aggravated by the intemperate habits to which
+despairing men so easily fall a prey. The expenditure of Ireland on
+proof spirits alone had in the year 1829 attained the sum of
+£6,000,000.
+
+In England many agricultural labourers were earning starvation wages,
+were living on bad and scanty food, and were housed so wretchedly
+that they might envy the hounds their dry and clean kennels. A dark
+symptom of their hungry discontent had shown itself in the strange
+crime of rick-burning, which went on under cloud of night season
+after season, despite the utmost precautions which the luckless
+farmers could adopt. The perpetrators were not dimly guessed to be
+half-famished creatures, taking a mad revenge for their wretchedness
+by destroying the tantalising stores of grain, too costly for their
+consumption; the price of wheat in the early years of Her Majesty's
+reign and for some time previously being very high, and reaching at
+one moment (1847) the extraordinary figure of a hundred and two
+shillings per quarter.
+
+There was threatening distress, too, in some parts of the
+manufacturing districts; in others a tolerably high level of wages
+indicated prosperity. But even in the more favoured districts there
+was needless suffering. The hours of work, unrestricted by law, were
+cruelly long; nor did there exist any restriction as to the
+employment of operatives of very tender years. "The cry of the
+children" was rising up to heaven, not from the factory only, but
+from the underground darkness of the mine, where a system of pitiless
+infant slavery prevailed, side by side with the employment of women
+as beasts of burden, "in an atmosphere of filth and profligacy." The
+condition of too many toilers was rendered more hopeless by the
+thriftless follies born of ignorance. The educational provision made
+by the piety of former ages was no longer adequate to the needs of
+the ever-growing nation; and all the voluntary efforts made by clergy
+and laity, by Churchmen and Dissenters, did not fill up the
+deficiency--a fact which had only just begun to meet with State
+recognition. It was in 1834 that Government first obtained from
+Parliament the grant of a small sum in aid of education. Under a
+defective system of poor-relief, recently reformed, an immense mass
+of idle pauperism had come into being; it still remained to be seen
+if a new Poor Law could do away with the mischief created by the old
+one.
+
+Looking at the earliest years of Her Majesty's rule, the first
+impulse is to exclaim:
+
+"And all this trouble did not pass, but grew."
+
+It seemed as if poverty became ever more direful, and dissatisfaction
+more importunate. A succession of unfavourable seasons and failing
+crops produced extraordinary distress; and the distress in its turn
+was fruitful first of deepened discontent, and then of political
+disturbances. The working classes had looked for immediate relief
+from their burdens when the Reform Bill should be carried, and had
+striven hard to insure its success: it had been carried triumphantly
+in 1832, but no perceptible improvement in their lot had yet
+resulted; and a resentful feeling of disappointment and of being
+victims of deception now added bitterness to their blind sense of
+misery and injury, and greatly exasperated the political agitation of
+the ten stormy years that followed.
+
+No position could well be more trying than that of the inexperienced
+girl who, in the first bloom of youth, was called to rule the land in
+this wild transitional period. Her royal courage and gracious tact,
+her transparent truthfulness, her high sense of duty, and her
+precocious discretion served her well; but these young excellences
+could not have produced their full effect had she not found in her
+first Prime Minister a faithful friend and servant, whose loyal and
+chivalrous devotion at once conciliated her regard, and who only used
+the influence thus won to impress on his Sovereign's mind "sound
+maxims of constitutional government, and truths of every description
+which it behoved her to learn." The records of the time show plainly
+that Lord Melbourne, the eccentric head of William IV's last Whig
+Administration, was not generally credited with either the will or
+the ability to play so lofty a part. His affectation of a lazy,
+trifling, indifferent manner, his often-quoted remonstrance to
+impetuous would-be reformers, "Can't you let it alone?" had earned
+for him some angry disapproval, and caused him to be regarded as the
+embodiment of the detested _laissez-faire_ principle. But under his
+mask of nonchalance he hid some noble qualities, which at this
+juncture served Queen and country well.
+
+Considered as a frivolous, selfish courtier by too many of the
+suffering poor and of their friends, he was in truth "acting in all
+things an affectionate, conscientious, and patriotic part" towards
+his Sovereign, "endeavouring to make her happy as a woman and popular
+as a Queen," [Footnote] telling her uncourtly truths with a blunt
+honesty that did not displease her, and watching over her with a
+paternal tenderness which she repaid with frank, noble confidence. He
+was faithful in a great and difficult trust; let his memory have due
+honour.
+
+[Footnote: C. C. F. Greville: "A Journal of the Reign of Queen
+Victoria."]
+
+Under Melbourne's pilotage the first months of the new reign went by
+with some serenity, though the political horizon remained threatening
+enough, and the temper of the nation appeared sullen. "The people of
+England seem inclined to hurrah no more," wrote Greville of one of
+the Queen's earliest public appearances, when "not a hat was raised
+nor a voice heard" among the coldly curious crowd of spectators. But
+the splendid show of her coronation a half-year later awakened great
+enthusiasm--enthusiasm most natural and inevitable. It was youth and
+grace and goodness, all the freshness and the infinite promise of
+spring, that wore the crimson and the ermine and the gold, that sat
+enthroned amid the ancient glories of the Abbey to receive the homage
+of all that was venerable and all that was great in a mighty kingdom,
+and that bowed in meek devotion to receive the solemn consecrating
+blessing of the Primate, according to the holy custom followed in
+England for a thousand years, with little or no variation since the
+time when Dunstan framed the Order of Coronation, closely following
+the model of the Communion Service. Some other features special to
+_this_ coronation heightened the national delight in it. Its
+arrangements evidently had for their chief aim to interest and to
+gratify the people. Instead of the banquet in Westminster Hall,
+which could have been seen only by the privileged and the wealthy, a
+grand procession through London was arranged, including all the
+foreign ambassadors, and proceeding from Buckingham Palace to
+Westminster Abbey by a route two or three miles in length, so that
+the largest possible number of spectators might enjoy the magnificent
+pageant. And the overflowing multitudes whose dense masses lined the
+whole long way, and in whose tumultuous cheering pealing bells and
+sounding trumpets and thundering cannon were almost unheard as the
+young Queen passed through the shouting ranks, formed themselves the
+most impressive spectacle to the half-hostile foreign witnesses, who
+owned that the sight of these rejoicing thousands of freemen was
+grand indeed, and impossible save in that England which, then as now,
+was not greatly loved by its rivals. An element which appealed
+powerfully to the national pride and the national generosity was
+supplied by the presence of the Duke of Wellington and of Marshal
+Soult, his old antagonist, who appeared as French ambassador. Soult,
+as he advanced with the air of a veteran warrior, was followed by
+murmurs of admiring applause, which swelled into more than murmurs
+for the hero of Waterloo bending in homage to his Sovereign. A touch
+of sweet humanity was added to the imposing scene within the Abbey
+through what might have been a painful accident. Lord Rolle, a peer
+between seventy and eighty years of age, stumbling and falling as he
+climbed the steps of the throne, the Queen impulsively moved as if to
+aid him; and when the old man, undismayed, persisted in carrying out
+his act of homage, she asked quickly, "May I not get up and meet
+him?" and descended one or two steps to save him the ascent. The
+ready natural kindliness of the royal action awoke ecstatic applause,
+which could hardly have been heartier had the applauders known how
+true a type that act supplied of Her Majesty's future conduct. She
+has never feared to peril her dignity by descending a step or two
+from her throne, when "sweet mercy, nobility's true badge," has
+seemed to require such a descent. And her queenly dignity has never
+been thereby lessened. "She never ceases to be a Queen," says
+Greville _a propos_ of this scene, "and is always the most charming,
+cheerful, obliging, unaffected Queen in the world."
+
+[Illustration: Elizabeth Fry]
+
+That "the people" were more considered in the arrangements for this
+coronation than they had been on any previous occasion of the sort
+was a circumstance quite in harmony with certain other signs of the
+times. "The night is darkest before the dawn," and amid all the gloom
+which enshrouded the land there could be discerned the stir and
+movement that herald the coming of the day. Men's minds were turning
+more and more to the healing of the world's wounds. Already one great
+humane enterprise had been carried through in the emancipation of the
+slaves in British Colonies; already the vast work of prison reform
+had been well begun, through the saintly Elizabeth Fry, whose life of
+faithful service ended ere the Queen had reigned eight years. The
+very year of Her Majesty's accession was signalised by two noteworthy
+endeavours to put away wrong. We will turn first to that which
+_seems_ the least immediately philanthropic, although the injustice
+which it remedied was trivial in appearance only, since in its
+everyday triviality it weighed most heavily on the most numerous
+class--that of the humble and the poor.
+
+[Illustration: Rowland Hill]
+
+How would the Englishman of to-day endure the former exactions of the
+Post Office? The family letters of sixty years ago, written on the
+largest sheets purchasable, crossed and crammed to the point of
+illegibility, filled with the news of many and many a week, still
+witness of the time when "a letter from London to Brighton cost
+eightpence, to Aberdeen one and threepence-halfpenny, to Belfast one
+and fourpence"; when, "if the letter were written on more than one
+sheet, it came under the operation of a higher scale of charges," and
+when the privilege of franking letters, enjoyed and very largely
+exercised by members of Parliament and members of the Government, had
+the peculiar effect of throwing the cost of the mail service exactly
+on that part of the community which was least able to bear it. The
+result of the injustice was as demoralising as might have been
+expected. The poorer people who desired to have tidings of distant
+friend or relative were driven by the prohibitory rates of postage
+into all sorts of curious, not quite honest devices, to gratify their
+natural desire without being too heavily taxed for it. A brother and
+sister, for instance, unable to afford themselves the costly luxury
+of regular correspondence, would obtain assurance of each other's
+well-being by transmission through the post at stated intervals of
+blank papers duly sealed and addressed: the arrival of the postman
+with a missive of this kind announced to the recipient that all was
+well with the sender, so the unpaid "letter" was cheerfully left on
+the messenger's hands. Such an incident, coming under the notice of
+Mr. Rowland Hill, impressed him with a sense of hardship and wrong in
+the system that bore these fruits; and he set himself with strenuous
+patience to remedy the wrong and the hardship. His scheme of reform
+was worked out and laid before the public early in 1837; in the third
+year of Her Majesty's reign it was first adopted in its entirety,
+with what immense profit to the Government we may partly see when we
+contrast the seventy-six or seventy-seven millions of _paid_ letters
+delivered in the United Kingdom during the last year of the heavy
+postage with the number exceeding a thousand millions, and still
+increasing--delivered yearly during the last decade; while the
+population has not doubled. That the Queen's own letters carried
+postage under the new regime was a fact almost us highly appreciated
+as Her Majesty's voluntary offer at a later date to bear her due
+share of the income tax.
+
+It is well to notice how later Postmasters General, successors of
+Rowland Hill in that important office, have striven further to
+benefit their countrymen. In particular, Henry Fawcett's earnest
+efforts to encourage and aid habits of thrift are worthy of
+remembrance.
+
+Again, it is during the first year of Her Majesty's reign that we
+find Father Mathew, the Irish Capuchin friar, initiating his vast
+crusade against intemperance, and by the charm of his persuasive
+eloquence and unselfish enthusiasm inducing thousands upon thousands
+to forswear the drink-poison that was destroying them. In two years
+he succeeded in enrolling two million five hundred thousand persons
+on the side of sobriety. The permanence of the good Father's
+immediate work was impaired by the superstitions which his poor
+followers associated with it, much against his desire. Not only were
+the medals which he gave as badges to his vowed abstainers regarded
+as infallible talismans from the hand of a saint, but the giver was
+credited with miraculous powers such as only a Divine Being could
+exercise, and which he disclaimed in vain--extravagances too likely
+to discredit his enterprise with more soberly judging persons than
+the imaginative Celts who were his earliest converts. But,
+notwithstanding every drawback, his action was most important, and
+deserves grateful memory. We may see in it the inception of that
+great movement whose indirect influence in reforming social habits
+and restraining excess had at least equalled its direct power for
+good on its pledged adherents. Though it is still unhappily true that
+drunkenness slays its tens of thousands among us, and largely helps
+to people our workhouses, our madhouses, and our gaols, yet the fiend
+walks not now, as it used to do, in unfettered freedom. It is no
+longer a fashionable vice, excused and half approved as the natural
+expression of joviality and good-fellowship; peers and commoners of
+every degree no longer join daily in the "heavy-headed revel" whose
+deep-dyed stain seems to have soaked through every page of our
+last-century annals. And it would appear as though the vice were not
+only held from increasing, but were actually on the decrease. The
+statistics of the last decade show that the consumption of alcohol is
+diminishing, and that of true food-stuffs proportionally rising.
+
+[Illustration: Father Mathew]
+
+There were other enterprises now set on foot, by no means directly
+philanthropic in their aim, which contemplated utility more than
+virtue or justice--enterprises whose vast effects are yet
+unexhausted, and which have so modified the conditions of human
+existence as to make the new reign virtually a new epoch. As to the
+real benefit of these immense changes, opinion is somewhat divided;
+but the majority would doubtless vote in their favour. The first
+railway in England, that between Liverpool and Manchester, had been
+opened in 1830, the day of its opening being made darkly memorable by
+the accident fatal to Mr. Huskisson, as though the new era must be
+inaugurated by a sacrifice. Three years later there was but this one
+railway in England, and one, seven miles long, in Scotland. But in
+1837 the Liverpool and Birmingham line was opened; in 1838 the London
+and Birmingham and the Liverpool and Preston lines, and an Act was
+passed for transmitting the mails by rail; in 1839 there was the
+opening of the London and Croydon line. The ball was set fairly
+rolling, and the supersession of ancient modes of communication was a
+question of time merely. The advance of the new system was much
+accelerated at the outset by the fact that railway enterprise became
+the favourite field for speculation, men being attracted by the
+novelty and tempted by exaggerated prospects of profit; and the mania
+was followed, like other manias, with results largely disastrous to
+the speculators and to commerce. But through years of good fortune
+and of bad fortune the iron network has continued to spread itself,
+until all the land lies embraced in its ramifications; and it is
+spreading still, like some strange organism the one condition of
+whose life is reproduction, knitting the greatest centres of commerce
+with the loneliest and remotest villages that were wont to lie far
+out of the travelled ways of men, and bringing _Ultima Thule_ into
+touch with London.
+
+[Illustration: George Stephenson]
+
+Meanwhile the steam service by sea has advanced almost with that by
+land. In 1838 three steamships crossed the Atlantic between this
+country and New York, the _Great Western_, sailing from Bristol, and
+_Sirius_, from Cork, distinguished themselves by the short passages
+they made,--of fifteen days in the first case, and seventeen days in
+the second,--and by their using steam power _alone_ to effect the
+transit, an experiment that had not been risked before. It was now
+proved feasible, and in a year or two there was set on foot that
+regular steam communication between the New World and the Old, which
+ever since has continued to draw them into always closer connection,
+as the steamers, like swift-darting shuttles, weave their multiplying
+magic lines across the liquid plain between.
+
+The telegraph wires that run beside road and rail, doing the office
+of nerves in transmitting intelligence with thrilling quickness from
+the extremities to the head and from the head to the extremities of
+our State, are now so familiar an object, and their operations, such
+mere matters of every day, that we do not often recall how utterly
+unfamiliar they were sixty years ago, when Wheatstone and Cooke on
+this side the Atlantic, and Morse on the other, were devising their
+methods for giving signals and sounding alarms in distant places by
+means of electric currents transmitted through metallic circuits.
+Submarine telegraphy lay undreamed of in the future, land telegraphy
+was but just gaining hearing as a practicable improvement, when the
+crown was set on Her Majesty's head amid all that pomp and ceremony
+at Westminster. A modern English imagination is quite unequal to the
+task of realising the manifold hindrances that beset human
+intercourse at that day, when a journey by coach between places as
+important and as little remote from each other as Leeds and Newcastle
+occupied sixteen mortal hours, with changes of horses and stoppages
+for meals on the road, and when letters, unless forwarded by an
+"express" messenger at heavy cost, tarried longer on the way than
+even did passengers; while some prudent dwellers in the country
+deemed it well to set their affairs in order and make their wills
+before embarking on the untried perils of a journey up to town. These
+days are well within the memory of many yet living; but if the newer
+generations that have arisen during the present reign would
+understand what it is to be hampered in their movements and their
+correspondence as were their fathers, they must seek the remoter and
+more savage quarters of Europe, the less travelled portions of
+America or of half-explored Australia; they must plunge into Asian or
+African wilds, untouched by civilisation, where as yet there runs not
+the iron horse, worker of greater marvels than the wizard steeds of
+fairy fable, that could, transport a single favoured rider over wide
+distances in little time. The subjugated, serviceable nature-power
+Steam, with its fellow-servant the tamed and tutored Lightning, has
+wonderfully contracted distance during these fifty years, making the
+earth, once so vast to human imagination, appear as a globe shrunken
+to a tenth of its ancient size, and bringing nations divided by half
+the surface of that globe almost within sound of each other's speech.
+
+[Illustration: Wheatstone.]
+
+That there is damage as well as profit in all these increased
+facilities of intercourse must be apparent, since there is evil as
+well as good in the human world, and increased freedom of
+communication implies freer communication of the evil as of the good.
+But we may well hope that the cause of true upward progress will be
+most served by the vast inevitable changes which, as they draw all
+peoples nearer together, must deepen and strengthen the sense of
+human brotherhood, and, as they bring the deeds of all within the
+knowledge of all, must consume by an intolerable blaze of light the
+once secret iniquities and oppressions abhorrent to the universal
+conscience of mankind. The public conscience in these realms at least
+is better informed and more sensitive than it was in the year of
+William IV's death and of Victoria's accession.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+STORM AND SUNSHINE.
+
+[Illustration: St. James's Palace.]
+
+The beneficent changes we have briefly described were but just
+inaugurated, and their possible power for good was as yet hardly
+divined, when the young Queen entered into that marriage which we may
+well deem the happiest action of her life, and the most fruitful of
+good to her people, looking to the extraordinary character of the
+husband of her choice, and to the unobtrusive but always advantageous
+influence which his great and wise spirit exercised on our national
+life.
+
+The marriage had been anxiously desired, and the way for it
+judiciously prepared, but it was in no sense forced on either of the
+contracting parties by their elders who so desired it. Prince Albert
+of Saxe-Coburg, second son of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, the
+Queen's maternal uncle, was nearly of an age with his royal cousin;
+he had already, young as he was, given evidence of a rare superiority
+of nature; he had been excellently trained; and there is no doubt
+that Leopold, king of the Belgians, his uncle, and the Queen's, did
+most earnestly desire to see the young heiress of the British throne,
+for whom he had a peculiar tenderness, united to the one person whose
+position and whose character combined to point him out as the fit
+partner for her high and difficult destinies. What tact, what
+patience, and what power of self-suppression the Queen of England's
+husband would need to exercise, no one could better judge than
+Leopold, the widowed husband of Princess Charlotte; no one could more
+fully have exemplified these qualities than the prince in whom
+Leopold's penetration divined them.
+
+The cousins had already met, in 1836, when their mutual attraction
+had been sufficiently strong; and in 1839, when Prince Albert, with
+his elder brother Ernest, was again visiting England, the impression
+already produced became ineffaceably deep. The Queen, whom her great
+rank compelled to take the initiative, was not very long in making up
+her mind when and how to act. Her favoured suitor himself, writing to
+a dear relative, relates how she performed the trying task, inviting
+him to render her intensely happy by making "the _sacrifice_ of
+sharing her life with her, for she said she looked on it as a
+sacrifice. The joyous openness with which she told me this enchanted
+me, and I was quite carried away by it." This was on October 15th;
+nearly six weeks after, on November 23rd, she made to her assembled
+Privy Council the formal declaration of her intended marriage. There
+is something particularly touching in even the driest description of
+this scene; the betrothed bride wearing a simple morning dress,
+having on her arm a bracelet containing Prince Albert's portrait,
+which helped to give her courage; her voice, as she read the
+declaration clear, sweet, and penetrating as ever, but her hands
+trembling so excessively that it was surprising she could read the
+paper she held. It was a trying task, but not so difficult as that
+which had devolved on her a short time before, when, in virtue of her
+sovereign rank, she had first to speak the words of fate that bound
+her to her suitor.
+
+[Illustration: Prince Albert.]
+
+Endowed with every charm of person, mind, and manner that can win and
+keep affection, Prince Albert was able, in marrying the Queen, who
+loved him and whom he loved, to secure for her a happiness rare in
+any rank, rarest of all on the cold heights of royalty. This was not
+all; he was the worthy partner of her greatness. Himself highly
+cultivated in every sense, he watched with keenest interest over the
+advance of all cultivation in the land of his adoption, and
+identified himself with every movement to improve its condition. His
+was the soul of a statesman--wide, lofty, far-seeing, patient;
+surveying all great things, disdaining no small things, but with
+tireless industry pursuing after all necessary knowledge. Add to
+these intellectual excellences the moral graces of ideal purity of
+life, chivalrous faithfulness of heart, magnanimous self-suppression,
+and fervent piety, and we have a slight outline of a character which,
+in the order of Providence, acted very strongly and with a still
+living force on the destinies of nineteenth-century England. The
+Queen had good reasons for the feeling of "confidence and comfort"
+that shone in the glance she turned on her bridegroom as they walked
+away, man and wife at last, from the altar of the Chapel Royal, on
+February 10th, 1840. The union she then entered into immeasurably
+enhanced her popularity, and strengthened her position as surely as
+it expanded her nature. Not many years elapsed before Sir Robert Peel
+could tell her that, in spite of the inroads of democracy, the
+monarchy had never been safer, nor had any sovereign been so beloved,
+because "the Queen's domestic life was so happy, and its example so
+good." Only the Searcher of hearts knoweth how great has been the
+holy power of a pure, fair, and noble example constantly shining in
+the high places of the land.
+
+[Illustration: The Queen in her Wedding-Dress. _After the Picture by_
+Drummond.]
+
+It was hinted by the would-be wise, in the early days of Her
+Majesty's married life, that it would be idle to look for the royally
+maternal feeling of an Elizabeth towards her people in a wedded
+constitutional sovereign. The judgment was a mistake. The formal
+limitations of our Queen's prerogative, sedulously as she has
+respected them, have never destroyed her sense of responsibility;
+wifehood and motherhood have not contracted her sympathies, but have
+deepened and widened them. The very sorrows of her domestic life have
+knit her in fellowship with other mourners. No great calamity can
+befall her humblest subjects, and she hear of it, but there comes the
+answering flash of tender pity. She is more truly the mother of her
+people, having walked on a level with them, and with "Love, who is of
+the valley," than if she had chosen to dwell alone and aloof.
+
+[Illustration: Sir Robert Peel.]
+
+For some years after her marriage the Queen's private life shows like
+a little isle of brightness in the midst of a stormy sea. Within and
+without our borders there was small prospect of settled peace at the
+very time of that marriage. We have said that Lord Melbourne was
+still Premier; but he and his Ministry had resigned office in the
+previous May, and had only come back to it in consequence of a
+curious misunderstanding known as "the Bedchamber difficulty." Sir
+Robert Peel, who was summoned to form a Ministry on Melbourne's
+defeat and resignation, had asked from Her Majesty the dismissal of
+two ladies of her household, the wives of prominent members of the
+departing Whig Government; but his request conveyed to her mind the
+sense that he designed to deprive her of all her actual attendants,
+and against this imagined proposal she set herself energetically.
+"She could not consent to a course which she conceived to be contrary
+to usage, and which was repugnant to her feelings." Peel on his part
+remained firm in his opinion as to the real necessity for the change
+which he had advocated. From the deadlock produced by mere
+misunderstanding there seemed at the time only one way of escaping;
+the defeated Whig Government returned to office. But Ministers who
+resumed power only because, "as gentlemen," they felt bound to do so,
+had little chance of retaining it. In September 1841, Lord Melbourne
+was superseded in the premiership by Sir Robert Peel, and then gave a
+final proof how single-minded was his loyal devotion by advising the
+new Prime Minister as to the tone and style likely to commend him to
+their royal mistress--a tone of clear straightforwardness. "The
+Queen," said Melbourne--who knew of what he was speaking, if any
+statesman then did--"is not conceited; she is aware there are many
+things she cannot understand, and likes them explained to her
+elementarily, not at length and in detail, but shortly and clearly."
+The counsel was given and was accepted with equal good feeling, such
+as was honourable to all concerned; and the Sovereign learned, as
+years went on, to repose a singular confidence in the Minister with
+whom her first relations had been so unpropitious, but whose real
+honesty, ability, and loyalty soon approved themselves to her clear
+perceptions, which no prejudice has long been able to obscure.
+
+We are told that in later years Her Majesty referred to the
+disagreeable incident we have just related as one that could not have
+occurred, if she had had beside her Prince Albert "to talk to and
+employ in explaining matters," while she refused the suggestion that
+her impulsive resistance had been advised by any one about her. "It
+was entirely my own foolishness," [Footnote] she is said to have
+added--words breathing that perfect simplicity of candour which has
+always been one of her most strongly marked characteristics.
+
+[Footnote: "Greville Memoirs," Third Part, vol. i.]
+
+Though the matter caused a great sensation at the time, and gave rise
+to some dismal prophesyings, it was of no permanent importance, and
+is chiefly noted here because it throws a strong light on Her
+Majesty's need of such an ever-present aid as she had now secured in
+the husband wise beyond his years, who well understood his
+constitutional position, and was resolute to keep within it, avoiding
+entanglement with any party, and fulfilling with equal impartiality
+and ability the duties of private secretary to his Sovereign-wife.
+
+The Melbourne Ministry had had to contend with difficulties
+sufficiently serious, and of these the grimmest and greatest remained
+still unsettled. At the outset of the reign a rebellion in Canada had
+required strong repression; and we had taken the first step on a bad
+road by entering into those disputes as to our right to force the
+opium traffic on China, which soon involved us in a disastrously
+successful war with that country. On the other hand, our Indian
+Government had begun an un-called-for interference with the affairs
+of Afghanistan, which, successful at first, resulted in a series of
+humiliating reverses to our arms, culminating in one of the most
+terrible disasters that have ever befallen a British force--the
+wholesale massacre of General Elphinstone's defeated and retreating
+army on its passage through the terrible mountain gorge known as the
+Pass of Koord Cabul. It was on January 13th, 1842, that the single
+survivor of this massacre appeared, a half-fainting man, drooping
+over the neck of his wearied pony, before the fort of Jellalabad,
+which General Sale still held for the English. He only was "escaped
+alone" to tell the hideous tale. The ill-advised and ill-managed
+enterprise which thus terminated had extended over more than three
+years, had cost us many noble lives, in particular that of the
+much-lamented Alexander Burnes, had condemned many English women and
+children to a long and cruel captivity among the savage foe, and had
+absolutely failed as to the object for which it was undertaken--the
+instalment of Shah Soojah, a mere British tool, as ruler of
+Afghanistan, in place of the chief desired by the Afghan people, Dost
+Mahomed. When the disasters to our arms had been retrieved, as
+retrieved they were with exemplary promptness, and when the surviving
+prisoners were redeemed from their hard captivity, it was deemed
+sound policy for us to attempt no longer to "force a sovereign on a
+reluctant people," and to remain content with that limit which
+"nature appears to have assigned" to our Indian empire on its
+north-western border. Later adventures in the same field have not
+resulted so happily as to prove that these views were incorrect. Our
+prestige was seriously damaged in Hindostan by this first Afghan war,
+and was only partially re-established in the campaign against the
+Sikhs several years later, despite the dramatic grandeur of that
+"piece of Indian history" which resulted in our annexation of the
+Punjaub in 1846--a solid advantage balanced by the unpleasant fact
+that English soldiers had been proved not invincible by natives.
+
+It will thus appear that there was not too much that was glorious or
+encouraging in our external affairs in these early years; but the
+internal condition of the country was never less reassuring. The
+general discontent of the English lower orders was taking shape as
+Chartism--a movement which could not have arisen but for the fierce
+suspicion with which the working classes had learnt to regard those
+who seemed their superiors in wealth, in rank, or in political power,
+and which the higher orders retaliated in dislike and distrust of the
+labouring population, whom they considered as seditious enemies of
+order and property. The demon of class hatred was never more alive
+and busy than in the decade which terminated in 1848.
+
+"The Charter," which was the watchword of hope to so many, and the
+very war-note of discord to many more, comprised six points, of which
+some at least were sufficiently absurd, while others have virtually
+passed into law, quietly and naturally, in due course of time; and if
+the universal Age of Gold which ignorant Chartists looked for has not
+ensued, at least the anarchy and ruin which their opponents
+associated with the dreaded scheme are equally non-existent. So fast
+has the time moved that there is now a little difficulty in
+understanding the passionate hopes with which the Charter was
+associated on the one side, and the panic which it inspired on the
+other; and there is much to move wondering compassion in the profound
+ignorance which those hopes betrayed, and the not inferior misery
+amid which they were cherished. Few persons are now so credulous as
+to expect that annual Parliaments or stipendiary members would insure
+the universal reign of peace and justice; the people have already
+found that vote by ballot and suffrage all but universal have neither
+equalised wealth nor abrogated greed and iniquity; and though there
+be some dreamers in our midst to-day who look for wonderful
+transformations of society to follow on possible reforms, there is
+not even in these dreamy schemes the same amazing disproportion of
+means to be employed and end to be attained as characterised the
+Chartist delusion.
+
+[Illustration: Daniel O'Connell.]
+
+In Ireland men were reposing unbounded faith in another sort of
+political panacea for every personal and social evil--the Repeal of
+the Union with England, advocated by Daniel O'Connell, with all the
+power of his passionate Celtic eloquence, and supported by all his
+extraordinary personal influence. Apparently he hoped to carry this
+agitation to the same triumphant issue as that for Catholic
+emancipation, in which he had taken a conspicuous part; but the new
+movement did not, like the old one, appeal immediately and plausibly
+to the English sense of fair play and natural justice. A competent
+and not unfriendly observer has remarked that O'Connell's "theory and
+policy were that Ireland was to be saved by a dictatorship entrusted
+to himself." Whether any salvation for the unhappy land did lie in
+such a dictatorship was a point on which opinion might well be
+divided. English opinion was massively hostile to it; but for years
+all the political enthusiasm of Ireland centred in O'Connell and the
+cause he upheld. The country might be on the brink of ruin and
+starvation, but the peril seemed forgotten while the dream lasted.
+The agitator was wont to refer to the Queen in terms of extravagant
+loyalty, and it would seem that the feeling was largely shared by his
+followers. However futile and vainglorious his scheme and methods may
+appear, we must not deny to him a distinction, rare indeed among
+Irish agitators, of having steadily disclaimed violence and advocated
+orderly and peaceable proceedings. He thought his cause would be
+injured, and not advanced, by such outrages as before and since his
+day have too often disgraced party warfare in Ireland. His favourite
+maxim was that "the man who commits a crime gives strength to the
+enemy." This opinion was not heartily endorsed by all his followers.
+When it became clear that his dislike of physical force was real,
+when he did not defy the Government, at last stirred into hostile
+action by the demonstrations he organised, there was an end of his
+power over the fiercer spirits whom he had roused against the rule of
+"the Saxon"--luckless phrase with which he had enriched the
+Anglo-Irish controversy, and misleading as luckless. O'Connell died,
+a broken and disappointed man, on his way to Rome in 1847; but the
+spirit he had raised and could not rule did not die with him, and the
+younger, more turbulent leaders, who had outbid him for popular
+approval, continued their anti-English warfare with growing zeal
+until the year of fate 1848.
+
+Even the Principality of Wales had its own peculiar form of
+agitation, sometimes accompanied by outrage, during these wild
+opening years. The farmers and labourers in Wales were unprosperous
+and poor, and in the season of their adversity they found turnpikes
+and tolls multiplying on their public roads. They resented what
+appeared a cruel imposition with wrathful impatience, and ere long
+gave expression to their anger in wild deeds. A text of Scripture
+suggested to them a fantastic form of riot. They found that it was
+said of old to Rebecca, "Let thy seed possess the gate of those which
+hate them," and ere long "Rebecca and her children," men masking in
+women's clothes, made fierce war by night on the "gates" they
+detested, destroying the turnpikes and driving out their keepers.
+These raids were not always bloodless. The Government succeeded in
+repressing the rioting, and then, finding that a real grievance had
+caused it, did away with the oppressive tolls, and dealt not too
+hardly with the captured offenders; leniency which soon restored
+Wales to tranquillity.
+
+[Illustration: Richard Cobden.]
+
+[Illustration: John Bright.]
+
+A peaceful, strictly constitutional, and finally successful agitation
+ran its steady course in England for several years contemporaneously
+with those we have already enumerated. The Anti-Corn-Law League, with
+which the names of Cobden and Bright are united as closely as those
+two distinguished men were united in friendship, had in 1838 found a
+centre eminently favourable to its operations in Manchester. Its
+leaders were able, well-informed, and upright men, profoundly
+convinced that their cause was just, and that the welfare of the
+people was involved in their success or failure. They were men of the
+middle class, acquainted intimately with the needs and doings of the
+trading community to which they belonged, and therefore at once
+better qualified to argue on questions affecting commerce, and less
+directly interested in the prosperity of agriculture, than the more
+aristocratic leaders of the nation. Both persuasive and successful
+speakers, one of them supremely eloquent, they were able to interest
+even the lowest populace in questions of political economy, and to
+make Free Trade in Corn the idol of popular passion. Their mode of
+agitation was eminently reasonable and wise; but it _was_ an
+agitation, exciting wild enthusiasm and fierce opposition, and must
+be reckoned not among the forces tending to quiet, but among those
+that aroused anxious care in the first nine years of the reign. And
+it was a terrible calamity that at last placed victory within their
+grasp. The blight on the potato first showed itself in 1845--a new,
+undreamed-of disaster, probably owing to the long succession of
+unfavourable seasons. And the potato blight meant almost certainly
+famine in Ireland, where perhaps three-fourths of the population had
+no food but this root. The food supply of a whole nation seemed on
+the point of being cut off. A loud demand was made for "the opening
+of the ports." By existing laws the ports admitted foreign grain
+tinder import duties varying in severity inversely with the
+fluctuating price of home-grown grain; thus a certain high level in
+the cost of corn was artificially maintained. These regulations,
+though framed for the protection of the native producer, did not bear
+so heavily on the consumer as the law of 1815 which they replaced;
+and the principle represented by them had a large following in the
+country. But now the argument from famine proved potent to decide the
+wavering convictions of some who had long been identified with the
+cause of Protection. The champions of Free Trade were sure of triumph
+when Sir Robert Peel became one of their converts; and the Corn Bill
+which he carried in the June of 1846, granting with some little
+reserve and delay the reforms which the Anti-Corn-Law League had been
+formed to secure, brought that powerful association to a quiet end.
+But the threatening Irish famine and the growing Irish disturbances
+remained, to embarrass the Ministry of Lord John Russell, which came
+into power within less than a week of that great success of the Tory
+Minister, defeated on a question of Irish polity on the very day when
+his Corn Bill received the assent of the House of Lords.
+
+[Illustration: Lord John Russell.]
+
+We must not omit, as in passing we chronicle this singular fortune of
+a great Minister, to notice the grief with which Her Majesty viewed
+this turn of events. Amid all the anxiety of the period, amid her
+distress at the cruel sufferings of her servants in India, in
+Britain, in Ireland, and her care for their relief, she had had two
+sources of consolation: the pure and simple bliss of her home-life,
+and the assistance of two most valued counsellors--her husband and
+her Prime Minister. One was inseparably at her side, but one must now
+leave it; and she and the Prince met their inevitable loss with the
+dignified outward acquiescence that was fitting, but with sorrow not
+less real. The Queen would have bestowed on Peel as distinguished an
+honour as she could confer--the Order of the Garter; Peel deemed it
+best to decline it gratefully. "He was from the people and of the
+people," and wished so to remain, content if his Queen could say,
+"You have been a faithful servant, and have done your duty to the
+country and to myself."
+
+In hapless Ireland, torn by agitation and scourged by pestilence and
+famine, the general misery had reached a point where no fiscal
+measures, however wise, could at once alleviate it. The potato famine
+held on its dreadful way, and the darkest moment of Irish history
+seemed reached in the year when one hundred and seventy thousand
+persons perished in that island by hunger or hunger-bred fever. The
+new plague affected Great Britain also; but its suffering was
+completely overshadowed by the enormous bulk of Irish woe, which the
+utmost lavishness of charity seemed scarcely to lessen. That there
+should be turbulence and even violence accompanying all this
+wretchedness was no way surprising; but in most men's minds the
+wretchedness held the larger place, and deservedly so, for the
+sedition, when ripe enough, was dealt with sharply, though not
+mercilessly, in such a way that ere long all reasonable dread of a
+civil war being added to the other horrors, had passed away; and the
+country had leisure for such recovery as was possible to a land so
+desolate.
+
+[Illustration: Thomas Chalmers.]
+
+There was contemporaneous distress enough and to spare in Great
+Britain: failures in Lancashire alone to the amount of £16,000,000;
+failures equally heavy in Birmingham, Glasgow, and other great towns;
+capital was absorbed by the mad speculations in railway shares; and
+even Heaven's gift of an abundant harvest, by at once lowering the
+price of corn, helped to depress commerce. Many banks stopped
+payment, and even the Bank of England seemed imperilled, saving
+itself only by adopting a bold line of policy advised by Government.
+At the same time, the Chartist movement was gathering the strength
+which was to expend itself in the futile demonstrations of 1848.
+
+[Illustration: John Henry Newman. _From a photograph by_ Mr. H. J.
+Whitlock, _Birmingham_.]
+
+But as if it were not enough for every department of political or
+commercial life to be so seriously affected, there was now arising
+within the English National Church itself a singular movement,
+destined to affect the religious history of the land as powerfully,
+if not as beneficially, as did the Evangelical revival of the last
+century; and the National Kirk of Scotland, after long and stern
+contention on the crucial point of civil control in things spiritual,
+was ready for that rending in twain from which arose the Free Kirk;
+while other religious bodies were torn by the same keen spirit of
+strife, the same revolt against ancient order, as that which was
+distracting the world of politics. The bitterness of the disruption
+in Scotland is well-nigh exhausted, though the controversy enlisted
+at the time all the fervid power of a Chalmers; men honour the memory
+of the champions, while hoping to see the once sharp differences
+composed for ever. But the "Catholic Revival," initiated under the
+leadership of Newman, Pusey, and Keble, has proved to be no transient
+disturbance: and no figure has in relation to the Church history of
+the half-century the same portentous importance as that of John Henry
+Newman, whose powerful magnetism, as it attracted or repelled, drew
+men towards Romanism or drove them towards Rationalism, his logical
+art, made more impressive by the noble eloquence with which he
+sometimes adorned it, seeming to leave those who came under his spell
+no choice between the two extremes. When he finally decided on
+withdrawing himself from the Anglican and giving in his adhesion to
+the Roman communion, he set an example that has not yet ceased to be
+imitated, to the incalculable damage of the English Establishment.
+Happily the massive Nonconformity of the country was hardly touched
+either by his influence or his example.
+
+It is pleasant to turn from scenes of doubt and discord, of strife
+and sorrow, to that bright domestic life which was now vouchsafed to
+the Sovereign, as if in direct compensation for the storms that raved
+and beat outside her home--a home now brightened by the presence of
+five joyous, healthy children. It is a charming picture of the royal
+pair and of the manner of life in the palace--styled by one foreigner
+"the one really pleasant, comfortable English house, in which one
+feels at one's ease "--that is given us by the finely discerning
+Mendelssohn, invited by the Prince to "come and try his organ" before
+leaving England in 1842, on which occasion the Queen joined her
+husband and his guest at the instrument, enjoying and aiding in their
+musical performance, and singing, "quite faultlessly and with
+charming feeling and expression," a song written by the great master
+who was now paying a farewell visit, with nothing of ceremony in it,
+to English royalty. With a few touches Mendelssohn makes us see the
+delightful ease and comfort of this royal interior, the Queen
+gathering up the sheets of music strewn by the wind over the
+floor--the Prince cleverly managing the organ-stops so as to suit the
+master while he played--the mighty rocking-horse and the two
+birdcages beside the music-laden piano in the Queen's own
+sitting-room, beautiful with pictures and richly-bound books--the
+pretty difficulty about her finding some of Mendelssohn's own songs
+to sing to him, since her music was packed up and taken away to
+Claremont--her naļve confession that she had been "so frightened" at
+singing before the master,--all are chronicled with not less zest and
+affection than the graceful gift of a valuable ring "as a
+remembrance" to the artist from the Queen, through Prince Albert. It
+is a much more pleasing impression that we thus obtain than can be
+given by details of State ceremonial and visits from other
+sovereigns. Of these last there was no lack, and the princely
+visitors were entertained with all due pomp and splendour; but
+neither on account of these costly entertainments nor on behalf of
+the royal children did the Sovereign ask the nation for so much as a
+shilling, the Civil List sufficing for every unlooked-for outlay, now
+that Prince Albert, by dint of persevering effort, had succeeded in
+putting the arrangements of the royal household on a satisfactory
+footing, sweeping away a vast number of time-honoured, thriftless
+expenses, and rendering a wise and generous economy possible.
+
+[Illustration: Balmoral.]
+
+Formerly the great officers of the Crown were charged with the
+oversight of the commonest domestic business of the palace. Being
+non-resident, these overseers did no overseeing, and the actual
+servants were practically masterless. Hence arose numberless
+vexations and extravagant hindrances. In 1843 this objectionable form
+of the division of labour was brought to an end, and one Master of
+the household who did his work replaced the many officials who, by a
+fiction of etiquette, had been formerly supposed to do everything
+while they did and could do nothing. The long-needed reform could not
+but be pleasing to the Queen, being quite in harmony with the upright
+principles that had always ruled her conduct, she having begun her
+reign by paying off the debts of her dead father--debts contracted
+not in her lifetime nor on her account, and which a spirit less
+purely honourable might therefore have declined to recognise.
+
+[Illustration: Osborne House.]
+
+Thanks to the Prince's able management, the royal pair found it in
+their power to purchase for themselves the estate of Osborne, in the
+Isle of Wight--a charming retreat all their own, which they could
+adorn for their delight with no thought of the thronging public;
+where the Prince could farm and build and garden to his heart's
+content, and all could escape from the stately restraints of their
+burdensome rank, and from "the bitterness people create for
+themselves in London." Before very long they found for themselves
+that Highland holiday home of Balmoral which was to be so peculiarly
+dear, and in which Her Majesty--whose first visit to the _then_
+discontented Scotland was deemed quite a risky experiment--was so
+completely to win for herself the admiring love of her Scottish
+subjects.
+
+At Balmoral Mr. Greville saw them some little time after their
+acquisition of the place, and witnesses to the "simplicity and ease"
+with which they lived, to the gay good humour that pervaded their
+circle--"the Queen running in and out of the house all day long,
+often going out alone, walking into the cottages, sitting down and
+chatting with the old women," the Prince free from trammels of
+etiquette, showing what native charm of manner and what high,
+cultivated intelligence were really his. The impression is identical
+with that conveyed by Her Majesty's published Journal of that
+Highland life; and, though lacking the many graceful details of that
+record, the testimony has its own value. Happy indeed was the
+Sovereign for whom the black cloud of those years showed such a
+silver lining! Other potentates were less happy, both as regarded
+their private blessings and their public fortunes.
+
+It would be agreeable to English feelings, but not altogether
+consonant with historic truth, if we could leave unnoticed the
+scandalous attempts on the Queen's life which marked the earliest
+period of her reign and have been renewed in later days. The first
+attacks were by far of the most alarming character, but Her Majesty,
+whose escape on one occasion seemed due only to her husband's prompt
+action, never betrayed any agitation or alarm; and her dauntless
+bearing, and the care for others which she manifested by dispensing
+with the presence of her usual lady attendants when she anticipated
+one of these assaults, immensely increased the already high esteem in
+which her people held her. The first assailant, a half-crazy lad of
+low station named Oxford, was shut up in a lunatic asylum. For the
+second, a man named Francis, the same plea could not be urged; but
+the death-sentence he had incurred was commuted to transportation for
+life. Almost immediately a deformed lad called Bean followed the
+example of Francis. Her Majesty, who had been very earnest to save
+the life of the miserable beings attacking her, desired an alteration
+in the law as to such assaults; and their penalty was fixed at seven
+years' transportation, or imprisonment not exceeding three years, to
+which the court was empowered to add a moderate number of
+whippings--punishments having no heroic fascination about them, like
+that which for heated and shallow brains invested the hideous doom of
+"traitors." The expedient proved in a measure successful, none of the
+later assaults, discreditable as they are, betraying a really
+murderous intention. It has been remarked as a noteworthy
+circumstance that popular English monarchs have been more exposed to
+such dangers than others who were cordially disliked. It is not
+hatred that has prompted these assassins so much as imbecile vanity
+and the passion for notoriety, misleading an obscure coxcomb to think
+
+                        "His glory would be great
+   According to _her_ greatness whom he quenched."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+FRANCE AND ENGLAND.
+
+[Illustration: Buckingham Palace.]
+
+It is  necessary now to look at the relations of our Government with
+other nations, and in particular with France, whose fortunes just at
+this time had a clearly traceable effect on our own.
+
+For several years the Court of England had been on terms of
+unprecedented cordiality with the French Court. The Queen had
+personally visited King Louis Philippe at the Chāteau d'Eu--an event
+which we must go back as far as the days of Henry VIII to
+parallel--and had contracted a warm friendship for certain members of
+his family, in particular for the Queen, Marie Amélie, for the
+widowed Duchess of Orleans, a maternal cousin of Prince Albert, and
+for the perfect Louise, the truthful, unselfish second wife of
+Leopold, King of the Belgians, and daughter of the King of the
+French. It was a rude shock to all the warm feelings which our Queen,
+herself transparently honest, had learnt to cherish for her royal
+friends when the French King and his Minister, Guizot, entered into
+that fatal intrigue of theirs, "the Spanish marriages." Isabella, the
+young Queen of Spain, and her sister and heiress presumptive, Louisa,
+were yet unmarried at the time of the visit to the Chāteau d'Eu; and
+about that time an undertaking was given by the French to the English
+Government that the Infanta Louisa should not marry a French prince
+until her sister, the actual Queen, "should be married and have
+children." The possible union of the crowns of France and Spain was
+known for a dream of French ambition, and was equally well known to
+be an object of dislike and dread to other European Powers. The
+engagement which the French King had now given seemed therefore well
+calculated to disarm suspicion and promote peace; but the one was
+reawakened and the other endangered when it became known that he had
+so used his power over the Spanish court as to procure that the royal
+sisters of Spain should be married on one day--Isabella, the Queen,
+to the most unfit and uncongenial of all the possible candidates for
+her hand; Louisa to King Louis Philippe's son, the Duke of
+Montpensier. The transaction on the face of it was far from
+respectable, since the credit and happiness of the young Spanish
+Queen seemed to have hardly entered into the consideration of those
+who arranged for her the _mariage de convenance_ into which she was
+led blindfold; but when regarded as a violation of good faith it was
+additionally displeasing. Queen Victoria, to whom the scheme was
+imparted only when it was ripe for execution, through her personal
+friend Louise, Queen of the Belgians, replied to the communication in
+a tone of earnest, dignified remonstrance; but apparently the King
+was now too thoroughly committed to his scheme to be deterred by any
+reasoning or reproaches, and the tragical farce was played out. It
+had no good results for France; England was chilled and alienated,
+but the Spanish crown never devolved on the Duchess of Montpensier.
+Within two little years from her marriage that princess and all the
+French royal family fled from France, so hastily that they had
+scarcely money enough to provide for their journey, and appeared in
+England as fugitives, to be aided and protected by the Queen, who
+forgot all political resentment, and remembered only her personal
+regard for these fallen princes.
+
+The overthrow of the Orleans dynasty in 1848 was a complete surprise,
+and men have never ceased to see something disgraceful in its amazing
+suddenness. Here was a great king, respected for wisdom and daring,
+and supposed to understand at every point the character of the land
+he ruled, his power appearing unshaken, while it was known to be
+backed with an army one hundred thousand strong. And almost without
+warning a whirlwind of insurrection against this solid power and this
+able ruler broke out, and in a few wild hours swept the whole fabric
+into chaos. Nothing caused more surprise at the moment than the
+extreme bitterness of animosity which the insurgents manifested
+towards the king's person, unless it were the tameness with which he
+submitted to his fate and the precipitancy of his flight. There was
+something rotten in the state of things, men said, which could thus
+dissolve, crushed like a swollen fungus by a casual foot. And indeed,
+whether with perfect justice or not, Louis Philippe's Administration
+had come to be deemed corrupt some time ere his fall. The free-spoken
+Parisians had openly flouted it as such: witness a mock advertisement
+placarded in the streets: "_A nettoyer, deux Chambres et une Cour_":
+"Two _Chambers_ and a _Court_ to clean." A French Government that had
+been crafty, but not crafty enough to conceal the fact, that was
+rather contemned for plotting than dreaded for unscrupulous energy,
+was already in peril. The still unsubdued revolutionary spirit,
+working under the smooth surface of French society, was the element
+which accomplished the destruction of this discredited Government.
+
+The outbreak in France acted like a spark in a powder magazine; ere
+long great part of Europe was shaken by the second great
+revolutionary upheaval, when potentates seemed falling and ancient
+dynasties crumbling on all sides--a period of eager hope to many,
+followed by despair when the reaction set in, accompanied in too many
+places by repressive measures of pitiless severity. The contemptuous
+feeling with which many Englishmen were wont to view such Continental
+troubles is well embodied in the lines which Tennyson put into the
+mouth of one of his characters, speaking of France:
+
+   "Yonder, whiff! there comes a sudden heat,
+   The gravest citizen seems to lose his head,
+   The king is scared, the soldier will not fight.
+   The little boys begin to shoot and stab,
+   A kingdom topples over with a shriek
+   Like an old woman, and down rolls the world
+   In mock-heroics--
+   Revolts, republics, revolutions, most
+   No graver than a schoolboy's barring out;
+   Too comic for the solemn things they are,
+   Too solemn for the comic touches in them."
+
+In this wild year 1848, which saw Revolution running riot on the
+Continent, England too had its share of troubles not less painfully
+ridiculous; the insurrection headed by Smith O'Brien, a chief of the
+"Young Ireland" party, coming to an inglorious end in the affray
+that took place at "the widow McCormick's cabbage-garden,
+Ballingarry," in the month of July; the greatly dreaded Chartist
+demonstration at Kennington Common on April 10th by its conspicuous
+failure having done much to damp the hopes and spirits of the party
+of disorder generally.
+
+It would be easy now to laugh at the frustrated designs of the
+Chartist leaders and at the sort of panic they aroused in London: the
+vast procession, which was to have marched in military order to
+overawe Parliament, resolving itself into a confused rabble easily
+dispersed by the police, and the monster petition, that should  have
+numbered six million signatures, transported piecemeal to the House,
+and there found to have but two million names appended, many
+fictitious; the Chartist leader, completely cowed, thanking the Home
+Office for its lenient treatment; or, on the other hand, London and
+its peaceful inhabitants, distracted with wild rumours of combat and
+bloodshed, apprehending a repetition of Parisian madnesses, and
+unaware how thoroughly the Duke of Wellington, entrusted with the
+defence of the capital and its important buildings, had carried out
+all needful arrangements. The two hundred thousand special constables
+sworn in to aid in maintaining law and order on that day were visible
+enough, and had their utility in conveying a certain impression of
+safety; the troops whom the veteran commander held in readiness were
+kept out of sight till wanted. These rebellious spirits imagining
+themselves formidable and free, when caught in an invisible iron
+network--these terrified citizens, protected all unconsciously to
+themselves against the impotent foe whom they dreaded--might furnish
+food for mirth if we did not remember the real, deep, and widespread
+misery which found inarticulate but piteous expression in the
+movement now coming to confusion under the firm assertion of
+necessary authority. The disturbances must needs be quieted; but
+hitherto it has been the glory of our Victorian statesmen to have
+understood that the grievances which caused them must also be dealt
+with. Now that all which could be deemed wise and good in Chartist
+demands has been conceded, orderly and quietly, the name "Chartism"
+has utterly lost its dread significance.
+
+[Illustration: Napoleon III.]
+
+No cruelly vindictive measures of reprisal followed the collapse of
+the agitation; none indeed were needed. The revolutionary epidemic,
+which had spread hitherward from France, found our body politic in
+too sound a condition, and could not fasten on it; and the subsequent
+convulsions which shook our great neighbour hardly called forth an
+answering thrill in England. The strange transactions of December
+1851, by means of which Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Prince-President of
+the new French republic, succeeded in overthrowing that republic and
+replacing it by an empire of which he was the head, did indeed excite
+displeasure and distrust in many minds; and though it was believed
+that his high-handed proceedings had averted much disorder, the
+English Government was not prepared at once to accept all the
+proffered explanations of French diplomacy; but the then foreign
+Secretary, Lord Palmerston, by the rash proclamation of his
+individual approval, committed the Ministry of which he was one to a
+recognition of the _de facto_ Monarch of France. This step was but
+the last of many instances in which Palmerston had acted without due
+reference to the premier's or the Sovereign's opinion--a course of
+conduct which had justly displeased the Queen, and had drawn from her
+grave and pointed remonstrances. The final transgression led to his
+resignation; but its effects on our relations with France remained.
+
+Meanwhile the Emperor's consistent and probably sincere display of
+goodwill towards England, the apparent complacency with which the
+French nation acquiesced in his rule, and the outward prosperity
+accompanying it, did their natural work in conciliating approval, and
+in making men willing to forget the obscure and tortuous steps by
+which he had climbed to power. One day he and France were to pay for
+these things; but meanwhile he was a popular ruler, accepted and
+approved by the nation he governed, anxious for its prosperity, and
+earnest in keeping it friendly with Great Britain, which he had found
+a hospitable home in the days of his obscurity, which was again to
+offer an asylum to him in a day of utter disaster and overthrow, and
+where his life, chequered by vicissitudes stranger than any known to
+romance, was to come to a quiet close. It has been the singular
+fortune of Her Majesty to receive into the sacred shelter of her
+realm two dethroned monarchs, two fallen fortunes, two dynasties cast
+out from sovereign power, while her own throne, "broad-based upon her
+people's will, and compassed by the inviolate sea," has stood firm
+and unshaken, even by a breath. And it has been her special honour to
+cherish with affection, even warmer in their adversity, the friends
+who had gained her regard when their prosperity seemed as bright and
+their great position as assured as her own. Visiting the Emperor
+Napoleon in his splendid capital, fźted and welcomed by him and his
+Empress with every flattering form of honour that his ingenuity could
+devise or his power enable him to show, she did not forget the
+Orleans family and their calamities, but frankly urged on her host
+the injustice of the confiscations with which he had requited the
+supposed hostility of those princes, and endeavoured to persuade him
+to milder measures. She visited in his company the tomb of the
+lamented Duke of Orleans; and her first care on returning to England
+was to show some kindly attention to the discrowned royalties who
+were now her guests. In the same spirit, in after years, she extended
+a friendly hand to the exiled Empress Eugénie, escaping from new
+revolutionary perils to English safety, and altogether declined to
+consider her personal regard for the lady, whose attractions had
+deservedly gained it in brighter days, as being in any sense
+complicated with matters political. The resolute loyalty with which
+she at once maintained her private friendships and kept them entirely
+apart from her public action compelled toleration from the persons
+most inclined to take umbrage at it.
+
+An instance of successful and courageous enterprise on Her Majesty's
+part may well close this brief notice of the internal and external
+convulsions which for a time shook, though they did not shatter, the
+peace of our realm. In the late summer of 1849 a royal visit to
+Ireland, now just reviving from its misery, was planned and carried
+out with complete success; the wild Irish enthusiasm blazed up into
+raptures of a loyal welcome, and the Sovereign, who played her part
+with all the graceful perfection that her compassionate heart and
+quick intelligence suggested, was delighted with the little tour,
+from which those who shared in it prophesied "permanent good" for
+Ireland. At least it had a healing, beneficial effect at the moment;
+and perhaps more could not have been reasonably hoped. Later royal
+visits to the sister isle have been less conspicuous, but all fairly
+successful.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE CRIMEAN WAR.
+
+[Illustration: The Crystal Palace, 1851.]
+
+The "Exhibition year," 1851, appears to our backward gaze almost like
+a short day of splendid summer interposed between two stormy seasons;
+but at the time men were more inclined to regard it as the first of a
+long series of halcyon days. Indeed, the unexampled number and
+success of the various efforts to redress injury and reform abuses,
+which had signalised the new reign, might almost justify those
+sanguine spirits, who now wrote and spoke as though wars and
+oppression were well on their way to the limbo of ancient barbarisms,
+and who looked to unfettered commerce as the peace-making civiliser,
+under whose influence the golden age--in more senses than one might
+revisit the earth.
+
+[Illustration: Lord Ashley.]
+
+We have already referred to certain of the new transforming forces
+whose action tended to heighten such hopes; there are two reforms as
+yet unnamed by us, distinguishing these early years, which are
+particularly significant; though one at least was stoutly opposed by
+a special class of reformers. We refer to the legislation dealing
+with mines and factories and those employed therein, with which is
+inseparably connected the venerable name of the late Lord
+Shaftesbury; and to the abolition of duelling in the army, secured by
+the untiring efforts of Prince Albert, who had enlisted on his side
+the immense influence of the Duke of Wellington.
+
+That peculiar modern survival of the ancient trial by combat, the
+duel, was still blocking the way of English civilisation when Her
+Majesty assumed the sceptre. A palpable anachronism, it yet seemed
+impossible to make men act on their knowledge of its antiquated and
+barbarous character; legislation was fruitless of good against a
+practice consecrated by false sentiment and false ideas of honour;
+but when dislodged from its chief stronghold, the army, it became
+quickly discredited everywhere, with the happy result noted by a
+contemporary historian, that _now_ "a duel in England would seem as
+absurd and barbarous as an ordeal by touch or a witch-burning."
+Militarism, that mischievous counterfeit of true soldierly spirit,
+could not thrive where the duel was discountenanced; and the friends
+of peace might rejoice with reason.
+
+But those peaceful agitators, the sagacious, energetic Cobden and his
+allies, resented rather sharply the interference of the Lord Ashley
+of that day with the "natural laws" of the labour market--laws to
+whose operation some of the party attributed the cruelly excessive
+hours of work in factories, and the indiscriminate employment of all
+kinds of labour, even that of the merest infants. Undeterred by
+these objections, convinced that no law which sanctioned and promoted
+cruelty did so with true authority, Lord Ashley persisted in the
+struggle on which he had entered 1833; in 1842 he scored his first
+great success in the passing of an Act that put an end to the
+employment of women and children in mines and collieries; in 1844 the
+Government carried their Factories Act, which lessened and limited
+the hours of children's factory labour, and made other provisions for
+their benefit. It was not all that he had striven for, but it was
+much; he accepted the compromise, but did not slacken in his efforts
+still further to improve the condition of the children. His career of
+steady benevolence far outstretched this early period of battle and
+endurance; but already his example and achievement were fruitful of
+good, and his fellow-labourers were numerous. Nothing succeeds like
+success: people had sneered at the mania for futile legislation that
+possessed the "humanity-monger" who so embarrassed party leaders with
+his crusade on behalf of mere mercy and justice; they now approved
+the practical philanthropist who had taken away a great reproach from
+his nation, and glorified the age in which they lived because of its
+special humaneness, while they exulted not less in the brightening
+prospects of the country. Sedition overcome, law and order
+triumphant, the throne standing firm, prosperity returning--all
+ministered to pride and hope.
+
+In 1850 there had been some painful incidents; the death by an
+unhappy accident of Sir Robert Peel, and the turbulent excitement of
+what are known as the "No Popery" disturbances, being the most
+notable: and of these again incomparably the most important was the
+untimely loss to the country of the great and honest statesman who
+might otherwise have rendered still more conspicuous services to the
+Sovereign and the empire. The sudden violent outburst of popular
+feeling, provoked by a piece of rash assumption on the part of the
+reigning Pope, was significant, indeed, as evidencing how little
+alteration the "Catholic revival" had worked in the temper of the
+nation at large; otherwise its historic importance is small. At the
+time, however, the current of agitation ran strongly, and swept into
+immediate oblivion an event which three years before would have had a
+European importance--the 'death of Louis Philippe, whose strangely
+chequered life came to an end in the old palace of Claremont, just
+before the "papal aggressions"--rash, impolitic, and mischievous, as
+competent observers pronounced it, but powerless to injure English
+Protestantism--had thrown all the country into a ferment, which took
+some months to subside. We are told that Her Majesty, though
+naturally interested by this affair, was more alive to the quarter
+where the real peril lay than were some of her subjects; but in the
+universal distress caused by the death of Peel none joined more
+truly, none deplored that loss more deeply, than the Sovereign, who
+would willingly have shown her value for the true servant she had
+lost by conferring a peerage on his widow--an honour which Lady Peel,
+faithful to the wishes and sharing the feeling of her husband, felt
+it necessary to decline.
+
+[Illustration: Earl of Derby.]
+
+Amid these agitations, inferior far to many that had preceded them,
+the year 1850 ran out, and 1851 opened--the year in which Prince
+Albert's long-pursued project of a great International Exhibition of
+Arts and Industries was at last successfully carried out. The idea,
+as expounded by himself at a banquet given by the Lord Mayor, was
+large and noble. "It was to give the world a true test, a living
+picture, of the point of industrial development at which the whole of
+mankind had arrived, and a new starting-point from which all nations
+would be able to direct their further exertions." The magnificent
+success, unflawed by any vexatious or dangerous incident, with which
+the idea was carried out, had made it almost impossible for us to
+understand the opposition with which the plan was greeted, the
+ridicule that was heaped upon it, the foolish fears which it
+inspired; while the many similar Exhibitions in this and other
+countries that have followed and emulated, but never altogether
+equalled, the first, have made us somewhat oblivious of the fact that
+the scheme when first propounded was an absolute novelty. It was a
+fascination, a wonder, a delight; it aroused enthusiasm that will
+never be rekindled on a like occasion.
+
+Paxton's fairy palace of glass and iron, erected in Hyde Park, and
+canopying in its glittering spaces the untouched, majestic elms of
+that national pleasure-ground as well as the varied treasures of
+industrial and artistic achievement brought from every quarter of the
+globe, divided the charmed astonishment of foreign spectators with
+the absolute orderliness of the myriads who thronged it and crowded
+all its approaches on the great opening day. Perhaps on that day the
+Queen touched the summit of her rare happiness. It was the 1st of
+May--her own month--and the birthday of her youngest son, the
+godchild and namesake of the great Duke. She stood, the most justly
+popular and beloved of living monarchy, amid thousands of her
+rejoicing subjects, encompassed with loving friends and happy
+children, at the side of the beloved husband whose plan was now
+triumphantly realised; and she spoke the words which inaugurated that
+triumph and invited the world to gaze on it.
+
+"The sight was magical," she says, "so vast, so glorious, so
+touching...God bless my dearest Albert! God bless my dearest country,
+which has shown itself so great to-day! One felt so grateful to the
+great God, Who seemed to pervade all and to bless all. The only event
+it in the slightest degree reminded me of was the coronation, but
+this day's festival was a thousand times superior. In fact, it is
+unique, and can bear no comparison, from its peculiar beauty and
+combination of such striking and different objects. I mean the slight
+resemblance only as to its solemnity; the enthusiasm and cheering,
+too, were much more touching, for in a church naturally all is
+silent."
+
+The Exhibition remained open from the 1st of May to the 11th of
+October, continuing during all those months to attract many thousands
+of visitors. It had charmed the world by the splendid embodiment of
+peace and peaceful industries which it presented, and men willingly
+took this festival as a sign bespeaking a yet longer reign of
+world-tranquillity. It proved to be only a sort of rainbow, shining
+in the black front of approaching tempest. When 1854 opened, the
+third year from the Exhibition year, we were already committed to war
+with Russia; and the forty years' peace with Europe, finally won at
+Waterloo, was over and gone.
+
+[Illustration: Duke of Wellington.]
+
+In the interval another great spirit had passed away. The Duke of
+Wellington died, very quietly and with little warning, at Walmer
+Castle, on the 14th of September, 1852, "full of years and honours."
+He was in his eighty-fourth year, and during the whole reign of Queen
+Victoria he had occupied such a position as no English subject had
+ever held before. At one time, before that reign began, his political
+action had made him extraordinarily unpopular, in despite of the
+splendid military services which no one could deny; now he was the
+very idol of the nation, and at the same time was treated with the
+utmost respect and reverent affection by the Sovereign--two
+distinctions how seldom either attained or merited by one person! But
+in Wellington's case there is no doubt that the popular adoration and
+the royal regard were worthily bestowed and well earned. He had never
+seemed stirred by the popular odium, he never seemed to prize the
+popular praise, which he received; it was not for praise that he had
+worked, but for simple duty; and his experience of the fickleness of
+public favour might make him something scornful of it. To the honours
+which his Sovereign delighted to shower on him--honours perhaps never
+before bestowed on a subject by a monarch--he _was_ sensitive. The
+Queen to him was the noblest personification of the country whose
+good had ever been, not only the first, but the only object of his
+public action: and with this patriotic loyalty there mingled
+something of a personal feeling, more akin to romance in its paternal
+tenderness than seemed consistent with the granite-hewn strength and
+sternness of his general character. A thorough soldier, with a
+soldier's contempt for fine-spun diplomacy, he had been led into many
+a blunder when acting as a chief of party and of State; but his
+absolute single-minded honesty had more than redeemed such errors;
+"integrity and uprightness had preserved him," and through him the
+land and its rulers, amid difficulties where the finest statecraft
+might have made shipwreck of all.
+
+He had his human failings; yet the moral grandeur of his whole career
+cast such faults into the shade, and justified entirely the universal
+grief at his not untimely death. The Queen deplored him as "our
+immortal hero"--a servant of the Crown "devoted, loyal, and faithful"
+beyond all example; the nation endeavoured by a funeral of
+unprecedented sumptuousness to show its sense of loss; the poet
+laureate devoted to his memory a majestic Ode, hardly surpassed by
+any in the language for its stately, mournful music, and finely
+faithful in its characterisation of the dead hero--
+
+           "The man of long-enduring blood,
+     The statesman-warrior, moderate, resolute,
+     Whole in himself, a common good;...
+     ...The man of amplest influence,
+     Yet clearest of ambitious crime,
+     Our greatest yet with least pretence,
+     Great in council and great in war,
+     Foremost captain of his time,
+     Rich in saving common-sense.
+     And, as the greatest only are.
+     In his simplicity sublime;...
+     Who never sold the truth to serve the hour,
+     Nor paltered with Eternal God for power;
+     Who let the turbid streams of rumour flow
+     Through either babbling world of high and low;
+     Whose life was work, whose language rife
+     With rugged maxims hewn from life;
+     Who never spoke against a foe;
+     Whose eighty winters freeze with one rebuke
+     All great self-seekers trampling on the right:
+     Truth-teller was our England's Alfred named;
+     Truth-lover was our English Duke;
+     Whatever record leap to light
+     He never shall be shamed."
+
+When, within so short a period after Wellington's death, the nation
+once more found itself drawn into a European war, there were many
+whose regret for his removal was quickened into greater keenness.
+"Had we but the Duke to lead our armies!" was the common cry; but
+even _his_ military genius might have found itself disastrously
+fettered, had he occupied the position which his ancient subordinate
+and comrade, Lord Raglan, was made to assume. It may be doubted if
+Wellington could have been induced to assume it.
+
+Whether there ever would have been a Crimean war if no special
+friendliness had existed between France and England may be fair
+matter for speculation. The quarrel issuing in that war was indeed
+begun by France; but it would have been difficult for England to take
+no part in it. The apple of discord was supplied by a long-standing
+dispute between the Greek and Latin Churches as to the Holy Places
+situated in Palestine--a dispute in which France posed as the champion
+of the Latin and Russia of the Greek right to the guardianship of the
+various shrines. The claim of France was based on a treaty between
+Francis I and the then Sultan, and related to the Holy Places
+merely; the Russian claim, founded on a treaty between Turkey and
+Catherine II, was far wider, and embraced a protectorate over all
+Christians of the Greek Church in Turkey, and therefore over a great
+majority of the Sultan's European subjects. Such a construction of
+the treaty in question, however, had always been refused by England
+whenever Russia had stated it; and its assertion at this moment bore
+an ominous aspect in conjunction with the views which the reigning
+Czar Nicholas had made very plain to English statesmen, both when he
+visited England in 1844 and subsequently to that visit. To use his
+own well-known phrase, he regarded Turkey as "a sick man"--a
+death-doomed man, indeed--and hoped to be the sick man's principal
+heir. He had confidently reckoned on English co-operation when the
+Turkish empire should at last be dismembered; he was now to find, not
+only that co-operation would be withheld, but that strong opposition
+would be offered to the execution of the plan, for which it had
+seemed that a favourable moment was presenting itself. The delusion
+under which he had acted was one that should have been dispelled by
+plain English speech long before; but now that he found it to be a
+delusion, he did not recede from his demands upon the Porte: he
+rather multiplied them. The upshot of all this was war, in spite of
+protracted diplomatic endeavours to the contrary; and into that war
+French and English went side by side. Once before they had done so,
+when Philip Augustus and Richard Coeur de Lion united their forces to
+wrest the Holy Places from the Saracens; that enterprise had been
+disgraced by particularly ugly scandals from which this was free; but
+in respect to glory of generalship, or permanent results secured, the
+Crimean campaign has little pre-eminence over the Fourth Crusade.
+
+Recent disclosures, which have shown that Lord Aberdeen's Ministry
+was not rightly reproached with "drifting" idly and recklessly into
+this disastrous contest, have also helped to clear the English
+commander's memory from the slur of inefficiency so liberally flung
+on him at the time, while it has been shown that his action was
+seriously hampered by the French generals with whom he had to
+co-operate. From whatever cause, such glory as was gained in the
+Crimea belongs more to the rank and file of the allied armies than to
+those highest in command. The first success won on the heights of the
+Alma was not followed up; the Charge of the Six Hundred, which has
+made memorable for ever the Russian repulse at Balaklava, was a
+splendid mistake, valuable chiefly for the spirit-stirring example it
+has bequeathed to future generations of English soldiers, for its
+illustration of death-defying, disciplined courage; the great fight
+at Inkerman was only converted from a calamitous surprise into a
+victory by sheer obstinate valour, not by able strategy; and the
+operations that after Lord Raglan's death brought the unreasonably
+protracted siege of Sebastopol to a close did but evince afresh how
+grand were the soldierly qualities of both French and English, and
+how indifferently they were generalled.
+
+If the allies came out of the conflict with no great glory, they had
+such satisfaction as could be derived from the severer losses and the
+discomfiture at all points of the foe. The disasters of the war had
+been fatal to the Czar Nicholas, who died on March 2nd, 1855, from
+pulmonary apoplexy--an attack to which he had laid himself open, it
+was said, in melancholy recklessness of his health. His was a
+striking personality, which had much more impressed English
+imaginations than that of Czar or Czarina since the time of Peter the
+Great; and the Queen herself had regarded the autocrat, whose great
+power made him so lonely, with an interest not untouched with
+compassion at the remote period when he had visited her Court and had
+talked with her statesmen about the imminent decay of Turkey. At that
+time the austere majesty of his aspect, seen amid the finer and
+softer lineaments of British courtiers, had been likened to the
+half-savage grandeur of an emperor of old Rome who should have been
+born a Thracian peasant. It proved that the contrast had gone much
+deeper than outward appearance, and that his views and principles had
+been as opposed to those of the English leaders, and as impossible of
+participation by such men as though he had been an imperfectly
+civilised contemporary of Constantine the Great. Since then he had
+succeeded in making himself more heartily hated, by the bulk of the
+English nation, than any sovereign since Napoleon I; for the war,
+into which the Government had entered reluctantly, was regarded by
+the people with great enthusiasm, and the foe was proportionately
+detested.
+
+Many anticipated that the death of the Czar would herald in a
+triumphant peace; but in point of fact, peace was not signed until
+the March of 1856. Its terms satisfied the diplomatists both of
+France and England; they would probably have been less complacent
+could they have foreseen the day when this hard-won treaty would be
+torn up by the Power they seemed to be binding hand and foot with
+sworn obligations of perdurable toughness; least of all would that
+foresight have been agreeable to Lord Palmerston, Premier of England
+when the peace was signed, and quite at one with the mass of the
+people of England in their deep dislike and distrust of Russia and
+its rulers.
+
+The political advantages which can be clearly traced to this war are
+not many. Privateers are no longer allowed to prey on the commerce of
+belligerent nations, and neutral commerce in all articles not
+contraband of war must be respected, while no blockade must be
+regarded unless efficiently and thoroughly maintained. Such were the
+principles with which the plenipotentiaries who signed the Treaty of
+Paris in 1856 enriched the code of international law; and these
+principles, which are in force still, alone remain of the advantages
+supposed to have been secured by all the misery and all the
+expenditure of the Crimean enterprise.
+
+[Illustration: Florence Nightingale.]
+
+But other benefits, not of a political nature, arose out of the
+hideous mismanagement which had disgraced the earlier stages of the
+war. It is a very lamentable fact that of the 24,000 good Englishmen
+who left their bones in the Crimea, scarce 5,000 had fallen in fair
+fight or died of wounds received therein. Bad and deficient food,
+insufficient shelter and clothing, utter disorganisation and
+confusion in the hospital department, accounted for the rest. These
+evils, when exposed in the English newspapers, called forth a cry of
+shame and wrath from all the nation, and stirred noble men and women
+into the endeavour to mitigate at least the sufferings of the unhappy
+wounded. Miss Florence Nightingale, the daughter of a wealthy English
+gentleman, was known to take a deep and well-informed interest in
+hospital management; and this lady was induced to superintend
+personally the nursing of the wounded in our military hospitals in
+the East. Entrusted with plenary powers over the nurses, and
+accompanied by a trained staff of lady assistants, she went out to
+wrestle with and overcome the crying evils which too truly existed,
+and which were the despair of the army doctors. Her success in this
+noble work, magnificently complete as it was, did indeed "multiply
+the good," as Sidney Herbert had foretold: we may hope it will
+continue so to multiply it "to all time." The horrors of war have
+been mitigated to an incalculable extent by the exertions of the
+noble men and women who, following in the path first trodden by the
+Crimean heroines, formed the Geneva Convention, and have borne the
+Red Cross, its most sacred badge, on many a bloody field, in many a
+scene of terrible suffering--suffering touched with gleams of human
+pity and human gratitude; for the courageous tenderness of many a
+soft-handed and lion-hearted nursing sister, since the days of
+Florence Nightingale, has aroused the same half-adoring thankfulness
+which made helpless soldiers turn to kiss that lady's shadow, thrown
+by her lamp on the hospital wall.
+
+The horrors thus mitigated have become more than ever repugnant to
+the educated perception of Christendom, because of the merciful
+devotion which, ever toiling to lessen them, keeps them before the
+world's eye. In every great war that has shaken the civilised world
+since the strife in the Crimea broke out, the ambulance, its
+patients, its attendants, have always been in the foreground of the
+picture. Never have the inseparable miseries of warfare been so well
+understood and so widely realised, thanks in part to that new
+literary force of the Victorian  age, the _war correspondent_, and
+chiefly, perhaps, to the new position henceforth assumed by the
+military medical and hospital service. To the same source we may
+fairly attribute the  great improvements wrought in the whole conduct
+of that distinctively Christian charity, unknown to heathenism, the
+hospital system: the opening of a new field of usefulness to educated
+and devoted women of good position, as nurses in hospitals and out;
+and the vast increase of public interest in and public support of
+such agencies. Even the Female Medical Mission, now rising into such
+importance in the jealous lands of the East, may be traced not very
+indirectly to the same cause.
+
+The Queen, whose enthusiasm for her beloved army and navy was very
+earnest, and frankly shown, who had suffered with their sufferings
+and exulted in their exploits, followed with a keen, personal,
+unfaltering interest the efforts made for their relief. "Tell these
+poor, noble wounded and sick men that _no one_ takes a warmer
+interest, or feels more for their sufferings, or admires their
+courage and heroism more than their Queen. So does the Prince," was
+the impulsive, heart-warm message which Her Majesty sent for
+transmission through Miss Nightingale to her soldier-patients. Her
+deeds proved that these words were words of truth. Not content with
+subscribing largely to the fund raised on behalf of those left
+orphaned and widowed by the war, she took part in the work of
+providing fitting clothing for the men exposed to all the terrors of
+a Russian winter; and her daughters, enlisted to aid in this pious
+work, began that career of beneficence which two of them were to
+pursue afterwards to such good purpose, amid the ravages of wars
+whose colossal awfulness dwarfed the Crimean campaign in the memories
+of men.
+
+Many of the injured being invalided home while the war was in
+progress, Her Majesty embraced the opportunity to testify her
+sympathy and admiration, giving to them in public with her own hands
+the medals for service rendered at Alma, at Balaklava, and at
+Inkerman. It would not be easy to say whether the Sovereign or the
+soldiers were more deeply moved on this occasion. Conspicuous among
+the maimed and feeble heroes was the gallant young Sir Thomas
+Troubridge, who, lamed in both feet by a Russian shot at Inkerman,
+had remained at his post, giving his orders, while the fight endured,
+since there was none to fill his place. He appeared now, crippled for
+life, but declared himself "amply repaid for everything," while the
+Queen decorated him, and told him he should be one of her
+aides-de-camp. Her own high courage and resolute sense of duty moved
+her with special sympathy for heroism like this; and she obeyed the
+natural dictates of her heart in conspicuously rewarding it. With a
+similar impulse, on the return of the army, she made a welcoming
+visit to the sick and wounded at Chatham, and testified the liveliest
+appreciation of the humane services of Miss Nightingale, to whom a
+jewel specially designed by the Prince was presented, in grateful
+recognition of her inestimable work. The new decoration of the
+Victoria Cross, given "for valour" conspicuously shown in deeds of
+self-devotion in war time, further proved how keenly the Queen and
+her consort appreciated soldierly virtue. It was the Prince who first
+proposed that such a badge of merit should be introduced, the Queen
+who warmly accepted the idea, and in person bestowed the Cross on its
+first wearers, thereby giving it an unpurchasable value.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+INDIA.
+
+Lord Aberdeen, who did not hope very great things from the war which
+had initiated during his Ministry, had yet deemed it possible that
+Eastern Europe might reap from it the benefit of a quarter of a
+century's peace. He was curiously near the mark in this estimate; but
+neither he nor any other English statesman was unwary enough to risk
+such a prophecy as to the general tranquillity of the Continent. In
+fact, the peace of Europe, broken in 1853, has been unstable enough
+ever since, and from time to time tremendous wars have shaken it.
+Into none of these, however, has Great Britain been again entrapped,
+though the sympathies of its people have often been warmly enlisted
+on this side and that. A war with China, which began in 1857, and
+cannot be said to have ended till 1860, though in the interim a
+treaty was signed which secured just a year's cessation of
+hostilities, was the most important undertaking in which the allied
+forces of France and England took part after the Crimea. In this war
+the allies were victorious, as at that date any European Power was
+tolerably certain to be in a serious contest with China. The closing
+act of the conflict--the destruction of the Summer Palace at Pekin,
+in retaliation for the treacherous murder of several French and
+English prisoners of distinction--was severely blamed at the time,
+but defended on the ground that only in this way could any effectual
+punishment of the offence be obtained. That act of vengeance and the
+war which it closed have an interest of their own in connection with
+the late General Gordon, who now entered on that course of
+extraordinary achievement which lacks a parallel in this century, and
+which began, in the interests of Chinese civilisation, shortly after
+he had taken a subordinate officer's part in the work of destruction
+at Pekin.
+
+From this date England did not commit itself to any of the singular
+series of enterprises which our good ally, the French Emperor, set on
+foot. A feeling of distrust towards that potentate was invading the
+minds of the very Englishmen who had most cordially hailed his
+successes and met his advances. "The Emperor's mind is as full of
+schemes as a warren is full of rabbits, and, like rabbits, his
+schemes go to ground for the moment to avoid notice or antagonism,"
+were the strong words of Lord Palmerston in a confidential letter of
+1860; and when he could thus think and write, small wonder if calmer
+and more unprejudiced minds saw need for standing on their guard.
+Amid all the flattering demonstrations of friendship of which the
+French court had been lavish, and which had been gracefully
+reciprocated by English royality, the Prince Consort had retained an
+undisturbed perception of much that was not quite satisfactory in the
+qualifications of the despotic chief of the French State for his
+difficult post. Thus it is without surprise that we find the Queen
+writing in 1859, as to a plan suggested by the Emperor: "The whole
+scheme is the often-attempted one, that England should take the
+chestnuts from the fire, and assume the responsibility of making
+proposals which, if they lead to war, we should be in honour bound to
+support by arms." The Emperor had once said of Louis Philippe, that
+he had fallen "because he was not sincere with England"; it looked
+now as though he were steering full on the same rock, for his own
+sincerity was flawed by dangerous reservations.
+
+England remained an interested spectator, but a spectator only, while
+the French ruler played that curiously calculated game of his, which
+did so much towards insuring the independence of Italy and its
+consolidation into one free monarchy. It was no disinterested game,
+as the cession of Nice and Savoy to France by Piedmont would alone
+have proved. It was daring to the point of rashness; for as a French
+general of high rank said, there needed but the slightest check to
+the French arms, and "it was all up with the dynasty!" Yet the "idea"
+which furnished the professed motive for the Emperor's warlike action
+was one dear to English sympathies, and many an English heart
+rejoiced in the solid good secured for Italy, though without our
+national co-operation. There was a proud compensating satisfaction in
+the knowledge that, when a crisis of unexampled and terrible
+importance had come in our own affairs, England had perforce dealt
+with it single-handed and with supreme success.
+
+Those who can remember the fearful summer of 1857 can hardly recall
+its wild events without some recurrence of the thrill of horror that
+ran through the land, as week after week the Indian news of mutiny
+and massacre reached us. It was a surprise to the country at large,
+more than to the authorities, who were informed already that a spirit
+of disaffection had been at work among our native troops in Bengal,
+and that there was good reason to believe in the existence of a
+conspiracy for sapping the allegiance of these troops. Later events
+have left little doubt that such a conspiracy did exist, and that its
+aim was the total subversion of British power. Our advance in
+Hindostan had been rapid, the changes following on it many, and not
+always such as the Oriental mind could understand or approve. Early
+in the reign, in 1847, an energetic Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie,
+went out to India, who introduced railways, telegraphs, and cheap
+postage, set on foot a system of native education, and vigorously
+fought the ancient iniquities of suttee, thuggee, and child-murder.
+Perhaps his aggressive energy worked too fast, too fierily; perhaps
+his peremptory reforms, not less than his high-handed annexations of
+the Punjaub, Oude, and other native States, awakened suspicion in the
+mind of the Hindoo, bound as he was by the immemorial fetters of
+caste, and dreading with a shuddering horror innovations that might
+interfere with its distinctions; for to lose caste was to be outlawed
+among men and accursed in the sight of God.
+
+[Illustration: Lord Canning.]
+
+Lord Canning, the successor of Lord Dalhousie, entered on his
+governor-generalship at a moment full of "unsuspected peril"; for the
+disaffected in Hindostan had so misread the signs of the times as to
+believe that England's sun was stooping towards its setting, and that
+the hour had come in which a successful blow could be struck, against
+the foreign domination of a people alien in faith as in blood from
+Mohammedan and Buddhist and Brahmin, and apt to treat all alike with
+the scorn of superiority. A trivial incident, which was held no
+trifle by the distrustful Sepoys, proved to be the spark that kindled
+a vast explosion. The cartridges supplied for use with the Enfield
+rifle, introduced into India in 1856, were greased; and the end would
+have to be bitten off when the cartridge was used. A report was
+busily circulated among the troops that the grease used was cow's fat
+and hog's lard, and that these substances were employed in pursuance
+of a deep-laid design to deprive every soldier of his caste by
+compelling him to taste these defiling things. Such compulsion would
+hardly have been less odious to a Mussulman than to a Hindoo; for
+swineflesh is abominable to the one, and the cow a sacred animal to
+the other. Whoever devised this falsehood intended to imply a subtle
+intention on the part of England to overthrow the native religions,
+which it was hoped the maddened soldiery would rise to resist. The
+mischief worked as was desired. In vain the obnoxious cartridges were
+withdrawn from use; in vain the Governor-General issued a
+proclamation warning the army of Bengal against the falsehoods that
+were being circulated. Mysterious signals, little cakes of unleavened
+bread called _chupatties_, were being distributed, as the spring of
+1857 went on, throughout the native villages under British rule,
+doing the office of the _Fiery Cross_ among the Scotch Highlanders of
+an earlier day; and in May the great Mutiny broke out.
+
+Some of the Bengal cavalry at Meerut had been imprisoned for refusing
+to use their cartridges; their comrades rose in rebellion, fired on
+their officers, released the prisoners, and murdered some Europeans.
+The British troops rallied and repulsed the mutineers, who fled to
+Delhi, unhappily reached it in safety, and required and obtained the
+protection of the feeble old King, the last of the Moguls, there
+residing. Him they proclaimed their Emperor, and avowed the intention
+of restoring his dynasty to its ancient supremacy. The native troops
+in the city and its environs at once prepared to join them; and thus
+from a mere mutiny, such as had occurred once and again before, the
+rising assumed the character of a vast revolutionary war. For a
+moment it seemed that our hard-won supremacy in the East was
+disappearing in a sea of blood. The foe were numerous, fanatical, and
+ruthless; we ourselves had trained and disciplined them for war; the
+sympathies of their countrymen were very largely with them. Yet, with
+incredible effort and heroism more than mortal, the small and
+scattered forces of England again snatched the mastery from the hands
+of the overwhelming numbers arrayed against them.
+
+[Illustration: Sir Colin Campbell.]
+
+One name has obtained an immortality of infamy in connection with
+this struggle--that of the Nana Sahib, who by his hideous treachery
+at Cawnpore took revenge on confiding Englishmen and women for
+certain wrongs inflicted on him in regard to the inheritance of his
+adopted father by the last Governor-General. But many other names
+have been crowned with deathless honour, the just reward of
+unsurpassed achievement, of supreme fidelity and valour, at a crisis
+under which feeble natures would have fainted and fallen. Of these
+are Lord Canning himself, the noble brothers John and Henry Lawrence,
+the Generals Havelock, Outram, and Campbell, and others whom space
+forbids us even to name.
+
+The Governor-General remained calm, resolute, and intrepid amidst the
+panic and the rage which shook Calcutta when the first appalling news
+of the Mutiny broke upon it. He disdained the cruel counsels of fear,
+and steadily refused to confound the innocent with the guilty among
+the natives; but he knew where to strike, and when, and how. On his
+own responsibility he stayed the British troops on their way to the
+scene of war in China, and made them serve the graver, more immediate
+need of India, doing it with the concurrence of Lord Elgin, the envoy
+responsible for the Chinese business; and he poured his forces on
+Delhi, the heart of the insurrection, resolving to make an end of it
+there before ever reinforcement direct from England could come. After
+a difficult and terrible siege, the place was carried by storm on
+September 20th, 1857--an achievement that cost many noble lives, and
+chief among them that of the gallant Nicholson, a soldier whose mind
+and character seem to have made on all who knew him an impression as
+of supernatural grandeur.
+
+Five days later General Havelock and his little band of heroes--some
+one thousand Englishmen who had marched with him from Allahabad,
+recaptured by Neill for England, and on to ghastly Cawnpore--arrived
+at Lucknow, and relieved the slender British force which since May
+had been holding the Residency against the fierce and ever-renewed
+assaults of the thousands of rebels who poured themselves upon it. He
+came in time to save many a brave life that should yet do good
+service; but the noblest Englishman of them all, the gentle,
+dauntless, chivalrous Sir Henry Lawrence, Governor of Oude, had died
+from wounds inflicted by a rebel shell many weeks before, and lay
+buried in the stronghold for whose safe keeping he had continued to
+provide in the hour and article of death. His spirit, however, seemed
+yet to actuate the survivors. Havelock's march had been one
+succession of victories won against enormous odds, and half
+miraculous; but even he could work no miracle, and his troops might
+merely have shared a tragic fate with the long-tried defenders of
+Lucknow, but for the timely arrival of Sir Colin Campbell with five
+thousand men more, to relieve in his turn the relieving force and
+place all the Europeans in Lucknow in real safety. The news was
+received in England with a delight that was mingled with mourning for
+the heroic and saintly Havelock, who sank and died on November 24th.
+A soldier whose military genius had passed unrecognised and almost
+unemployed while men far his inferiors were high in command, he had
+so more than profited by the opportunity for doing good service when
+it came, that in a few months his name had become one of the dearest
+in every English home, a glory and a joy for ever. It is rarely that
+a career so obscured by adverse fortune through all its course blazes
+into such sunset splendour just at the last hour of life's day.
+
+[Illustration: Henry Havelock.]
+
+Those months which made the fame of Havelock had been filled with
+crime and horror. The first reports of Sepoy outrages which
+circulated in England were undoubtedly exaggerated, but enough
+remains of sickening truth as to the cruelties endured by English
+women and children at the hand of the mutineers to account for the
+fury which filled the breasts of their avenging countrymen, and
+seemed to lend them supernatural strength and courage, and, alas! in
+some instances, to merge that courage in ferocity. Delhi had been
+deeply guilty, when the mutineers seized it, in respect of inhuman
+outrage on the helpless non-combatants; but the story of Cawnpore is
+darker yet, and is still after all these years fresh in our memories.
+A peculiar blackness of iniquity clings about it. That show of amity
+with which the Nana Sahib responded to the summons of Sir Hugh
+Wheeler, the hard-pressed commanding officer in the city, only that
+he might act against him; those false promises by which the little
+garrison, unconquerable by any force, was beguiled to give itself up
+to mere butchery; the long captivity of the few scores of women and
+children who survived the general slaughter, only, after many dreary
+days of painful suspense, to be murdered in their prison-house as
+Havelock drew near the gates of Cawnpore: all these circumstances of
+especial horror made men regard their chief instigator rather as one
+of the lower fiends masquerading in human guise than as a
+fellow-creature moved by any motives common to men. It was perhaps
+well for the fair fame of Englishmen that the Nana never fell into
+their hands, but saved himself by flight before the soldiers of
+Havelock had looked into the slaughter-house all strewn with relics
+of his victims and grimly marked with signs of murder, or had gazed
+shuddering at the dreadful well choked up with the corpses of their
+countrywomen. It required more than common courage, justice, and
+humanity, to withstand the wild demand for mere indiscriminating
+revenge which these things called forth. Happily those highest in
+power did possess these rare qualities. Lord Canning earned for
+himself the nickname of "Clemency Canning" by his perfect
+resoluteness to hold the balance of justice even, and unweighted by
+the mad passion of the hour. Sir John (afterwards Lord) Lawrence, the
+Chief Commissioner of the Punjaub, who, with his able subordinates,
+had saved that province at the very outset, and thereby in truth
+saved India, was equally firm in mercy and in justice. The Queen
+herself, who had very early appreciated the gravity of the situation
+and promoted to the extent of her power the speedy sending of aid and
+reinforcement from England, thoroughly endorsed the wise and clement
+policy of the Governor-General. Replying to a letter of Lord
+Canning's which deplored "the rabid and indiscriminate vindictiveness
+abroad," Her Majesty wrote these words, which we will give ourselves
+the pleasure to quote entire:--
+
+[Illustration: Sir John Lawrence.]
+
+"Lord Canning will easily believe how entirely the Queen shares his
+feelings of sorrow and indignation at the unchristian spirit, shown,
+alas! also to a great extent here by the public, towards Indians in
+general, and towards Sepoys _without discrimination!_ It is, however,
+not likely to last, and comes from the horror produced by the
+unspeakable atrocities perpetrated against the innocent women and
+children, which make one's blood run cold and one's heart bleed! For
+the perpetrators of these awful horrors no punishment can be severe
+enough; and sad as it is, _stern_ justice must be dealt out to all
+the guilty.
+
+"But to the nation at large, to the peaceable inhabitants, to the
+many kind and friendly natives who have assisted us, sheltered the
+fugitive, and been faithful and true, there should be shown the
+greatest kindness. They should know that there is no hatred to a
+brown skin--none; but the greatest wish on their Queen's part to see
+them happy, contented, and flourishing."
+
+These words well became the sovereign who, by serious and cogent
+argument, had succeeded in inducing her Ministers to strike strongly
+and quickly on the side of law and order, they having been at first
+inclined to adopt a "step-by-step" policy as to sending out aid,
+which would not have been very grateful to the hard-pressed
+authorities in India; while the Queen and the Prince shared Lord
+Canning's opinion, that "nothing but a long continued manifestation
+of England's might before the eyes of the whole Indian empire,
+evinced by the presence of such an English force as should make the
+thought of opposition hopeless, would re-establish confidence in her
+strength."
+
+The necessary manifestation of strength was made; the reputation of
+England--so rudely shaken, not only in the opinion of ignorant
+Hindoos, but in that of her European rivals--was re-established
+fully, and indeed gained by the power she had shown to cope with an
+unparalleled emergency. The counsels of vengeance were set aside, in
+spite of the obloquy which for a time was heaped on the true wisdom
+which rejected them. We did not "dethrone Christ to set up Moloch";
+had we been guilty of that sanguinary folly, England and India might
+yet be ruing that year's doing. On the contrary, certain changes
+which did ensue in direct consequence of the Mutiny were productive
+of undoubted good.
+
+It was recognised that the "fiction of rule by a trading company" in
+India must now be swept away; one of the very earliest effects of the
+outbreak had been to open men's eyes to the weak and sore places of
+that system. In 1858 an "Act for the better Government of India" was
+passed, which transferred to Her Majesty all the territories formerly
+governed by the East India Company, and provided that all the powers
+it had once wielded should now be exercised in her name, and that its
+military and naval forces should henceforth be deemed her forces. The
+new Secretary of State for India, with an assistant council of
+fifteen members, was entrusted with the care of Indian interests
+here; the Viceroy, or Governor-General, also assisted by a council,
+was to be supreme in India itself. The first viceroy who represented
+the majesty of England to the Queen's Indian subjects was the
+statesman who had safely steered us through the imminent, deadly
+peril of the Mutiny, and whom right feeling and  sound policy alike
+designated as the only fit wearer of this honour. Under the new
+regime race and class prejudices have softened, education is
+spreading swiftly, native oppression is becoming more difficult, as
+improved communications bring the light of day into the remoter
+districts of the immense peninsula. The public mind of England has
+never quite relapsed into its former scornful indifference to the
+welfare of India; rather, that welfare has been regarded with much
+keener interest, and the nation has become increasingly alive to its
+duty with regard to that mighty dependency, now one in allegiance
+with ourselves. There was much of happy omen in the reception
+accorded by loyal Hindoos to the Queen's proclamation when it reached
+them in 1858. While the mass of the people gladly hailed the rule of
+the "Empress," by whom they believed the Company "had been hanged for
+great offences," there were individuals who were intelligent enough
+to recognise with delight that noble character of "humanity, mercy,
+and justice," which was impressed by the Queen's own agency on the
+proclamation issued in her name. We may say that the joy with which
+such persons accepted the new reign has been justified by events, and
+that the same great principles have continued to guide all Her
+Majesty's own action with regard to India, and also that of her
+ablest representatives there.
+
+We may not leave out of account, in reckoning the loss and gain of
+that tremendous year, the extraordinary examples of heroism called
+forth by its trials, which have made our annals richer, and have set
+the ideal of English nobleness higher. The amazing achievements and
+the swiftly following death of the gallant Havelock did not indeed
+eclipse in men's minds the equal patriotism and success of his noble
+fellows, but the tragic completeness of his story and the antique
+grandeur of his character made him specially dear to his countrymen;
+and the fact that he was already in his grave while the Queen and
+Parliament were busy in assigning to him the honours and rewards
+which his sixty years of life had hitherto lacked, added something
+like remorse to the national feeling for him. But the heart of the
+people swelled high with a worthy pride as we dwelt on his name and
+those of the Lawrences, the Neills, the Outrams, the Campbells, and
+felt that all our heroes had not died with Wellington.
+
+Other anxieties and misfortunes had not been lacking while the fate
+of British India still hung in the balance. The attitude of some
+European Powers, whom the breaking forth of the Mutiny had encouraged
+in the idea that England's power was waning, was full of menace,
+especially in view of what the Prince Consort justly called "our
+pitiable state of unpreparedness" for resisting attack. Prompted by
+him, the Queen caused close inquiry to be made into the state of our
+home defences and of the navy--the first step towards remedying the
+deficiencies therein existing. Also a "cold wave" seemed to be
+passing over the commercial community in England; the year 1857 being
+marked   by very great  financial  depression, which affected more or
+less every department of our industries. In connection with this
+calamity, however, there was at least one hopeful feature: the very
+different temper which the working classes, then, as always, the
+greatest sufferers by such depression, manifested in the time of
+trial. They showed themselves patient and loyal, able to understand
+that their employers too had evils to endure and difficulties to
+surmount; they no longer held all who were their superiors in station
+for their natural enemies: a happy change, testifying to the good
+worked by the new, beneficent spirit of legislation and reform.
+
+It is under the date of this year that we find Mr. Greville, on the
+authority of Lord Clarendon, thus describing the very thorough and
+"eminently useful" manner in which the Queen, assisted by the Prince,
+was exercising her high functions:--
+
+"She held each Minister to the discharge of his duty and his
+responsibility to her, and constantly desired to be furnished with
+accurate and detailed information about all important matters,
+keeping a record of all the reports that were made to her, and
+constantly referring to them; _e.g._, she would desire to know what
+the state of the navy was, and what ships were in readiness for
+active service, and generally the state of each, ordering returns to
+be submitted to her from all the arsenals and dockyards, and again,
+weeks or months afterwards, referring to these returns, and desiring
+to have everything relating to them explained and accounted for, and
+so throughout every department....This is what none of her
+predecessors ever did, and it is, in fact, the act of Prince Albert."
+
+We turn from this picture of the Sovereign's habitual occupations to
+her public life, and we find it never more full of apparently
+absorbing excitements--splendid hospitalities exchanged with other
+Powers, especially with Imperial France, alternating with messages of
+encouragement, full of cordiality and grace, to her successful
+commander-in-chief in India, Sir Colin Campbell, with plans for the
+conspicuous rewarding of the Indian heroes at large, with public
+visits to various great English towns, and with preparations for the
+impending marriage of the Princess Royal; and we realise forcibly
+that even in those sunny days, when the Queen was surrounded with her
+unbroken family of nine blooming and promising children, and still
+had at her right hand the invaluable counsellor by whose aid England
+was governed with a wisdom and energy all but unprecedented, her
+position was so far from a sinecure that no subject who had his daily
+bread to gain by his wits could have worked much harder.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE BEGINNINGS OF SORROWS.
+
+[Illustration: Windsor Castle.]
+
+IT has been the Queen's good fortune to see her own true-love match
+happily repeated in the marriages of her children. One would almost
+say that the conspicuous success of that union, the blessing that it
+brought with it to the nation, had set a new fashion to royalty.
+There is quite a romantic charm about the first marriage which broke
+the royal home-circle of England--that of the Queen's eldest child
+and namesake, Victoria, Princess Royal, with Prince Frederick
+William, eldest son of the then Prince of Prussia, whose exaltation
+to the imperial throne of Germany lay dimly and afar--if not
+altogether undreamed of by some prophetic spirits--in the future. The
+bride and bridegroom had first met, when the youth was but nineteen
+and the maiden only ten, at the great Peace Festival, the opening of
+the first Exhibition. Already the charming grace and rare
+intelligence of the Princess had attracted attention; and it is on
+record that at this early period some inkling of a possible
+attraction between the two had entered one observer's mind, who also
+notes that the young Prince, greatly interested by all he saw of free
+England and its rulers, was above all taken with the "perfect
+domestic happiness which he found pervading the heart, and core, and
+focus of the greatest empire in the world." Four years later the
+Prince was again visiting England, a guest of the royal family in its
+Scottish retreat of Balmoral, where they had just been celebrating
+with beacon fires and Highland mirth and music the glad news of the
+fall of Sebastopol. He had the full consent of his own family for his
+wooing, but the parents of his lady would have had him keep silence
+at least till the fifteen-year-old maiden should be confirmed. The
+ease and unconstraint of that mountain home-life, however, were not
+very favourable to reserve and reticence; a spray of white heather,
+offered and received as the national emblem of good fortune, was made
+the flower symbol of something more, and words were spoken that
+effectually bound the two young hearts, though the formal betrothal
+was deferred until some time after the Princess, in the following
+March, had received the rite of Confirmation; and "the actual
+marriage," said the Prince Consort, "cannot be thought of till the
+seventeenth birthday is past." "The secret must be kept _tant bien
+que mal_," he had written, well knowing that it would be a good deal
+of an open secret.
+
+[Illustration: Prince Frederick William.]
+
+[Illustration: Princess Royal.]
+
+The engagement was publicly announced in May, 1857, and though, when
+first rumoured, it had been coldly looked on by the English public,
+now it was accepted with great cordiality. The Prince was openly
+associated with the royal family; he and his future bride appeared as
+sponsors at the christening of our youngest Princess, Beatrice; he
+rode with the Prince Consort beside the Queen when she made the first
+distribution of the Victoria Cross, and was a prominent and heartily
+welcomed member of the royal group which visited the Art Treasures
+Exhibition of Manchester. The marriage, which was in preparation all
+through the grim days of 1857, was celebrated with due splendour on
+January 25th, 1858, and awakened a universal interest which was not
+even surpassed when, five years later, the heir to the throne was
+wedded. "Down to the humblest cottage," said the Prince Consort, "the
+marriage has been regarded as a family affair." And not only this
+splendid and entirely successful match, but every joy or woe that has
+befallen the highest family in the land, has been felt as "a family
+affair" by thousands of the lowly. This is the peculiar glory of the
+present reign.
+
+[Illustration: Charles Kingsley. _From a Photograph by_ Elliott &
+Fry.]
+
+Happy and auspicious as this marriage was, it was nevertheless the
+first interruption to the pure home bliss that hitherto had filled
+"the heart of the greatest empire in the world." The Princess Royal,
+with her "man's head and child's heart," had been the dear companion
+of the father whose fine qualities she inherited, and had largely
+shared in his great thoughts. Nor was she less dear to her mother,
+who had sedulously watched over the "darling flower," admiring and
+approving her "touching and delightful" filial worship of the Prince
+Consort, and who followed with longing affection every movement of
+the dear child now removed from her sheltering care, and making her
+own way and place in a new world. There she has indeed proved
+herself, as she pledged herself to do, "worthy to be her mother's
+child," following her parents in the path of true philanthropy and
+gentle human care for the suffering and the lowly. So far the ancient
+prophecy has been well fulfilled which promised good fortune to
+Prussia and its rulers when the heir of the reigning house should wed
+a princess from sea-girt Britain. But the wedding so propitious for
+Germany seemed almost the beginning of sorrows for English royalty.
+Other betrothals and marriages of the princes and princesses ensued;
+but the still lamented death of the Prince Consort intervened before
+one of those betrothals culminated in marriage.
+
+Another event which may be called domestic belongs to the year
+following this marriage--the coming of age of the Prince of Wales,
+fixed, according to English use and wont, when the heir of the crown
+completes his eighteenth year. Every educational advantage that
+wisdom or tenderness could suggest had been secured for the Prince.
+We may note in passing that one of his instructors was the Rev.
+Charles Kingsley, whom Prince Albert had engaged to deliver a series
+of lectures on history to his son. This honour, as well as that of
+his appointment as one of Her Majesty's chaplains, was largely due to
+royal recognition of the practical Christianity, so contagious in its
+fervour, which distinguished Mr. Kingsley, not less than his great
+gifts; of his eagerness "to help in lifting the great masses of the
+people out of the slough of ignorance and all its attendant suffering
+and vice"--an object peculiarly dear to the Queen and to the Prince,
+as had been consistently shown on every opportunity.
+
+When the time came that the youth so carefully trained should be
+emancipated from parental control, it was announced to him by the
+Queen in a letter characterised by Mr. Greville or his informant as
+"one of the most admirable ever penned. She tells him," continues the
+diarist, "that he may have thought the rule they adopted for his
+education a severe one, but that his welfare was their only object;
+and well knowing to what seductions of flattery he would eventually
+be exposed, they wished to prepare and strengthen his mind against
+them; that he was now to consider himself his own master, and that
+they should never intrude any advice upon him, although always ready
+to give it him whenever he thought fit to seek it. It was a very long
+letter, all in that tone; and it seems to have made a profound
+impression on the Prince.... The effect it produced is a proof of the
+wisdom that dictated its composition."
+
+We have chosen this as a true typical instance of the blended
+prudence and tenderness that have marked the relations between our
+Sovereign and her children. Aware what a power for good or evil the
+characters of those children must have on the fortunes of very many
+others, she and her husband sedulously surrounded them with every
+happy and healthy influence, never forgetting the supreme need of due
+employment for their energies. "Without a vocation," said the Prince
+Consort, "man is incapable of complete development and real
+happiness": his sons have all had their vocation.
+
+It was the same period, marked by these domestic passages of mingled
+joy and sorrow, that became memorable in another way, through the
+various troublous incidents which gave an extraordinary impetus to
+our national Volunteer movement, which were not remotely connected
+with the War of Italian Independence, and for a short time overthrew
+the popular Ministry of Lord Palmerston, who was replaced in office
+by Lord Derby. The futile plot of Felice Orsini, an Italian exile and
+patriot, against the life of Louis Napoleon, provoked great anger
+among the Imperialists of France against England, the former asylum
+of Orsini. A series of violent addresses from the French army,
+denouncing Great Britain as a mere harbour of assassins, did but give
+a more exaggerated form to the representations of French diplomacy,
+urging the amendment of our law, which appeared incompetent to touch
+murderous conspirators within our borders so long as their plots
+regarded only foreign Powers. The tone of France was deemed insolent
+and threatening; Lord Palmerston, who, in apparent deference to it,
+introduced a rather inefficient measure against conspiracy to murder,
+fell at once to the nadir of unpopularity, and soon had no choice but
+to resign; and the Volunteer movement in England--which had been
+begun in 1852, owing to the sinister changes that then took place in
+the French Government--now at once assumed the much more important
+character it has never since lost. The immense popularity of this
+movement and its rapid spread formed a significant reply to the
+insensate calls for vengeance on England which had risen from the
+French army, and which seemed worthy of attention in view of the vast
+increase now made in the naval strength of France, and of other
+preparations indicating that the Emperor meditated a great military
+enterprise. That enterprise proved to be the war with Austria which
+did so much for Italy, and which some observers were disposed to
+connect with the plot of Orsini--a rough reminder to the Emperor,
+they said, that he was trifling with the cause of Italian unity, to
+which he was secretly pledged. But Englishmen were slow to believe in
+such designs on the part of the French ruler. "How should a despot
+set men free?" was their thought, interpreted for them vigorously
+enough by an anonymous poet of the day; and they enrolled themselves
+in great numbers for national defence. With this movement there might
+be some evils mixed, but its purely defensive and manly character
+entitles it on the whole to be reckoned among the better influences
+of the day.
+
+[Illustration: Lord Palmerston.]
+
+Palmerston's discredit with his countrymen was of short duration, as
+was his exile from office; he was Premier again in the June of 1859,
+and was thenceforth "Prime Minister for life." His popularity, which
+had been for some time increasing, remained now quite unshaken until
+his death in 1865. Before Lord Derby's Government fell, however, a
+reform had been carried which could not but have been extremely
+grateful to Mr. Disraeli, then the Ministerial leader of the House of
+Commons. The last trace of the disabilities under which the Jews in
+England had laboured for many generations was now removed, and the
+Baron Lionel de Rothschild was able quietly to take his seat as one
+of the members for the City of London. The disabilities in question
+had never interfered with the ambition or the success of Mr.
+Disraeli, who at a very early age had become a member of the
+Christian Church. But his sympathies had never been alienated from
+the own people, with whom indeed he had always proudly identified
+himself by bold assertion of their manifold superiority. There are
+still, undoubtedly, persons in this country whose convictions lead
+them to think it anything but a wholesome change which has admitted
+among our legislators men, however able and worthy, who disclaim the
+name of _Christian_. But the change was brought about by the
+conviction, which has steadily deepened among us, that oppression of
+those of a different faith from our own, either by direct severities
+or by the withholding of civil rights, is a singularly poor weapon of
+conversion, and that the adversaries of Christianity are more likely
+to be conciliated by being dealt with in a Christlike spirit;
+further, that religious opinion may not be treated as a crime,
+without violation of God's justice. On the point as to the claim of
+_irreligious_ opinion to similar consideration, the national feeling
+cannot be called equally unanimous. In the case of the English Jews,
+it may be said that the tolerant and equal conduct adopted towards
+them has been well requited; the ancient people of God are not here,
+as in lands where they are trampled and trodden down, an offence and
+a trouble, the cause of repeated violent disturbance and the object
+of a frenzied hate, always deeply hurtful to those who entertain it.
+
+Other changes and other incidents that now occurred engrossed a
+greater share of the public attention than this measure of relief.
+The rapid march of events in Italy had been watched with eager
+interest, divided partly by certain ugly outbreaks of Turkish
+fanaticism in Syria, and by our proceedings in the Ionian islands,
+which finally resulted in the quiet transfer of those isles to the
+kingdom of Greece. The commercial treaty with France effected,
+through the agency of Mr. Cobden, on Free Trade lines, and Mr.
+Gladstone's memorable success in carrying the repeal of the paper
+duty, and thereby immensely facilitating journalistic enterprise,
+were hailed with great delight as beneficial and truly progressive
+measures. But events of a more gigantic character now took place,
+which at the moment affected our prosperity more directly than
+any fiscal reform, and appealed more powerfully to us than the
+savagery of our Turkish _protégés_ or even than the union of
+Italy under Victor Emmanuel into one free and friendly State. The
+long-smouldering dissensions between the Northern and Southern States
+of the American Union at last broke into flame, and war was declared
+between them, in 1861.
+
+The burning question of slavery was undoubtedly at the bottom of this
+contest, which has been truly described as a struggle for life
+between the "peculiar institution" and the principles of modern
+society. The nobler and more enthusiastic spirits in the Northern
+States beheld in it a strife between Michael and Satan, the Spirit of
+Darkness hurling himself against the Spirit of Light in a vain and
+presumptuous hope to overpower him; and their irritation was great
+when an eminent English man of letters was found describing it
+scornfully as "the burning of a dirty chimney," and when English
+opinion, speaking through very many journalists and public men,
+appeared half hostile to the Northern cause. Indeed, it might have
+been thought that opinion in England--England, which at a great cost
+had freed its own slaves, and which had never ceased by word and deed
+to attack slavery and the slave-trade--would not have faltered for a
+moment as to the party it would favour, but would have declared
+itself massively against the slave-holding South. But the contest at
+its outset was made to wear so doubtful an aspect that it was
+possible, unhappily possible, for many Englishmen of distinction to
+close their eyes to the great evils championed by the Southern
+troops. The war was not avowedly made by the North for the
+suppression of slavery, but to prevent the Southern States from
+withdrawing themselves from the Union: the Southerners on their side
+claimed a constitutional right so to withdraw if it pleased them, and
+denounced the attempt to retain them forcibly as a tyranny.
+
+[Illustration: Abraham Lincoln and his son.]
+
+This false colouring at first given to the contest had mischievous
+results. English feeling was embittered by the great distress in our
+manufacturing districts, directly caused up the action of the
+Northern States in blockading the Southern ports, and thus cutting
+off our supply of raw  material in the shape of cotton. On its side
+the North, which had calculated securely on English sympathy and
+respect, and was profoundly irritated by the many displays of a
+contrary feeling; and the exasperation on both sides more than once
+reached a point which made war appear almost inevitable--a war above
+all others to be deprecated. First came the affair of the
+_Trent_--the English mail-steamer from  which two  Southern envoys
+were carried off by an American naval commander, in contempt of the
+protection of the British flag. The action was technically illegal,
+and on the demand of the English Government its illegality was
+acknowledged, and the captives were restored; but the warlike and
+threatening tone of England on this occasion was bitterly resented at
+the North, and this resentment was greatly increased when it became
+known that various armed cruisers, in particular the notorious
+_Alabama_, designed to prey on the Northern commerce, were being
+built and fitted  by English  shipbuilders in English dockyards under
+the direction of the Southern foe, while the English Government could
+not decide if it were legally competent for Her Majesty's Ministers
+to interfere and detain such vessels. The tardy action at last taken
+just prevented the breaking out of hostilities. Out of these
+unfortunate transactions a certain good was to ensue at a date not
+far distant, when, after the restoration of peace, America and
+England, disputing as to the compensation due from one to the other
+for injuries sustained in this matter, gave to the world the great
+example of two nations submitting a point so grave to peaceful
+arbitration, instead of calling in the sword to make an end of it--an
+example more nearly pointing to the possible extinction of war than
+any other event of the world's history.
+
+Yet another hopeful feature may be noted in connection with this time
+of trouble. While the Secession war lasted, "the cotton famine" had
+full sway in Lancashire; unwonted and unwelcome light and stillness
+replaced the dun clouds of smoke and the busy hum that used to tell
+of fruitful, well-paid industry; and the patient people, haggard and
+pale but sadly submissive, were kept, and just kept, from starving by
+the incessant charitable effort of their countrymen. Never had the
+attitude of the suffering working classes shown such genuine
+nobility; they understood that the calamity which lay heavy on them
+was not brought about by the careless and selfish tyranny of their
+worldly superiors, but came in the order of God's providence; and
+their conduct at this crisis proved that an immense advance had been
+made in kindliness between class and class, and in true intelligence
+and appreciation of the difficulties proper to each. It was
+significant of this new temper that when at last peace returned,
+bringing some gleam of returning prosperity, the workers, who greeted
+with joyful tears the first bales of cotton that arrived, fell on
+their knees around the hopeful things and sang hymns of thanksgiving
+to the Author of all good.
+
+Such were the fruits of that new policy of care and consideration for
+the toilers and the lowly which had increasingly marked the new
+epoch, and which had been sedulously promoted by the Queen, in
+association with her large-thoughted and well-judging husband.
+
+It was in the midst of the troubles which we have just attempted to
+recall that a new and greater calamity came upon us, affecting the
+royal family indeed with the sharpest distress, but hardly less felt,
+even at the moment, by the nation.
+
+The year 1861 had already been darkened for Her Majesty by the death
+in the month of March, of her mother, the Duchess of Kent, to whose
+wise guardianship of the Queen's youth the nation owed so much, and
+who had ever commanded the faithful affection of this her youngest
+but greatest child, and of all her descendants. This death was the
+first stroke of real personal calamity to the Queen; it was destined
+to be followed by another bereavement, even severer in its nature,
+before the year had closed. The Prince Consort's health, though
+generally good, was not robust, and signs had not been wanting that
+his incessant toils were beginning to tell upon him. There had been
+illnesses, transitory indeed, but too significant of "overwork of
+brain and body." In addition to personal griefs, such as the death of
+the Duchess of Kent and of a beloved young Coburg prince and kinsman,
+the King of Portugal, which had been severely felt, there were the
+unhappy complications arising out of "the affair of the _Trent_,"
+which the Prince's statesmanlike wisdom had helped to bring to a
+peaceful and honourable conclusion. That wisdom, unhappily, was no
+longer at the service of England when a series of negligences and
+ignorances on the part of England's statesmen had landed us in the
+_Alabama_ difficulty.
+
+All these agitations had told upon a frame which was rather
+harmoniously and finely than vigorously constituted. "If I had an
+illness," he had been known to say, "I am sure I should not struggle
+for life. I have no tenacity of life." And in the November of 1861 an
+illness came against which he was not able to struggle, but which
+took all the country by surprise when, on December 14th, it
+terminated in death. Very many had hardly been aware that there was
+danger until the midnight tolling of the great bell of St. Paul's
+startled men with an instant foreboding of disaster. _What_ disaster
+it was that was thus knelled forth they knew not, and could hardly
+believe the tidings when given in articulate words.
+
+At first it had been said, the Prince had a feverish cold; presently
+the bulletin announced "fever, unattended with unfavourable
+symptoms." It was gastric fever, and before long there _were_
+unfavourable symptoms--pallid changes in the aspect, hurried
+breathing, wandering senses--all noted with heart-breaking anxiety by
+the loving nurses, the Queen and Princess Alice--the daughter so
+tender and beloved, the "dear little wife," the "good little wife,"
+whose ministerings were so comfortable to the sufferer overwearied
+with the great burden of life. He was released from it at ten minutes
+to eleven on the night of Saturday, December 14th; and there fell on
+her to whom his last conscious look had been turned, his last caress
+given, a burden of woe almost unspeakable, and for which the heart of
+the nation throbbed with well-nigh unbearable sympathy. Seldom has
+the personal grief of a sovereign been so keenly shared by subjects.
+Indeed, they had cause to lament; the removal of the Prince Consort,
+just when his faculties seemed ripest and his influence most assured,
+left a blank in the councils of the nation which has never been
+filled up. "We have buried our _king_" said Mr. Disraeli, regretting
+profoundly this national loss; but for once the English people forgot
+the public deprivation in compassionating her who was left more
+conspicuously lonely, more heavily burdened, than even the poor
+bereaved colliers' wives in the North for whom _her_ compassion was
+so quick and so sharply sympathetic. Something remorseful mingled
+then, and may mingle now, with the affection felt for this lost
+benefactor, who had not only been somewhat jealously eyed by certain
+classes on his first coming, but who had suffered much silently from
+misunderstanding and also from deliberate misrepresentation, and only
+by patient continuance in well-doing had at last won the favour which
+was his rightful due.
+
+    "That which we have we prize not to the worth
+    While we enjoy it; but being lacked and lost,
+    Why, then we rack the value, then we find
+    The virtue that possession would not show us
+    While it was ours."
+
+A peculiar tenderness was ever after cherished for Princess Alice,
+who in this dark hour rose up to be her mother's comforter,
+endeavouring in every way possible to save her all trouble--"all
+communications from the Ministers and household passed through the
+Princess's hands to the Queen, then bowed down with grief.... It was
+the very intimate intercourse with the sorrowing Queen at that time
+which called forth in Princess Alice that keen interest and
+understanding in politics for which she was afterwards so
+distinguished. The gay, bright girl suddenly developed into a wise,
+far-seeing woman, living only for others."
+
+[Illustration: Princess Alice.]
+
+This ministering angel in the house of mourning had been already
+betrothed, with her parents' full approval, to Prince Louis of Hesse;
+and to him she was married on July 1st, 1862, at Osborne, very
+quietly, as befitted the mournful circumstance of the royal family.
+Many a heartfelt wish for her happiness followed "England's
+England-loving daughter" to her foreign home, where she led a
+beautiful, useful life, treading in her father's footsteps, and
+continually cherished by the love of her mother; and the peculiarly
+touching manner of her death, a sort of martyrdom to sweet domestic
+affections, again stirred the heart of her own people to mournful
+admiration. A cottager's wife might have died as Princess Alice died,
+through breathing in the poison of diphtheria as she hung, a
+constant, loving nurse, over the pillows of her suffering husband and
+children. This beautiful _homeliness_ that has marked the lives of
+our Sovereign and her children has been of inestimable value, raising
+simple human virtues to their proper pre-eminence before the eyes of
+the English people of to-day, who are very materially, if often
+unconsciously, swayed by the example set them in high places.
+
+In the May after Prince Consort's death the second International
+Exhibition was opened, amid sad memories of the first, so joyful in
+every way, and a certain sense of discouragement because the golden
+days of universal peace seemed farther off than ten years before.
+
+        "Is the goal so far away?
+        Far, how far no tongue can say;
+        Let us dream our dream to-day."
+
+Far indeed it seemed, with the fratricidal contest raging in America,
+and shutting out all contributions to this World's Fair from the
+United States.
+
+[Illustration: The Mausoleum.]
+
+The Queen had betaken herself that May to her Highland home, whose
+joy seemed dead, and where her melancholy pleased itself in the
+erection of a memorial cairn to the Prince on Craig Lorigan, after
+she had returned from Princess Alice's wedding. But in May she had
+sent for Dr. Norman Macleod, who was not only distinguished as one of
+her own chaplains, but was also a friend already endeared to the
+Prince and herself; and she found comfort in the counsels of that
+faithful minister and loyal man, who has left some slight record of
+her words. "She said she never shut her eyes to trials, but liked to
+look them in the face; she would never shrink from duty, but all was
+at present done mechanically; her highest ideas of purity and love
+were obtained from the Prince, and God could not be displeased with
+her love.... There was nothing morbid in her grief.... She said that
+the Prince always believed he was to die soon, and that he often told
+her that he had never any fear of death." It seemed that in this
+persuasion the Prince had made haste to live up to the duties of his
+difficult station to the very utmost, and "being made perfect in a
+short time fulfilled a long time [Footnote]."
+
+[Footnote: Inscription on the cairn on Craig Lorigan.]
+
+"The more I learn about the Prince Consort," continues Dr. Macleod,
+"the more I agree with what the Queen said to me about him: 'that he
+really did not seem to comprehend a selfish character, or what
+selfishness was.' And on whatever day his public life is revealed to
+the world, I feel certain this will be recognised."
+
+[Illustration: Dr. Norman Macleod.]
+
+The Queen, by revealing to the world, with a kind of holy boldness,
+what the Prince's public and private life was, has justified this
+confidence of her faithful friend.
+
+Early in 1863, Dr. Macleod was led by the Queen into the mausoleum
+she had caused to be raised for her husband's last resting-place.
+Calm and quiet she stood and looked on the beautiful sculptured image
+of him she had lost: having "that within which passeth show," her
+grief was tranquil. "She is so true, so genuine, I wonder not at her
+sorrow; it but expresses the greatest loss that a sovereign and wife
+could sustain," said the deeply moved spectator.
+
+An event was close at hand which was to mingle a little joy in the
+bitter cup so long pressed to our Sovereign's lips. The Prince of
+Wales had formed an attachment to the Princess Alexandra of Denmark,
+a singularly winning and lovely lady, whose popularity, ever since
+her sweet face first shone on the surging crowds that shouted her
+welcome into London, has seemed always at flood-tide. Faithful to her
+experience and convictions, the Queen smiled gladly on the marriage
+of affection between this gentle princess and the heir to the throne,
+and was present as a spectator, though still wearing her sombre
+weeds, at the splendid show of her son's wedding on March 10th, 1863.
+"Two things have struck me much," writes Dr. Macleod, from whose
+Journal we again quote: "one was the whole of the royal princesses
+weeping, though concealing their tears with their bouquets, as they
+saw their brother, who was to them but their 'Bertie' and their dear
+father's son, standing alone waiting for his bride. The other was the
+Queen's expression as she raised her eyes to heaven while her
+husband's _Chorale_ was sung. She seemed to be with him alone before
+the throne of God."
+
+[Illustration: Prince of Wales. _From a Photograph by W. & D. Downey,
+Ebury Street, W._]
+
+"No possible favour can the Queen grant me, or honour bestow," said
+the manly writer of these words, "beyond what the poor can give the
+poor--her friendship." It is rarely that one sitting amid "the fierce
+light that beats upon the throne" has been able to enjoy the simple
+bliss of true, disinterested friendship with those of kindred soul
+but inferior station. Such rare fortune, however, has been the
+Queen's; and it is worthy of note that her special regard has been
+won by persons distinguished not less by loftiness and purity of
+character than by mental power or personal charm. She has not escaped
+the frequent penalty of strong affection, that of being bereaved of
+its objects. She has outlived earlier and later friends alike--Lady
+Augusta Stanley and her husband, the beloved Dean of Westminster; the
+good and beautiful Duchess of Sutherland; the two eminent Scotchmen,
+Principal Tulloch and Dr. Macleod himself; and the Archbishop of
+Canterbury, Dr. Tait, with his charming wife. To these might be
+added, among the more eminent objects of her regard, the late poet
+laureate, who shared with Macaulay the once unique privilege of
+having been raised to the peerage more for transcendent ability than
+for any other motive--a distinction that never would have been so
+bestowed by our early Hanoverian kings, and which offers a marked
+contrast to the sort of patronage with which later sovereigns have
+distinguished the great writers of their time. A new spirit rules
+now; of this no better evidence could be given than this recently
+published testimony to the relations between Queen and poet: "Mrs.
+Tennyson told us that the poet laureate likes and admires the Queen
+personally very much, and enjoys conversation with her. Mrs. Tennyson
+generally goes too, and says the Queen's manner towards him is
+childlike and charming, and they both give their opinions freely,
+even when those differ from the Queen's, which she takes with perfect
+good humour, and is very animated herself [Footnote]."
+
+[Footnote: "Anne Gilchrist: her Life and Writings." London: 1887.]
+
+[Illustration: Princess of Wales. _From a Photograph by Walery._]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+CHANGES GOOD AND EVIL.
+
+With the death of Lord Palmerston in 1865, a sort of truce in the
+strife of parties, which his supremacy had secured, came to an end.
+That supremacy had been imperilled for a moment when the Government
+declined to make an armed intervention in the struggle between
+Denmark and the German Powers in 1864. Such an intervention would
+have been very popular with the English people, who could hardly know
+that "all Germany would rise as one man" to repel it if it were
+risked. But the English Premier's rare command of his audience in
+Parliament enabled him to overcome even this difficulty; and the
+gigantic series of contests on the Continent which resulted in the
+consolidation of the German empire, the complete liberation of Italy,
+the overthrow of Imperialism in France and of the temporal power of
+the Pope even in Rome itself, went on its way without our
+interference also, which would hardly have been the case had we
+intermeddled in the ill-understood contention between Denmark and its
+adversaries as to the Schleswig-Holstein succession.
+
+[Illustration: Sir Robert Napier.]
+
+That strange crime, the murder of President Lincoln, in America just
+when the long contest between North and South had ended and the cause
+of true freedom had triumphed, was actually fruitful of good as
+regarded this country and the United States. A cry of horror went up
+from all England at the news of that "most accursed assassination,"
+which seemed at the moment to brand the losing cause, whose partisan
+was guilty of it, with the very mark of Cain. Expressions of sympathy
+with the outraged country and of admiring regret for its murdered
+head were lavished by every respectable organ of opinion; while the
+Queen, by writing in personal sympathy, as one widow to another, to
+the bereaved wife of Lincoln, made herself, as she has often done,
+the mouthpiece of her people's best feeling. Again and again has it
+been manifested that America and England are in more cordial
+relations with each other since the tremendous civil war than before
+it. It is no matter of statecraft, but a better understanding between
+two great English-speaking peoples, drawn into closer fellowship by
+far more easy communication than of old.
+
+A little war with Ashantee, not too successful, a difficulty with
+Japan, some more serious troubles with New Zealand, exhaust the list
+of the warlike enterprises of England in the last years of
+Palmerston. In a year or two after his death we were engaged in a
+brief and entirely successful campaign against the barbaric King
+Theodore of Abyssinia, "a compound of savage virtue and more than
+savage ambition and cruelty," who, imagining himself wronged and
+slighted by England, had seized a number of British subjects, held
+them in hard captivity, and treated them with such capricious cruelty
+as made it very manifest that their lives were not worth an hour's
+purchase. It fell to the Ministry of Mr. Disraeli, Premier on the
+resignation of his colleague Lord Derby, who had displaced Earl
+Russell in that office, to bring this strange potentate to reason by
+force of arms. Under Sir Robert Napier's management the work was done
+with remarkable precision; no English life was lost; and but few of
+our soldiers were wounded; Magdala, the mountain eyrie of King
+Theodore, was stormed and destroyed, and the captives, having been
+surrendered under dread of the British arms, were restored to freedom
+and safety. The honour of our land, imperilled by the oppression of
+our subjects was triumphantly vindicated; other good was not
+achieved. Theodore, unwilling to survive defeat, was found dead by
+his own hand when Magdala was carried, and he was afterwards
+succeeded on the Abyssinian throne by a chief who had more than all
+his predecessor's vices and none of his virtues. For this
+well-managed campaign Sir Robert Napier was raised to the peerage as
+Lord Napier of Magdala. The swift success, the brilliant promptitude,
+of his achievement are almost painful to recall to-day, in face of
+another enterprise for the rescue of a British subject, conducted by
+a commander not less able and resolute, at the head of troops as
+daring and as enthusiastic, which was turned into a conspicuous
+failure by unhappy delayings on the part of the civil authorities, in
+the fatal winter of 1884-5.
+
+[Illustration: Mr. Gladstone.]
+
+Turning our eyes from foreign matters to the internal affairs of the
+United Kingdom, we see two great leaders, Mr. Disraeli and Mr.
+Gladstone--whose "long Parliamentary duel" had begun early in the
+fifties of this century--outbidding each other by turns for the
+public favour, and each in his different way ministering to the
+popular craving for reform. With Mr. Disraeli's first appearance as
+leader of the house of Commons, this rivalry entered on its most
+noticeable stage; it only really ceased with the life of the
+brilliant, versatile, and daring _litterateur_ and statesman who died
+as Earl Beaconsfield, not very long after his last tenure of office
+expired in 1880. In 1867 Mr. Disraeli, as Leader of the Lower House,
+carried a measure for the reform of the franchise in England, and the
+year following similar measures with regard to Ireland and Scotland.
+In 1869 it was Mr. Gladstone's turn, and he introduced and carried
+two remarkable Bills--one for the disestablishment of the Irish
+Church, and one for the amendment of land tenure in Ireland, the
+latter passing into law in August, 1870. It had long been felt as a
+bitter grievance by the mass of Irishmen that the Church established
+in their country should be one which did not command the allegiance
+of one-sixth of its people and though opinion in England was sharply
+divided as to the question of Irish disestablishment, the majority of
+Englishmen undoubtedly considered the grievance to be something more
+than a sentimental one, and deserving of removal. Another startling
+measure of reform was the abolition of purchase in the army, carried
+in the face of a reluctant House of Lords by means of a sudden
+exercise of royal prerogative under advice of the Government; the
+Premier announcing "that as the system of purchase was the creation
+of royal regulation, he had advised the Queen to take the decisive
+step of cancelling the royal warrant which made purchase legal"--a
+step which, however singular, was undoubtedly legal, as was proved by
+abundant evidence.
+
+A measure which may not improbably prove to have affected the
+fortunes of this country more extensively than any of those already
+enumerated was the Education Bill introduced by Mr. Forster in 1870,
+and designed to secure public elementary education for even the
+humblest classes throughout England and Wales. Hitherto the teaching
+of the destitute poor had been largely left to private charity or
+piety, and in the crowded towns it had been much neglected, with the
+great exception of the work done in Ragged Schools--those gallant
+efforts made by unpaid Christian zeal to cope with the multitudinous
+ignorance and misery of our overgrown cities. It was very slowly that
+the national conscience was aroused to the peril and sin of allowing
+the masses to grow up in heathen ignorance; but at last the English
+State shook off its sluggish indifference to the instruction of its
+poor, and became as active as it had been supine. Mr. Forster's Bill
+is the measure which indicates this turning of the tide. We do not
+propose now to discuss the provisions of this Act, which were sharply
+canvassed at the time, and which certainly have not worked without
+friction; but we may say that the stimulus then given to educational
+activity, if judged by subsequent results, must be acknowledged to
+have been advantageous. The system of schools under the charge of
+various religious bodies, which existed before the Education Act, has
+not been superseded; that indeed would have been a deep misfortune,
+for it is more needed than ever; the masses of the population have
+been, to an appreciable extent, reached and instructed; and we shall
+not much err in connecting as cause and effect the wider instruction
+with the diminution of pauperism and crime which the statistics of
+recent years reveal.
+
+The same member who honoured himself and benefited his country by
+this great effort to promote the advance of the "angel Knowledge"
+also introduced, in 1871, the Ballot Bill, designed to do away with
+all the violence and corruption that had long disgraced Parliamentary
+elections in this free land, and that showed no symptom of a tendency
+to reform themselves. The new system of secret voting which was now
+adopted has required, it is true, to be further purified by the
+recent Corrupt Practices Bill and its stringent provisions; but no
+one, whose memory is long enough to recall the tumultuous and
+discreditable scenes attendant on elections under the old system,
+will be inclined to deny that much that was flagrantly disgraceful as
+well as dishonest has been swept away by the reforming energy of our
+own day.
+
+It is to the same period, made memorable by these internal reforms,
+that we have to refer the final settlement of the long-standing
+controversy between Great Britain and the United States as to the
+_Alabama_ claims. We have already referred to these claims and the
+peaceful though very costly manner of their adjustment. That the
+award on the whole should go against us was not very grateful to the
+English people; but when the natural irritation of the hour had time
+to subside, the substantial justice of the decision was little
+disputed. While England was thus busied in strengthening her walls
+and making straight her ways, her great neighbour and rival was
+passing through a very furnace of misery. The colossal-seeming
+Empire, whose head was rather of strangely mingled Corinthian metal
+than of fine gold, and whose iron feet were mixed with miry clay, was
+tottering to its overthrow, and fell in the wild days of 1870 with a
+world-awakening crash. Again it was a dispute concerning the throne
+of Spain which precipitated the fall of a French sovereign. It would
+seem as if interference with the affairs of its Southern neighbour
+was ever to be ominous of evil to France. The first great Napoleon
+had had to rue such interference; it had been disastrous to Louis
+Philippe; now Louis Napoleon, making the candidature of Leopold of
+Hohenzollern for the Spanish crown a pretext for war with Prussia,
+forced on the strife which was to dethrone himself, to cast down his
+dynasty, and to despoil France of two fair provinces, Alsace and
+Lorraine, once taken from Germany, now reconquered for United
+Germany. With that strife, which resulted in the exaltation of the
+Prussian King, our Princess Royal's father-in-law, as German Emperor,
+England had absolutely nothing to do, except to pity the fallen and
+help the suffering as far as in her lay; but it awakened profoundest
+interest, especially while the long siege of Paris dragged on through
+the hard winter of 1870-71; hardly yet is the interest of the subject
+exhausted.
+
+A certain fleeting effect was produced in England by the erection of
+a New Republic in France in place of the fallen Empire, while the
+family of the defeated ruler--rejected by his realm more for lack of
+success than for his bad government--escaped to the safety of this
+country from the angry hatred of their own. A few people here began
+to talk republicanism in public, and to commend the "logical
+superiority" of that mode of government, oblivious of the fact that
+practical Britain prefers a system, however illogical, that actually
+works well, to the most beautifully reasoned but untested paper
+theory. But the wild excesses of the Commune in Paris, outdoing in
+horror the sufferings of the siege, quickly produced the same effect
+here that was wrought in the last century by the French Reign of
+Terror, and English republicanism relapsed into the dormant state
+from which it had only just awakened. The dangerous illness that
+attacked the Prince of Wales in the last days of 1871, calling forth
+such keen anxiety throughout the land that it seemed as if thousands
+of families had a son lying in imminent peril of death, showed at
+once that the nation was yet loyal to the core. True prayers were
+everywhere offered up in sympathy with the mother, the sister, the
+wife, who watched at the bedside of the heir to the throne; and when,
+on the very anniversary of the Prince Consort's death, the life that
+had seemed ebbing away turned to flow upward again; a sort of sob of
+relief rose from the heart of the people, who rejoiced to be able, at
+a later day, to share with their Queen her solemn act of thanksgiving
+for mercy shown, as she went with her restored son, her son's wife,
+and her son's sons, to worship and give praise in the great cathedral
+of St. Paul's.
+
+Princess Alice, who had shared and softened the grief of her mother
+ten years before, had been again at her side during all the
+protracted anxiety of this winter, and had helped to nurse her
+brother. The Princess's experience of nursing had been terribly
+increased during the awful wars, when she had been incessantly busied
+in hospital organisation and work, suffering from the sight of
+suffering as a sensitive nature must, but ever toiling to lighten it;
+and she had come with her children to recover a little strength in
+her mother's Highland home. Thus it was that she was found at
+Sandringham when her brother's illness declared itself, "fulfilling
+the same priceless offices" of affection as in her maiden days, and
+endearing herself the more to the English people, who grieved for her
+when, in the ensuing year, a mournful accident robbed her of one
+darling child, and who felt it like a personal domestic loss when in
+1878 the beautiful life ended. Other royal marriages have from time
+to time awakened public interest, and one, celebrated between the
+Princess Louise and the Marquis of Lorne, heir of the dukedom of
+Argyll, had just preceded the illness of the Prince and was regarded
+with much more attention because no British subject since the days of
+George II's legislation as to royal alliances had been deemed worthy
+of such honour. But not even the more outwardly splendid match
+between the Queen's sailor son, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, and the
+daughter of the Czar Alexander, could eclipse in popularity the quiet
+marriage, overclouded with sorrow, and the tranquil, hard-working
+life of the good and gifted lady who was to die the martyr of her
+true motherly and wifely devotion.
+
+[Illustration: Lord Beaconsfield.]
+
+[Illustration: Lord Salisbury.]
+
+From these glimpses of the joys and troubles affecting the household
+that is cherished in the heart of England, we return to the more
+stormy records of our public doings. A sort of link between the two
+exists in the long and very successful tour which the Prince of
+Wales, some time after his restoration to health, made of the vast
+Indian dominions of the crown. Extensive travels and wide
+acquaintance with the great world to which Britain is bound by a
+thousand ties have entered largely into the royal scheme of education
+for the future King. No princes of England in former days have seen
+so much of other lands as the sons of Queen Victoria; and this
+particular journey is understood to have had an excellent political
+effect.
+
+Mr. Gladstone's five years' lease of power, which had been signalised
+by so many important changes, came to an end in 1874, just before the
+time when Sir Garnet Wolseley, sent to bring the savage King of
+Ashantee to reason, returned successful to England, having snatched a
+complete victory "out of the very jaws of approaching sun and fever"
+on the pestilent West Coast of Africa in the early days of 1874. The
+last Ministry of Mr. Disraeli, who now assumed office, was marked by
+several noticeable events: the proclamation of the Queen as "Empress
+of India," in formal definite recognition of the new relation between
+little England and the gigantic, many-peopled realm which through
+strange adventure has come directly under our Sovereign's sway; the
+Russo-Turkish war, following on the evil doings in Turkey known as
+the "Bulgarian atrocities," and terminating in a peace signed at
+Berlin, with which the English Premier, now known as Lord
+Beaconsfield, had very much to do; and the acquisition by England of
+the 176,000 shares in the Suez Canal originally held by the Khedive
+of Egypt--a transaction to which France, also largely interested in
+the Canal, was a consenting party. To this period belong the
+distressful Afghan and Zulu wars, the latter unhappily memorable by
+the tragic fate that befell the young son of Louis Napoleon, a
+volunteer serving with the English army. Deep sympathy was felt for
+his imperial mother, widowed since 1873, and now bereaved of her only
+child; and by none was her sorrow more keenly realised than by the
+Queen, who herself had to mourn the loss of the beloved Princess
+Alice, the first of her children to follow her father into the silent
+land. The death of the Prince Louis Napoleon at the hands of savage
+Zulus was severely felt by the still strong Bonapartism of France;
+but Englishmen, remembering the early melancholy death of the heir of
+the first Napoleon, were struck by the fatal coincidence, while they
+could honestly deplore the premature extinction of so much youth,
+gallantry, and hope-fulness, cast away in our own ill-starred
+quarrel.
+
+An agitation distinctly humanitarian and domestic had been going on
+during the early years of this Ministry, which resulted in the
+passing of the Merchant Shipping Bill, intended to remedy the many
+wrongs to which our merchant seamen were subject, a measure almost
+entirely procured by the fervent human sympathy and resoluteness of
+one member of Parliament, Samuel Plimsoll; and other measures
+belonging to this period, and designed to benefit the toilers of the
+land principally, were initiated by the energy of the Home Secretary,
+Mr. Cross. But neither the imposing foreign action of Lord
+Beaconsfield's Government, nor the domestic improvements wrought
+during its period of power, could maintain it in public favour. There
+was great and growing distress in the country; depression of trade,
+severe winters, sunless summers, all produced suffering, and
+suffering discontent. An appeal to the country, made in the spring of
+1880, shifted the Parliamentary majority from the Conservative to the
+Liberal side. Lord Beaconsfield resigned, and Mr. Gladstone returned
+to power.
+
+The history of the Gladstone Ministry does not come well within the
+scope of this work. Certain very memorable events must be touched
+upon; there are dark chapters of our national story, stains and blots
+on our great name, which force themselves upon us. But to follow the
+Government through its years of struggle with the ever-growing bulk
+of Irish difficulty, and to track it through its various enactments
+designed still further to improve the condition of the English
+people, would require a small volume to itself. England still
+remembers the thrill, half fury, half anguish, which ran through her
+at the tidings that the new Chief Secretary for Ireland, charged with
+a message of peace and conciliation, had been stabbed to death within
+twenty-four hours of his landing on that unhappy shore. She cannot
+forego the deep instinctive feeling--so generally manifested at the
+time of Lincoln's murder--that the lawless spilling of life for any
+cause dishonours and discredits that cause; nor have various
+subsequent efforts made to terrorise public opinion here been
+differently judged.
+
+But it was a far more cruel shock that was inflicted through the
+series of ill-advised proceedings that brought about the great
+disaster of Khartoum. Before we deal with these, we must glance at
+the African and Afghan troubles, again breaking out and again
+quieted, the first by a peace with the Boers of the Transvaal that
+awakened violent discussion not yet at an end, and the second, after
+some successes of the British arms, by a judicious arrangement
+designed to secure the neutrality of Afghanistan, interposed by
+nature as a strong, all but insurmountable, barrier between India and
+Central Asia. These transactions, the theme of sharp contention at
+the time, were cast into the shade by events in which we were
+concerned in Egypt, our newly acquired interests in the Suez Canal
+making that country far more important to us than of yore. Its
+condition was very wretched, its government at once feeble and
+oppressive, and, despite the joint influence which France and England
+had acquired in Egyptian councils, an armed rebellion broke out,
+under the leadership of Arabi Pasha. France declining to act in this
+emergency, the troops and fleet of England put down this revolt
+single-handed; and in their successes the Queen's third son, Arthur,
+Duke of Connaught, took his part, under the orders of Sir Garnet
+(afterwards Lord) Wolseley. There were again rejoicings in Balmoral,
+where the Queen, with her soldierly son's young wife beside her, was
+preparing to receive another bride--Princess Helen of Waldeck, just
+wedded to our youngest Prince, Leopold, Duke of Albany.
+
+But this gleam of brightness was destined to be followed by darker
+disaster far than that which seemed averted for the moment. A
+mightier rebellion was arising in the Soudan, a vast tract of country
+annexed by the ambition of Ismail, the former Khedive of Egypt, to be
+ill governed by his officials and ravaged by the slave-trade. These
+evils were checked for a few years by the strong hand of Charles
+George Gordon, already famous through his achievements in China, and
+invested with unlimited power by Ismail; but, that potentate being
+overthrown, the great Englishman left his thankless post, no longer
+tenable by him. Then it seemed that chaos had come again; and a bold
+and keen, though probably hypocritical, dervish, self-styled the
+_Mahdi_, or Mohammedan Messiah, was able to kindle new flames of
+revolt, which burned with the quenchless fury of Oriental fanaticism.
+His Arab and negro soldiers made short work of the poor Egyptian
+fellaheen sent to fight them, though these were under the command of
+Englishmen. The army led by Hicks Pasha utterly vanished in the
+deserts, as that of Cambyses did of old. The army under Baker Pasha
+did not, indeed, disappear in the same mysterious manner, but it too
+was routed with great slaughter.
+
+The English Government, willing to avoid the vast task of crushing
+the revolt, had counselled the abandonment of the Soudan, and the
+Khedive's Ministers reluctantly acquiesced. But there were Egyptian
+garrisons scattered throughout the Soudan which must not be abandoned
+with the country. Above all, there was Khartoum, an important town at
+the junction of the Blue and the White Nile, with a large European
+settlement and an Egyptian garrison, all in pressing danger, loyal as
+yet, but full of just apprehension. These troops, these officials,
+these women and children, who only occupied their perilous position
+through the action of the Khedive's Government, had a right to
+protection--a right acknowledged by Her Majesty's Ministers; but they
+wished to avoid hostilities. General Graham, left in command on the
+Red Sea littoral, was allowed to take action against the Mahdi's
+lieutenant who was threatening Suakim, and who was driven back with
+heavy loss; but he might not follow up the victory.
+
+[Illustration: General Gordon.]
+
+The English Government hoped to withdraw the garrisons in safety,
+without force of arms. They had been for some time urging on the
+Khedive that the marvellous influence which Gordon was known to have
+acquired in his old  province should now be utilised, and that to
+_him_ should be entrusted the herculean task of tranquillising the
+Soudan, by reinstating its ancient dynasties of tribal chiefs and
+withdrawing all Egyptian and European troops and officials. Their
+plan was at last accepted; then Gordon, hitherto unacquainted, like
+the public at large, with the Government designs, was informed of
+them and invited to carry them out. He consented; and, with the
+chivalric promptitude which essentially belonged to his character, he
+departed the same night on his perilous errand. Passing through
+Cairo, he received plenary powers from the Khedive, and went on
+almost alone to Khartoum, where he was received with an overflowing
+enthusiasm. But, with all his eager haste, he was too late to bring
+about the desired results by peaceful means. "He should have come a
+year ago," muttered his native well-wishers. Week after week and
+month after month, his position in Khartoum became more perilous;
+the Mahdi's power waxed greater, and his hordes drew round the city,
+which long defied them, while garrison after garrison fell into their
+hands elsewhere. It was in vain that General Gordon urged the
+despatch of British troops, a few hundred of whom would at one time
+have sufficed to turn the tide, and insure success in his enterprise.
+They were still withheld; and he would not secure his own safety by
+deserting the people whom his presence had induced to stand out
+against the impostor and his hosts. The city endured a long, cruel
+siege, and fell at last, reduced by hunger and treachery, just as a
+tardily despatched British force was making its way to relieve it--a
+force commanded by Lord Wolseley, who half a year before had been
+protesting against the "indelible disgrace" of leaving Gordon to his
+fate. He was not able even to bury his friend and comrade, slain by
+the fanatic enemy when they broke into the city in the early morning
+of January 26th, 1885.
+
+[Illustration: Duke of Albany. _From a Photograph by A. BASSANO, Bond
+Street, W._]
+
+"I have done my best for the honour of our country," were the parting
+words of the dead hero. His country felt itself profoundly
+dishonoured by the manner in which it had lost this its famous son--a
+man distinguished at once by commanding ability, unsullied honour,
+heroic valour; a man full of tenderest beneficence towards his
+fellows, and of utter devotion to his God; "the grandest figure,"
+said an American admirer, "that has crossed the disc of this planet
+for centuries." Him England had fatally delayed to help, withheld by
+the dread of costly and cruel warfare; and then just failed to save
+him by a war enormously costly and cruelly fatal indeed. A general
+lamentation, blent with cries of anger, rose up from the land. Her
+Majesty shared the common sorrow, as her messages of sympathy to the
+surviving relations of Gordon testified. Various charitable
+institutions, modelled on the lines which he had followed in his work
+among the poor, rose to keep his memory green; and thus the objects
+of his Christlike care during his life are now profiting by the
+world-famous manner of his death. But there is still a deep feeling
+that even time itself can hardly efface the stain that has been left
+on our national fame. An English expedition, well commanded, full of
+ardour and daring, sent to accomplish a specific object, and failing
+in that object; its commander, entirely guiltless of blame, having to
+abandon the scene of his triumphs to a savage, fanatic foe as was now
+the case--this was evil enough; but that our beloved countryman, a
+true knight without fear and without reproach, should have been
+betrayed to desertion and death through his own magnanimity and our
+sluggishness, added a rankling, poisonous sense of shame to our
+humiliation. That the same year saw further electoral privileges
+extended to the humble classes in England, beyond what even the last
+Reform Bill had conferred, which might prove of advantage afterwards,
+but was an imperfect consolation at the time. Another grief fell upon
+the Queen in this year in the early death of Leopold, Duke of Albany,
+a Prince whose intellectual gifts were nearly allied to those of his
+father, but on whom lifelong delicacy of health had enforced a life
+of comparative quietude. His widowed bride and infant children have
+ever since been cared for tenderly by his royal mother.
+
+[Illustration: Duchess of Albany. _From a Photograph by A. BASSANO,
+Bond Street, W._]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+OUR COLONIES.
+
+[Illustration: Sydney Heads.]
+
+If now we turn our eyes a while from the foreign and domestic
+concerns of Great Britain proper, and look to the Greater Britain
+beyond the seas, we shall find that its progress has nowise lagged
+behind that of the mother Isle. To Lord Durham, the remarkable man
+sent out in 1838 to deal with the rebellion in Lower Canada, we owe
+the inauguration of a totally new scheme of colonial policy, which
+has been crowned with success wherever it has been introduced. It has
+succeeded in the vast Canadian Dominion, now stretching from ocean to
+ocean, and embracing all British North America, with the single
+exception of the Isle of Newfoundland. In 1867 this Federation was
+first formed, uniting then only the two Canadas with New Brunswick
+and Nova Scotia, under a constitution framed on Lord Durham's plan,
+and providing for the management of common affairs by a central
+Parliament, while each province should have its own local
+legislature, and the executive be vested in the Crown, ruling through
+its Governor General. It had been made competent for the other
+provinces of British North America to join this Federation, if they
+should so will; and one after another has joined it, with the one
+exception mentioned above, which may or may not be permanent. The
+population of the Dominion has trebled, and its revenues have
+increased twenty-fold, since its constitution was thus settled.
+
+The same system, it may be hoped, will equally succeed in that
+wonderful Australasia where our colonists now have the shaping of
+their destinies in their own hands, amid the yet unexplored amplitude
+of a land where "in the softest and sweetest air, and in an
+unexhausted soil, the fable of Midas is reversed; food does not turn
+to gold, but the gold with which the land is teeming converts itself
+into farms and vineyards, into flocks and herds, into crops of wild
+luxuriance, into cities whose recent origin is concealed and
+compensated by trees and flowers."
+
+In such terms does a recent eye-witness describe the splendid
+prosperity attained within the last two or three decades by that
+Australia which our fathers thought of chiefly as a kind of far-off
+rubbish-heap where they could fling out the human garbage of England,
+to rot or redeem itself as it might, well out of the way of society's
+fastidious nostril, and which to our childhood was chiefly associated
+with the wild gold-fever and the wreck and ruin which that fever too
+often wrought. The transportation system, so far as Australia was
+concerned, came virtually to an end with the discovery of gold in the
+region to which we had been shipping off our criminals. The colonists
+had long been complaining of this system, which at first sight had
+much to recommend it, as offering a fair chance of reformation to the
+convict, and providing cheap labour for the land that received him.
+But it was found, as a high official said, that convict labour was
+far less valuable than the uncompelled work of honest freemen; and
+the contagious vices which the criminal classes brought with them
+made them little welcome. When to these drawbacks were added the
+difficulties and dangers with which the presence of the convict
+element in the population encumbered the new gold-mining industry,
+the question reached the burning stage. The system was modified in
+1853, and totally abolished in 1857. Transports whose sentence were
+unexpired lingered out their time in Tasmania, whence the aborigines
+have vanished under circumstances of cruelty assuredly not mitigated
+by the presence of convicts in the island; but Australia was
+henceforth free from the blight.
+
+The political life of these colonies may be said to have begun in the
+same year--1853--when the importation of criminals received its first
+check. New South Wales, the eldest of the Australian provinces,
+received a genuine constitution of its own; Victoria followed in
+1856--Victoria, which is not without its dreams of being one day "the
+chief State in a federated Australia," an Australia that may then
+rank as "a second United States of the Southern Hemisphere." Western
+Australia, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, and New Zealand,
+one after another, attained the same liberties; all have now
+representative governments, modelled on those of the mother country,
+but inevitably without the aristocratic element. Such an aristocracy
+as that of England is the natural growth of many centuries and of
+circumstances hardly likely to be duplicated--a fact which the Prince
+Consort once had occasion to lay very clearly before Louis Napoleon,
+anxious to surround himself with a similar nobility, if only he could
+manage it. But though the aristocratic element be lacking, the
+patriotic passion and the sentiment of loyalty are abundantly
+present; nor has the mother country any intellectual pre-eminence
+over her colonies, drawn immeasurably nearer to her in thought and
+feeling as communication has become rapid and easy.
+
+There is something almost magical at first sight in the
+transformation which the Australian colonies have undergone in a very
+limited space of time; yet it is but the natural result of the
+untrammelled energy of a race sovereignly fitted to "subdue the
+earth." It is curious to read how in 1810 the convict settlement at
+Botany Bay--name of terror to ignorant home criminals, shuddering at
+the long, dreadful voyage and the imagined horrors of a savage
+country--was almost entirely nourished on imported food, now that the
+vast flocks and herds of Australia and New Zealand contribute no
+inconsiderable proportion of the food supply of Britain.
+
+The record of New Zealand is somewhat less brilliant than that of its
+gigantic neighbour. This is due to somewhat less favourable
+circumstances, to a nobler and less manageable race of aborigines;
+the land perhaps more beautiful, is by the very character of its
+beauty less subduable. Its political life is at least as old as that
+of the old Australian colony, its constitution being granted about
+the same time; but this colony has needed, what Australia has not,
+the armed interference of the Home Government in its quarrels with
+the natives--a race once bold and warlike, able to hold their own
+awhile even against the English soldiers, gifted with eloquence, with
+a certain poetic imagination, and no inconsiderable intelligence. It
+seemed, too, at one moment as if these Maoris would become generally
+Christianised; but the kind of Christianity which they saw
+exemplified in certain colonists, hungry for land and little
+scrupulous as to the means by which they could gratify that hunger,
+largely undid the good effected through the agency of missionaries,
+the countrymen of these oppressors, whose evil deeds they were
+helpless to hinder. A superstition that was nothing Christian laid
+hold of many who had once been altogether persuaded to embrace the
+teachings of Jesus, and the relapsed Maoris doubtless were guilty of
+savage excesses; yet the original blame lay not chiefly with them;
+nor is it possible to regard without deep pity the spectacle
+presented at the present day of "the noblest of all the savage races
+with whom we have ever been brought in contact, overcome by a worse
+enemy than sword and bullet, and corrupted into sloth and
+ruin, ...ruined physically, demoralised in character, by drink."
+Nobler than other aborigines, who have faded out before the invasion
+of the white man, as they may be, their savage nobility has not saved
+them from the common fate; they too have "learned our vices faster
+than our virtues," aided by the speculative traders in alcoholic
+poison, who have followed on the track of the colonist, and who,
+devil's missionaries as they are, have counteracted too quickly the
+work of the Christian evangelists who preceded them.
+
+The extraordinary natural fertility of the country, whose volcanic
+nature was very recently terribly demonstrated, is yet very far from
+being utilised to the utmost, the population of the islands, not
+inferior in extent to Great Britain, being yet a long way below that
+of London. Probably this "desert treasure-house of agricultural
+wealth" may, under wise self-government, yet rise to a position of
+magnificent importance.
+
+Of all our colonies that in Southern Africa has the least reason to
+be proud of its recent history, which has not been rendered any
+fairer by the discovery of the great Diamond Fields, and the rush of
+all sorts and conditions of men to profit thereby. Into the entangled
+history of our doings in relation to Cape Colony--originally a Dutch
+settlement--and all our varied and often disastrous dealings with the
+Dutch-descended Boers and the native tribes in its neighbourhood, we
+cannot well enter. Our missionary action has the glory of great
+achievement in Southern Africa; of our political action it is best to
+say little.
+
+A more encouraging scene is presented if we turn to the Fijian Isles,
+whose natives, once a proverb of cannibal ferocity, have been
+humanised and Christianised by untiring missionary effort, and by
+their own free-will have passed under British domination and are
+ruled by a British governor. The extraordinary change worked in the
+people of these isles, characterised now, as even in their heathen
+days, by a certain bold manliness, that hitherto has escaped the
+usual deterioration, is so great and unmistakable that critics
+predisposed to unfriendliness do not try to deny it.
+
+In consequence of the immensely increased facilities of communication
+that we now enjoy, our own great food-producing dependencies and the
+vast corn-growing districts of other lands can pour their stores into
+our market--a process much aided by the successive removal of so many
+restrictions on commerce, and by the practical science which has
+overcome so many difficulties connected with the transport of slain
+meat and other perishable commodities. England seems not unlikely to
+become a wonderfully cheap country to live in, unless some new turn
+of events interferes with the processes which during the last two
+decades have so increased the purchasing power of money that, as is
+confidently stated, fifteen shillings will now buy what it needed
+twenty shillings to purchase twenty years ago. To this result, as a
+matter of course, the enormous development of our manufacturing and
+other industries has also contributed.
+
+There is another side to the medal, and not so fair a one. The
+necessaries of life are cheaper; wages are actually higher, when the
+greater value of money is taken into account; more care is taken as
+to the housing of the poor; the workers of the nation have more
+leisure, and spend not a little of it in travelling, being now by far
+the most numerous patrons of the railway; the altered style of the
+conveyances provided for them is a sufficient testimony to their
+higher importance. All this is to the good; so, too, is the
+diminution in losses by bankruptcy and in general pauperism, the
+increasing thrift shown by the records of savings banks, the
+lengthening of life, the falling off in crime, which is actually--not
+proportionally--rarer than ten years ago, to go no further back.
+
+Against this we have to set the facts that the terrible malady of
+insanity is distinctly on the increase--whether due to mere physical
+causes, to the high pressure at which modern society lives, or to the
+prevalent scepticisms which leave many wretched men so little
+tranquillising hope or faith, who shall say?--that all trades and
+professions are more or less overcrowded; and that there is a
+terrible amount, not of pauperism, but of hard-struggling poverty,
+massed up in the crowded, wretched, but high-priced tenements of
+great towns, and maintaining a forlorn life by such incessant, cruel
+labour as is not exacted from convicted criminals in any English
+prison. London, where this kind of misery is inevitably at its
+height, receives every week an accession of a thousand persons, who
+doubtless, in a great majority of cases, simply help to glut the
+already crowded labour market and still further lower the wages of
+the workers; and the other great towns in like manner grow, while the
+rural population remains stagnant or lessens. Agricultural distress,
+which helps to keep the tide of emigration high, also accounts in
+part for this singular, undesirable displacement of population; while
+recent testimony points to the fact that the terribly unsanitary and
+inefficient housing of the rural poor does much to drive the best and
+most laborious members of that class away from the villages and
+fields which might otherwise be the homes of happy and peaceful
+industry. For this form of evil, in town and country, private
+greed--frequently shown by small proprietors, who have never learnt
+that property has duties as well as rights--is very largely
+responsible; for how many other of the evils we have to deplore is
+not the greed of gain responsible?
+
+The sins of the age are still much the same sins that the Laureate
+roughly arraigned when the Crimean war broke our long peace;
+denouncing the race for riches which turned men into "pickpockets,
+each hand lusting for all that is not its own;" denouncing the cruel
+selfishness of rich and poor as the vilest kind of civil war, being
+"underhand, not openly bearing the sword." We had made the blessings
+of peace a curse, he told us, in those days, "when only the ledger
+lived, and when only not all men lied; when the poor were hovelled
+and hustled together, each sex, like swine; when chalk and alum and
+plaster were sold to the poor for bread, and the spirit of murder
+worked in the very means of life." Yet those very days saw the
+uprising of a whole generation of noble servants of humanity,
+resolute to tight and overcome the rampant evils that surrounded
+them. And though we would avoid the error of praising our own epoch
+as though it alone were humane, as though we only, "the latest seed
+of Time, have loved the people well," and shown our love by deeds;
+though we would not deny that to-day has its crying abuses as well as
+yesterday; yet it is hardly possible to survey the broad course of
+our history during the past sixty years, and not to perceive, amid
+all the cross-currents--false ambitions, false pretences,
+mammon-worship, pitiless selfishness, sins of individuals, sins of
+society, sins of the nation--an ever-widening and mastering stream of
+beneficent energy, which has already wonderfully changed for the
+better many of the conditions of existence, and which, since its flow
+shows no signs of abating, we may hope to see spreading more widely,
+and bearing down in its great flood the wrecks of many another
+oppression and iniquity.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL PROGRESS.
+
+[Illustration: Robert Southey.]
+
+"Man doth not live by bread alone." The enormous material progress of
+this country during the last sixty years--imperfectly indicated by
+the fact that during the last forty years the taxable income of the
+United Kingdom has been considerably more than doubled--would be but
+a barren theme of rejoicing, if there were signs among us of
+intellectual or spiritual degeneracy. The great periods of English
+history have been always fruitful in great thinkers and great
+writers, in religious and mental activity. Endeavouring to judge our
+own period by this standard, and making a swift survey of its
+achievements in literature, we do not find it apparently inferior to
+the splendours of "great Elizabeth" or of the Augustan age of Anne.
+Our fifth Queen-regnant, whose reign, longer than that of any of her
+four predecessors, is also happier than that of the greatest among
+them, can reckon among her subjects an even larger number of men
+eminent in all departments of knowledge, though perhaps we cannot
+boast one name quite equal to Newton in science, and though assuredly
+neither this nor any modern nation has yet a second imaginative
+writer whose throne may be set beside that of Shakespeare.
+
+[Illustration: William Wordsworth.]
+
+[Illustration: Alfred Tennyson. _From a Photograph by Elliott & Fry_]
+
+We excel in quantity, indeed; for while, owing to the spread of
+education, the number of readers has been greatly increased, the
+number of writers has risen proportionately; the activity of the
+press has increased tenfold. Journalism has become a far more
+formidable power in the land than in the earlier years when, as our
+domestic annals plainly indicate, the _Times_ ruled as the Napoleon
+of newspapers. This result is largely due to the removal of the
+duties formerly imposed both on the journals themselves and on their
+essential paper material; and it would indeed "dizzy the arithmetic
+of memory" should we try to enumerate the varied periodicals that are
+far younger than Her Majesty's happy reign. Of these a great number
+are excellent in both intention and execution, and must be numbered
+among the educating, civilising, Christianising agencies of the day.
+They are something more and higher than the "savoury literary
+_entremets_" designed to please the fastidious taste of a cultured
+and leisured class, which was the just description of our periodical
+literature at large not so very long ago. The number of our
+imaginative writers--poets and romancers, but especially the
+latter--has been out of all proportion great. We give the place of
+honour, as is their due, to the singers rather than to the
+story-tellers, the more readily since the popular taste, it cannot be
+denied, chooses its favourites in inverse order as a rule.
+
+[Illustration: Robert Browning. _From a Photograph by Elliott &
+Fry_.]
+
+When Her Majesty ascended the throne, one brilliant poetical
+constellation was setting slowly, star by star. Keats and Shelley and
+Byron, none of them much older than the century, had perished in
+their early prime between 1820 and 1824; Scott had sunk under the
+storms of fortune in 1832; the fitful glimmer of Coleridge's genius
+vanished in 1834, and a year later "the gentle Elia" too was gone.
+Southey, who still held the laureate-ship in 1837, had faded out of
+life in 1843, and was succeeded in his once-despised office by
+William Wordsworth, who, with Rogers and Leigh Hunt and Moore, lived
+far into the new reign, uniting the Georgian and the Victorian school
+of writers. Thomas Hood, the poet of the poor and oppressed, whose
+too short life ended in 1845, gives in his serious verse such
+thrilling expression to the impassioned, indignant philanthropy,
+which has actuated many workers and writers of our own period, that
+it is not easy to reckon him with the older group. His song rings
+like that of Charles Kingsley, poet, novelist, preacher, and
+"Christian socialist," who did not publish his "Saint's Tragedy" till
+three years after Hood was dead.
+
+There has, indeed, been no break in the continuity of our great
+literary history; while one splendid group was setting, another as
+illustrious was rising. Tennyson, who on Wordsworth's death in 1850
+received at Queen Victoria's hand the "laurel greener from the brows
+of him that uttered nothing base," had published his earliest two
+volumes of poems some years before Her Majesty's accession; and of
+that rare poetic pair, the Brownings, each had already given evidence
+of the great powers they possessed, Robert Browning's tragedy of
+"Strafford" being produced on the stage in 1837, while his future
+wife's translation of the "Prometheus Bound" saw the light four years
+earlier. The Victorian period can boast no greater poetic names than
+these, each of which is held in highest reverence by its own special
+admirers. The patriotic fervour with which Lord Tennyson has done
+almost all his laureate work, the lucid splendour of his style, the
+perfect music of his rhythm, and the stinging sharpness with which he
+has sometimes chastised contemporary sins, have all combined to win
+for him a far wider popularity than even that accorded to the fine
+lyrical passion of Mrs. Browning, or to the deep-thoughted and
+splendid, but often perplexing and ruggedly phrased, dramatic and
+lyric utterances of her husband. All three have honoured themselves
+and their country by a majestic purity of moral and religious
+teaching--an excellence shared by many of their contemporaries, whose
+powers would have won them a first place in an age and country less
+fruitful of genius; but not so conspicuous in some younger poets,
+later heirs of fame, whose lot it may be to carry on the traditions
+of Victorian greatness into another reign.
+
+There are not a few writers of our day whose excellent prose work has
+won more of popular favour than their verse, which notwithstanding is
+of high quality. Such was the "unsubduable old Roman," Walter Savage
+Landor, a contemporary of Byron and Wordsworth, who long outlived
+them, dying in 1864. Such--to bring two extremes together--are the
+critic and poet Matthew Arnold, the poet and theologian John Henry
+Newman. Intimately associated in our thought with the latter, who has
+enriched our devotional poetry with one touching hymn, is Keble, the
+singer _par excellence_ of the "Catholic revival," and the most
+widely successful religious poet of the age, though only very few of
+his hymns have reached the heart of the people like the far more
+direct and fervent work of the Wesleys and their compeers. He is even
+excelled in simplicity and passion, though not in grace and
+tenderness, by two or three other workers in the same field, who
+belong to our day, and whose verse is known more widely than their
+names.
+
+We have several women-poets who are only less beloved and less well
+known than Mrs. Browning; but so far the greatest literary
+distinction gained by the women of our age and country,
+notwithstanding the far wider and higher educational advantages
+enjoyed by them to-day, has been won, as of yore, in the field of
+prose fiction. More than a hundred years ago a veteran novelist,
+whose humour and observation, something redeeming his coarseness,
+have ranked him among classic English authors, referred mischievously
+to the engrossing of "that branch of business" by female writers,
+whose "ease, and spirit, and delicacy, and knowledge of the human
+heart," have not, however, availed to redeem their names from
+oblivion. For some of their nineteenth-century   successors at least
+we may expect a more enduring memory.
+
+Numerous as are our poets, they are far outnumbered by the novelists,
+whose works are poured forth every season with bewildering profusion;
+but as story-tellers have always commanded a larger audience than
+grave philosophers or historians, and as our singers deal as much in
+philosophy as in narrative, perhaps in seeking for the cause of this
+overrunning flood of fiction we need go no further than the immensely
+increased number of readers--a view in which the records of some
+English public libraries will bear us out. We may therefore be
+thankful that, on the whole, such literature has been of a vastly
+purer and healthier character than of yore, reflecting that higher
+and better tone of public feeling which we may attribute, in part at
+least, to the influence of the "pure court and serene life" of the
+Sovereign.
+
+[Illustration: Charles Dickens. _From a Photograph by Elliott &
+Fry_.]
+
+[Illustration: W.M. Thackeray. _From a Drawing by Samuel Lawrence_.]
+
+This nobler tone is not least perceptible in the eldest of the great
+masters of fiction whom we can claim for our period--Dickens, who in
+1837 first won by his "Pickwick Papers" that astonishing popularity
+which continued widening until his death; Thackeray, who in that year
+was working more obscurely, having not yet found a congenial field in
+the humorous chronicle that reflects for us so much of the Victorian
+age, for _Punch_ was not started till 1841, and Thackeray's first
+great masterpiece of pathos and satire, "Vanity Fair," did not begin
+to appear till five years later. Each of these writers in his own way
+held "the mirror up" to English human nature, and showed "the very
+age and body of the time his form and pressure," with manly boldness
+indeed, but with due artistic reticence also; each knew how to be
+vivid without being vicious, to be realistic without being revolting;
+and despite the sometimes offensive caricature in which the one
+indulged, despite the seeming cynicism of the other their influence
+must be pronounced healthy. Thackeray did not, like Dickens, use his
+pen against particular glaring abuses of the time, nor insist on the
+special virtues that bloom amid the poor and lowly; but he attacked
+valiantly the crying sins of society in all time--the mammon-worship
+and the mercilessness, the false pretences and the fraud--and never
+failed to uphold for admiration and imitation "whatsoever things are
+true, whatsoever things are honourable, whatsoever things are just,
+whatsoever thing are pure, whatsoever things are lovely." And though
+both writers were sometimes hard on the professors of religion,
+neither failed in reverence of tone when religion itself was
+concerned.
+
+[Illustration: Charlotte Brontė.]
+
+The sudden death of both these men, in the very prime of life and in
+the fulness of power, was keenly felt at the time: each had a
+world-wide fame, and each awakened a blank, distressful sense of
+personal loss in his many admirers as he was suddenly called away
+from incomplete work and faithful friendship. Contemporary literature
+has not benefited by the removal of these two men and the gradual
+diminishing of the influence they so strongly exerted while yet they
+"stood up and spoke." The work of Charlotte Brontė--produced under a
+fervent admiration for "the satirist of Vanity Fair," whom she deemed
+"the first social regenerator of his day"--is, with all its
+occasional morbidness of sensitive feeling, far more bracing in moral
+tone, more inspiring in its scorn of baseness and glorifying of
+goodness, than is the work of recent Positivist emulators of the
+achievements of George  Eliot. Some romances of this school are vivid
+and highly finished pictures of human misery, unredeemed by hope, and
+hardly brightened by occasional gleams of humour, of the sardonic
+sort which may stir a mirthless smile, but never a laugh. Herein they
+are far inferior to their model, whose melancholy philosophy is half
+hidden from her readers by the delightful freshness and truth of her
+"Dutch painter's" portraying of every-day humanity, by her delicately
+skilful reproduction of its homely wit and harmless absurdity.
+Happily neither these writers, nor the purveyors of mere sensation
+who cannot get on without crime and mystery, exhaust the list of our
+romancers, many of whom are altogether healthful, cheerful, and
+helpful; and it is no unreasonable hope that these may increase and
+their gloomier rivals decrease, or at least grow gayer and wiser.
+
+[Illustration: Lord Macauley.]
+
+There are many other great writers, working in other fields, whom we
+may claim as belonging altogether or almost to the Victorian age.
+Within that period lies almost entirely the brilliantly successful
+career of Macaulay, essayist, poet, orator, and historian. For the
+last-named _rōle_ Macaulay seemed sovereignly fitted by his
+extraordinary faculty for assimilating and retaining historical
+knowledge, and by the vividness of imagination and mastery of words
+which enabled him to present his facts in such attractive guise as
+made them fascinating far beyond romance. His "History of England
+from the Accession of James II," whereof the first volumes appeared
+in 1849, remains a colossal fragment; the fulness of detail with
+which he adorned it, the grand scale on which he worked, rendered its
+completion a task almost impossible for the longest lifetime; and
+Macaulay died in his sixtieth year. Despite the defects of
+partisanship and exaggeration freely and not quite unjustly charged
+upon his great work, it remains a yet unequalled record of the period
+dealt with, just as his stirring ballads, so seemingly easy of
+imitation in their ringing, rolling numbers, hold their own against
+very able rivals and are yet unequalled in our time.
+
+[Illustration: Thomas Carlyle.]
+
+Macaulay was not the first, and he is not the last, of our
+picturesque historians. It was in 1837 that Carlyle, who four years
+before had startled the English-reading public by his strangely
+worded, bewildering "Sartor Resartus," brought out his astonishing
+"History of the French Revolution"--a prose poem, an epic without a
+hero, revealing as by "flashes of lightning" the ghastly tragedy and
+comedy of that tremendous upheaval; and in 1845 he followed up the
+vein thus opened by his lifelike study of "Oliver Cromwell," which
+was better received by his English readers than the later "History of
+Friedrich II," marvel of careful research and graphic reproduction
+though it be. To Carlyle therefore and to Macaulay belongs the honour
+of having given a new and powerful impulse to the study they adorned;
+dissimilar in other respects, they are alike in their preference for
+and insistent use of original sources of information, in their able
+employment of minute detail, and in the graphic touch and artistic
+power which made history very differently attractive in their hands
+from what it had ever been previously. Mr. Froude and Mr. Green may
+be ranked as their followers in this latter respect; hardly so Mr.
+Freeman or the philosophic Buckle, Grote, and Lecky, who by their
+style and method belong more to the school of Hallam, however widely
+they may differ from him or from each other in opinion. But in
+thoroughness of research and in resolute following of the very truth
+through all mazes and veils that may obscure it, one group of
+historians does not yield to the other.
+
+[Illustration: William Whewell, D.D.]
+
+[Illustration: Sir David Brewster.]
+
+And the same zealous passion for accuracy that has distinguished
+these and less famous historians and biographers has shown itself in
+other fields of intellectual endeavour. Our Queen in her desire "to
+get at the root and reality of things" is entirely in harmony with
+the spirit of her age. In scientific men we look for the ardent
+pursuit of difficult truth; and it would be thankless to forget how
+numerous beyond precedent have been in the Victorian period faithful
+workers in the field of science. Though some of our _savants_ in
+later years have injured their renown by straying outside the sphere
+in which they are honoured and useful and speaking unadvisedly on
+matters theological, this ought not to deter us from acknowledging
+the value of true service rendered. The Queen's reign can claim as
+its own such men as John Herschel, worthy son of an illustrious
+father, Airy, Adams, and Maxwell, Whewell and Brewster and Faraday,
+Owen and Buckland and Lyell, Murchison and Miller, Darwin and Tyndall
+and Huxley, with Wheatstone, one of the three independent inventors
+of telegraphy, and the Stephensons, father and son, to whose ability
+and energy we are indebted for the origination and perfection of our
+method of steam locomotion; it can boast such masters in philosophy
+as Hamilton and Whately and John Stuart Mill, each a leader of many.
+It has also the rare distinction of possessing one lady writer on
+science who has attained to real eminence--eminence not likely soon
+to be surpassed by her younger sister-rivals--the late Mrs. Mary
+Somerville, who united an entirely feminine and gentle character to
+masculine powers of mind.
+
+[Illustration: Sir James Simpson.]
+
+[Illustration: Michael Faraday.]
+
+Only to catalogue the recent discoveries and inventions we owe to men
+of science, from merciful anęsthetics to the latest applications of
+electric power, would occupy more space than we ought here to give.
+All honour to these servants of humanity! We rejoice to find among
+them many who could unite the simplest childlike faith with a wide
+and grand mental outlook; we exult not less to find in many Biblical
+students and commentators the same patience, thoroughness, and
+resolute pursuit of the very truth as that exemplified by the
+devotees of physical science. God's Word is explored in our day--the
+same clay which has seen the great work of the Revised Version of the
+Scriptures begun and completed--with no less ardour than God's world.
+And what vast additions have been made to our knowledge of this
+earth! We have seen Nineveh unburied, the North-West Passage
+explored, and the mysterious Nile stream at last tracked to its
+source. To compare a fifty-years-old map of Africa with one of the
+present day will a little enable us to estimate the advances made in
+our acquaintance with the Dark Continent alone; similar maps
+including the Polar regions of North America will testify also to a
+large increase of hard-won knowledge.
+
+[Illustration: David Livingstone.]
+
+[Illustration: Sir John Franklin.]
+
+Exploration--Arctic, African, Oriental and Occidental--has had its
+heroic devotees, sometimes its martyrs. Witness Franklin, Burke and
+Wills, and Livingstone. The long uncertainty overhanging the fate of
+the gallant Franklin, after he and the expedition he commanded had
+vanished into the darkness of Arctic winter in 1845, and the
+unfaltering faithfulness with which his widow clung to the search for
+her lost husband, form one of the most pathetic chapters of English
+story. The veil was lifted at last and the secret of the North-West
+Passage, to which so many lives had been sacrificed, was brought to
+light in the course of the many efforts made to find the dead
+discoverer. As Franklin had disappeared in the North, so Livingstone
+was long lost to sight in the wilds of Africa, and hardly less
+feverish interest centred round the point, so long disputed, of his
+being in life or in death--interest freshly awakened when the remains
+of the heroic explorer, who had been found only to be lost again,
+were brought home to be laid among the mighty dead of England. The
+fervent Christian philanthropy of Livingstone endeared him yet more
+to the national heart; and we may here note that very often, as in
+his case, the missionary has served not only Christianity, as was his
+first and last aim, but also geographical and ethnological science
+and colonial and commercial development. We have briefly referred
+already to some of the struggles, the sufferings, and the triumphs of
+missionary enterprise in our day: to chronicle all its effort and
+achievement would be difficult, for these have been world-wide, and
+often wonderfully successful. Nor has much less success crowned other
+agencies for meeting the ever-increasing need for religious
+knowledge, which multiply and grow in number and in power. Witness,
+among many that might be named, the continuous development of the
+Sunday School system and the immensely extended operations of the
+unsectarian Bible Society.
+
+[Illustration: John Ruskin. _From a Photograph by Elliott & Fry_.]
+
+Great advances have been made during this reign in English art and
+art-criticism, and more particularly in the extension of real
+artistic education to classes of the community who could hardly
+attain it before, though it was perhaps more essential to them than
+to the wealthy and leisurely who had previously monopolised it. The
+multiplication of Schools of Design over the country, intended to
+promote the tasteful efficiency of those engaged in textile
+manufactures and in our decorative and constructive art generally, is
+one remarkable feature of the time, and the sedulous cultivation of
+music by members of all classes of society is another, hardly less
+hopeful. In all these efforts for the benefit and elevation of the
+community the Prince Consort took deep and active interest, and the
+royal family themselves, from Her Majesty downwards, highly cultured
+and accomplished, have not failed to act in the same spirit. But the
+history of English nineteenth-century art would be incomplete indeed
+without reference to two powerful influences--the rise and progress
+of the new art of photography, which has singularly affected other
+branches of graphic work; and the career, hitherto unexampled in our
+land, of the greatest art-critic of this, perhaps of any, age--John
+Ruskin, the most eminent also of the many writers and thinkers who
+have been swayed by the magic spell of Carlyle, whose fierce and
+fervid genius, for good or for evil, told so strongly on his
+contemporaries. Ruskin is yet more deeply imbued with his master's
+philosophy than those other gifted and widely influential teachers,
+Maurice and Kingsley; and yet perhaps he is more strongly and
+sturdily independent in his individuality than either, while the
+unmatched English of his prose style differs not less widely from the
+rugged strength of Carlyle than from the mystical involution of
+Maurice and the vehement and, as it were, breathless, yet vivid and
+poetic, utterance of Kingsley. When every defect has been admitted
+that is chargeable against one or all of this group of sincere and
+stalwart workers, it must be allowed that their power on their
+countrymen has been largely wielded for good. Particularly is this
+the case with Ruskin, whose influence has reached and ennobled many a
+life that, from pressure of sordid circumstances, was in great need
+of such help as his spirituality of tone, and deeply felt reverential
+belief in the Giver of all good and Maker of all beauty, could
+afford.
+
+[Illustration: Dean Stanley.]
+
+[Illustration: "I was sick, and ye visited me."]
+
+We have preferred not to dwell on one department of literature which,
+like every other, has received great additions during our
+period--that of religious controversy. A large portion of such
+literature is in its very nature ephemeral; and some of the disputes
+which have engaged the energies even of our greatest masters in
+dialectics have not been in themselves of supreme importance; but
+many points of doctrine and discipline have been violently canvassed
+among professing Christians, and attacks of long-sustained vigour and
+virulence have been made on almost every leading article of the
+Christian creed by the avowed enemies or the only half-hostile
+critics of the Church, which the champions of Scripture truth have
+not been backward to repel. Amid all this confusion and strife of
+assault and resistance one thing stands out clearly: Christianity and
+its progress are more interesting to the national mind than ever
+before. It has been well, too, that through all those fifty years a
+large-minded and fervent but most unobtrusive and practical piety has
+been enthroned in the highest places of the land--a piety which will
+escape the condemnation of the King when He shall come in His glory,
+and say to many false followers, "I was an hungred, and ye gave Me no
+meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink; I was a stranger, and
+ye took Me not in; naked, and ye clothed Me not; sick, and in prison,
+and ye visited Me not."
+
+These dread words are not for those who have cared as our Sovereign
+Lady and her beloved ones have cared for the sick and the suffering
+and the sad; who have bound up the heart-wounds of the widow and the
+orphan and ministered to their earthly needs; who, like our lost
+Princess Alice and her royal elder sister, have tended the victims of
+war, shrinking from no ghastliness or repulsiveness, no horrors of
+the hospital where victor and vanquished lay moaning in common
+misery; or, like their queenly mother, have shed the sunshine of
+royal smiles and soothing words and helpful alms upon the obscurer
+but hardly less pitiable patients who crowd our English infirmaries.
+In her northern and southern "homes" of Osborne and Balmoral the
+Queen, too, has been able to share a true, unsophisticated friendship
+with her humble neighbours, to rejoice in their joys and lighten
+their griefs with gentle, most efficient sympathy. It was of a
+Highland cottage that Dr. Guthrie wrote that "within its walls the
+Queen had stood, with her kind hands smoothing the thorns of a dying
+man's pillow. There, left alone with him at her own request, she had
+sat by the bed of death--a Queen ministering to the comfort of a
+saint." It was in a cottage at Osborne that the same gentle and
+august almsgiver was found reading comfortable Scripture words to a
+sick and aged peasant, quietly retiring upon the entrance of the
+clerical visitant, that _his_ message of peace might be freely given,
+and thus allowing the sufferer to disclose to the pastor that the
+lady in the widow's weeds was Victoria of England. These are
+examples, which it would be easy to multiply, of that true oneness of
+feeling between the lofty and the lowly which is the special, the
+unique glory of Christ's kingdom. May our land never lack them; may
+they multiply themselves to all time.
+
+The best evidence of the truth of the Gospel is admittedly its
+unequalled power of lifting up humanity to higher and yet higher
+levels. In many and mighty instances of that power our age is not
+barren. And in despite of the foes without and within that have
+wrought her woe--of the Pharisaism that is a mask for fraud, of the
+mammon-worship cloaked as respectability, of scepticism lightly
+mocking, of the bolder enmity of the blasphemer--we cannot
+contemplate the story of Christianity throughout our epoch, even in
+these islands and this empire, without seeing that the advance of the
+Faith is real and constant, the advance of the rising tide, and that
+her seeming defeats are but the deceptive reflux of the ever-mounting
+waves.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+PROGRESS OF THE EMPIRE FROM 1887 TO 1897.
+
+[Illustration: Duke of Connaught.]
+
+Resuming our pen after an interval of ten years, we have thought it
+well, not only to carry on our story of the Sovereign and her realm
+to the latest attainable point, but also to give some account of the
+advance made and the work accomplished by the Methodist Church,
+which, youngest of the greater Nonconformist denominations, has acted
+more powerfully than any other among them on the religious and social
+life, not only of the United Kingdom and the Empire, but of the
+world. This account, very brief, but giving details little known to
+outsiders, will form a valuable pendant to the sketch of the general
+history of Victoria's England that we are now about to continue.
+
+[Illustration: The Imperial Institute.]
+
+Many thousands who rejoiced in the Queen's Jubilee of 1887 are glad
+to-day that the close of the decade should find the beloved Lady of
+these isles, true woman and true Queen, still living and reigning.
+
+On September 23, 1896, Queen Victoria had reigned longer than any
+other English monarch, and the desire was general for some immediate
+celebration of the event; but, by the Queen's express wish, all
+recognition of the fact was deferred until the sixtieth year should
+be fully completed, and the nation prepared to celebrate the "Diamond
+Jubilee" on June 22, 1897, with a fervour of loyalty that should far
+outshine that of the Jubilee year of 1887.
+
+In the personal history of our Queen during those ten years we may
+note with reverent sympathy some events that must shadow the festival
+for her. The calm and kindly course of her home-life has again been
+broken in upon by bereavement. All seemed fair in the Jubilee year
+itself, and the Queen was appearing more in public than had been her
+wont--laying the foundations of the Imperial Institute; unveiling in
+Windsor Park a statue of the Prince Consort, Jubilee gift of the
+women of England; taking part in a magnificent naval review at
+Spithead. But a shadow was already visible to some; and early in 1888
+sinister rumours were afloat as to the health of the Crown Prince of
+Germany, consort of the Queen's eldest daughter. Too soon those
+rumours proved true. Even when the prince rode in the splendid
+Jubilee procession, a commanding figure in his dazzling white
+uniform, the cruel malady had fastened on him that was to slay him in
+less than a year, proving fatal three months after the death of his
+aged father had called him to fill the imperial throne. The nation
+followed the course of this tragedy with a feverish interest never
+before excited by the lot of any foreign potentate, and deeply
+sympathised with, the distress of the Queen and of the bereaved
+empress.
+
+[Illustration: Duke of Clarence. _From a Photograph by Lafayette,
+Dublin_.]
+
+But the year 1892 held in store a blow yet more cruelly felt. The
+English people were still rejoicing with the Queen over the betrothal
+of the Duke of Clarence, eldest son of the Prince of Wales, to his
+kinswoman Princess May of Teck, when the death of the bridegroom
+elect in January plunged court and people into mourning. That the
+Queen was greatly touched by the universal sympathy with her and hers
+was proved by the pathetic letter she wrote to the nation, and by the
+frank reliance on their affection which marked the second letter in
+which, eighteen months later, she asked them to share her joy in the
+wedding of the Duke of York, now heir-presumptive, to the bride-elect
+of his late brother. This union has been highly popular, and the
+Queen's evident delight in the birth of the little Prince Edward of
+York in June, 1894, touched the hearts of her subjects, who
+remembered the deep sorrow of 1892.
+
+[Illustration: Duke of York. _From a Photograph by Russell & Sons,
+Baker Street, W_.]
+
+[Illustration: Duchess of York. _From a Photograph by Russell & Sons,
+Baker Street, W_.]
+
+Once more they were called to grieve with her, when the husband of
+her youngest daughter Beatrice, Prince Henry of Battenberg, who for
+years had formed part of her immediate circle, died far from home and
+England, having fallen a victim to fever ere he could distinguish
+himself, as he had hoped, in our last expedition to Ashanti. The
+pathos of such a death was deeply felt when the prince's remains were
+brought home and laid to rest, in the presence of his widow and her
+royal mother, in the very church at Whippingham that he had entered
+an ardent bridegroom. Not all gloom, however, has been Her Majesty's
+domestic life in these recent years; she has taken joy in the
+marriages of many of her descendants; and the visits of her
+grandchildren--of whom one, Princess Alice of Hesse, daughter of the
+well-beloved Alice of England, became Czarina of Russia only the
+other day--are a source of keen interest to her.
+
+[Illustration: Princess Henry of Battenberg. _From a Photograph by
+Hughes & Mullins, Ryde, Isle of Wight_.]
+
+[Illustration: Prince Henry of Battenberg. _From a Photograph by
+Hughes & Mullins, Ryde, Isle of Wight_.]
+
+[Illustration: The Czarina of Russia.]
+
+But there is no selfish absorption in her own family affairs, no
+neglect of essential duty. The Prince of Wales and "the Princess"
+relieve the Queen of many irksome social functions; but she does not
+shun these when it is clear to her that her people wish her to
+undertake them. Witness her willingness to take part in the Jubilee
+Thanksgiving services and pageant, despite the feebleness of her
+advanced age.
+
+We need not dwell long on the rather stormy Parliamentary history of
+the last decade, on the divisions and disappointments of the Irish
+Home Rule party, once so powerful, or on the various attacks aimed at
+the Welsh and Scottish Church establishments and at the principle of
+"hereditary legislation" as embodied in the House of Lords. Some
+useful legislation has been accomplished amid all the strife. We may
+instance the Act in 1888 creating the new system of County Councils,
+the Parish Councils Act, the Factory and Workshops Amendment Act, and
+the Education Act of 1891--measures designed to protect the toiling
+millions from the evils of "sweating," and to assure their children
+of practically free education.
+
+Substantial good has been done, whether the reins of power have been
+held by Mr. Gladstone or by Lord Salisbury--whose long tenure of
+office expiring in 1892, the veteran statesman whom he had displaced
+again took the helm--or by Lord Rosebery, in whose favour the great
+leader finally withdrew in 1894 into private life, weary of the
+burden of State. In 1897 we again see Lord Salisbury directing the
+destinies of the mighty empire--a task of exceptional difficulty, now
+that the gravest complications exist in Europe itself and in Africa.
+The horrors suffered by the Armenian subjects of the Turk have called
+for intervention by the great powers; but no sooner had Turkish
+reforms been promised in response to the joint note of Great Britain,
+France, and Russia, than new troubles began in Crete, its people
+rising in arms to shake off the Turkish yoke.
+
+Meanwhile our occupation of Egypt is compelling us to use armed force
+against the wild, threatening dervishes in the Soudan, and
+well-grounded uneasiness is felt as to the position and action of our
+countrymen in Southeastern Africa in connexion with the Boer republic
+of the Transvaal. The British South Africa Chartered Company, formed
+in 1889, adventurous and ambitious, loomed large in men's eyes during
+1896, when the historic and disastrous raid of Dr. Jameson and his
+followers startled the civilised world. The whole story of that
+enterprise is yet to unfold; but it has added considerably to the
+embarrassments of the British government. Hopes were entertained in
+1890 that the British East Africa Company, by the pressure it could
+put on the Sultan of Zanzibar, had secured the cessation of the slave
+trade on the East African shore; these hopes are not yet fulfilled,
+but it may be trusted that a step has been taken towards the
+mitigation of the evil--the "open sore of the world."
+
+If we turn to India, we see it in 1896-7 still in the grip of a cruel
+famine, aggravated by an outbreak of the bubonic plague too well
+known to our fathers, which, appearing three years ago at Hong-Kong,
+has committed new ravages at Bombay. Government is making giant
+efforts to meet both evils, and is aided by large free-will offerings
+of money, sent not only from this country, but also from Canada. "Ten
+years ago such a manifestation would have been unlikely. The sense of
+kinship is stronger, the imperial sentiment has grown deeper, the
+feeling of responsibility has broadened." Kinship with a starving
+race is felt and shown by the Empress on her throne, and her subjects
+learn to follow her example.
+
+But the sense of brotherhood seems somewhat deficient when we look at
+the continual labour wars that mark the period in our own land. From
+the Hyde Park riots of socialists and unemployed, in the end of 1887,
+to the railway strikes of 1897, the story is one of strikes among all
+sorts and conditions of workers, paralysing trade, and witnessing to
+strained relations between labour and capital; the great London
+strike of dock labourers, lasting five weeks, and keeping 2,500 men
+out of work, may yet be keenly remembered. There seems an imperative
+need for the wide diffusion of a true, practical Christianity among
+employers and employed; some signs point to the growth of that
+healing spirit: and we may note with delight that while never was
+there so much wealth and never such deep poverty as during this
+period, never also were there so many religious and charitable
+organisations at work for the relief of poverty and the uplifting of
+the fallen; while not a few of the wealthy, and even one or two
+millionaires, have shown by generous giving their painful sense of
+the contrast between their own wealth and the destitution of others.
+
+It has been a period of sharp religious disputes, and every religious
+and benevolent institution is keenly criticised; but great good is
+being done notwithstanding by devoted men and women. The centenary of
+the Baptist Missionary Society, observed in 1892, recalled to mind
+the vast work accomplished by missions since that pioneer society
+sent out the apostolic "shoemaker" Carey, to labour in India, and
+reminds us of the great change wrought in public opinion since he and
+his enterprise were so bitterly attacked. The heroic missionary
+spirit is still alive, as is proved by the readiness of new
+evangelists to step into the place of the missionaries to China,
+cruelly murdered at Ku-Cheng in 1895 by heathen fanatics.
+
+The immense development of our colonies during the reign has already
+been noticed; some of them have made surprising advances during the
+last ten years. In southern and eastern Africa British enterprise has
+done much to develop the great natural wealth of the land; but the
+frequent troubles in Matabeleland and the complications with the
+Transvaal since the discovery of gold there may be regarded as
+counterbalancing the material advantages secured. Ceylon has a
+happier record, having more than regained her imperilled prosperity
+through the successful enterprise of her settlers in cultivating the
+fine tea which has almost displaced China tea in the British market,
+Ceylon exporting 100,000,000 lbs. in 1895 as against 2,000,000 lbs.
+ten years previously. Canada also now takes rank as a great maritime
+state, and the fortunes of Australia, though much shaken a few years
+ago by a great financial crisis, are again brilliant; in the world of
+social progress and democracy it is still the colonial marvel of our
+times.
+
+[Illustration: H. M. Stanley.]
+
+The last census, taken in 1891, in Great Britain and Ireland showed a
+vast increase of population, sixty-two towns in England and Wales
+returning more than 50,000 inhabitants, and the total population of
+the United Kingdom being 38,104,975. Alarmists warned us that, with
+the ratio of increase shown, neither food nor place would soon be
+found for our people; and a great impetus being given to emigration,
+our colonies benefited. But despite such alarms, articles of luxury
+were in greater demand than ever, the tobacco duty reaching in 1892
+the sum of £10,135,666, half a million, more than in the previous
+year; and the consumption of tea and spirits increased in due
+proportion. The same year saw great improvements in sanitation put
+into practice as the result of an alarm of cholera, that plague
+ravaging Hamburg.
+
+[Illustration: Dr. Fridtjof Nansen.]
+
+[Illustration: Miss Kingsley.]
+
+Vast engineering works, of which the Manchester Ship Canal is the
+most familiar instance, have been carried on. This great waterway,
+thirty-five miles long, and placing an inland town in touch with the
+sea, was begun in 1887 and finished in 1894. Numerous exhibitions, at
+home and abroad, have stimulated industrial and ęsthetic progress;
+and science has continued to advance with bewildering rapidity,
+developing chiefly in practical directions. The bacteriologist has
+unveiled much of the mystery of disease, showing that seed-germs
+produce it; the photographer comes in aid of surgery, for the
+discovery of the X or Röntgen rays, by the German professor whose
+name is associated with them, now enables the surgeon to discover
+foreign bodies lodged within the human frame, and to decide with
+authority their position and the means of removing them. Burial
+reforms, in the interests of health and economy, have been
+introduced, and nursing, elevated into a science, has become an
+honourable profession for cultured women. In 1894 that eminent
+_savant_ Lord Rayleigh brought before the British Association his
+discovery of a hitherto unknown constituent in the atmosphere. The
+use of steam as a motive power, almost contemporaneous with the
+Queen's reign, has bound our land in a network of railways: now it is
+electricity which is being utilised in the same sense, and to the
+telephone and the telegraph as means of verbal communication is added
+the motorcar as a means of rapid progression, 1896 seeing its use in
+streets sanctioned by Parliament. It may not yet supersede the
+bicycle, which in ten years has greatly increased in favour. Electric
+lighting, in the same period, has become very general; and further
+adaptations of this mysterious force to man's service are in the air.
+
+[Illustration: J. M. Barrie.]
+
+[Illustration: Richard Jefferies.]
+
+This is an age of great explorers. Stanley has succeeded to
+Livingstone, Nansen to Franklin; but it has been only within
+comparatively recent years that women have emulated men in
+penetrating to remote regions. Within the decade we have seen Mrs.
+Bishop a veteran traveller, visiting south-west Persia; Mrs. French
+Sheldon has shown how far beyond the beaten track a woman's
+adventurous spirit may lead her; and Miss Mary Kingsley, a niece of
+the late Charles Kingsley, has intrepidly explored the interior of
+Africa, her scientific observations being welcomed by British
+_savants_. In 1896 women, who had long sought the privilege, were
+permitted to compete for the diploma of the Royal College of
+Surgeons, and in many other walks of usefulness the barriers
+excluding women have been removed, with benefit to all concerned. It
+is not other than natural that under the reign of a noble woman there
+should arise women noble-minded as herself, cherishing ideas of life
+and duty lofty as her own, and that their greatest elevation of
+purpose should tent to raise the moral standard among the men who
+work with them for the uplifting of their fellow subjects. Such signs
+of the times may be noticed now, more evident than even ten years
+ago.
+
+[Illustration: Professor Huxley. _From a Photograph by the London
+Stereoscopic Co_.]
+
+[Illustration: Professor Tyndall. _From a Photograph by Alexander
+Bassano, Ltd_.]
+
+The educational progress of the last decade has been very great,
+especially as regards the instruction of women; yet the period has
+not been noticeably fruitful of literature in the highest sense. In
+the world of fiction there is much that looks like degeneration; the
+lighter magazines and serials have multiplied past computation, and
+form all the reading of not a few persons. To counteract the
+unhealthy "modern novel" has arisen the Scottish school, the
+"literature of the kailyard," as it has been termed in scorn; yet a
+purer air breathes in the pages of J. M. Barrie, "Ian Maclaren," and
+Crockett. Their many imitators are in some danger of impairing the
+vogue of these masters, but still the tendency of the school is
+wholesome. Other artists in fiction assume the part of censors of
+society, and write of its doings with a bitterness that may or may
+not profit; the unveiling of cancerous sores is of doubtful advantage
+to health.
+
+[Illustration: C. H. Spurgeon.]
+
+[Illustration: Dr. Horatius Bonar.]
+
+The death-roll from 1887 to 1897 is exceptionally heavy; in every
+department of science, art, literary and religious life, the loss has
+been great. Many musicians have been taken from us since the
+well-beloved Jenny Lind Goldschmidt; Canon Sir E. A. Gore Ouseley,
+Sir G. Macfarren, Principal of the Royal Academy of Music,
+Rubinstein, Carrodus, and others.
+
+[Illustration: Rev. J. G. Wood.]
+
+[Illustration: Dean Church.]
+
+English letters have suffered by the removal of many whose services
+in one way or another have been great: the prose-painter Richard
+Jefferies; the pure and beneficent Mrs. Craik, better known as Miss
+Muloch; Matthew Arnold, poet, educationalist, critic, whose verse
+should outlive his criticisms; the noble astronomer Richard Proctor;
+Gustave Masson, the careful biographer of Milton; Laurence Oliphant,
+gifted and eccentric visionary; the naturalist J. G. Wood; the
+explorer and orientalist Burton; the historians Kinglake, Froude, and
+Freeman; the great ecclesiastics Bishop Lightfoot, Canon Liddon,
+Archbishop Magee of York, Dean Church, Dean Plumptre, and the
+Cardinals Newman and Manning; Tennyson and Browning, poets whose
+mantle has yet fallen on none; Huxley and Tyndall, eminent in
+science; the justly popular preacher and writer Charles H. Spurgeon;
+the orator and philanthropist John Bright, whose speeches delight
+many in book-form; and Robert Louis Stevenson, novelist, essayist,
+poet. To these we may add Eliza Cook and Martin Tapper, widely
+popular a generation ago, and surviving into our own day; Lord
+Lytton, known as "Owen Meredith," a literary artist, before he became
+viceroy of India and British ambassador at Paris; and Professor Henry
+Drummond, dead since 1897 began, and widely known by his "Natural Law
+in the Spiritual World." Even so our list is far from complete.
+
+[Illustration: J. E. Millais, P.R.A. _From a Photograph by Elliott &
+Fry_.]
+
+Of painters and sculptors we have lost since 1887 Frank Holl; Sir
+Edgar Boehm, buried in St. Paul's by express wish of the Queen; Edwin
+Long; John Pettie; Sir Noel Paton; Sir Frederick Leighton; and Sir
+J. E. Millais. The last two illustrious painters were successively
+Presidents of the Royal Academy, Millais, who followed Leighton in
+that office, surviving him but a short time. Sir Frederick had been
+raised to the peerage as Lord Leighton only a few days before he
+died, the patent arriving too late for him to receive it.
+
+[Illustration: Sir Frederick Leighton, P.R.A. _From a Photograph by
+J. R. Mayall, Piccadilly, W_.]
+
+The English world is the poorer for these many losses, some of which
+took place under tragic circumstances; yet hope may well be cherished
+that amongst us are those, not yet fully recognised, who will nobly
+fill the places of the dead. Some hymn-writer may arise whose note
+will be as sweet as that of the much loved singer, Dr. Horatius
+Bonar, some painter as spiritual and powerful as Paton, some poet as
+grandly gifted as the late laureate and his compeer Browning. We do
+not at once recognise our greatest while they are with us; therefore
+we need not think despairingly of our age because the good and the
+great pass away, and we see not their place immediately filled. Nor,
+though there be great and crying evils in our midst, need we tremble
+lest these should prevail, while there is so much earnest and
+energetic endeavour to cope with and overcome them.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+PROGRESS OF WESLEYAN METHODISM
+UNDER QUEEN VICTORIA, 1837-1897. [Footnote]
+
+PART I.
+
+[Illustration: Wesley preaching on his father's tomb.]
+
+When the Queen ascended the throne Wesleyan Methodism in this country
+was recovering from the effects of the agitation occasioned by Dr.
+Warren, who had been expelled from its ministry; the erection of an
+organ in a Leeds chapel had caused another small secession. But the
+Conference of 1837, assembled in Leeds under the presidency of the
+Rev. Edmund Grindrod, with the Rev. Robert Newton as secretary, had
+no reason to be discouraged. Faithful to the loyal tradition of
+Methodism, it promptly attended to the duty of congratulating the
+young Sovereign who had ascended the throne on June 20, a few weeks
+before.
+
+[Footnote: The writer desires to acknowledge special obligation to
+the Rev. J. Wesley Davies for invaluable aid rendered by him in
+collecting and arranging the material embodied in this chapter.]
+
+We may read in its Minutes of the vote in favour of an address, which
+should assure the Queen of the sincere attachment cherished by her
+Methodist subjects for her person and government, and of their
+fervent prayers to Almighty God "for her personal happiness and the
+prosperity of her reign." By a singular coincidence, it will probably
+be one of the first acts of a Leeds Conference in 1897 to forward
+another address, congratulating Her Majesty on the long and
+successful reign which has realised these aspirations of unaffected
+devotion. The address of 1837 had gracious acknowledgment, conveyed
+through Lord John Russell.
+
+[Illustration: Group of Presidents Number One]
+
+At this time Methodism had spread throughout the world. Its
+membership in Great Britain and Ireland numbered 318,716; in foreign
+mission stations 66,007; in Upper Canada 14,000; while the American
+Conferences had charge of 650,678 members; thus the total for the
+world, exclusive of ministers, was 1,049,401.
+
+Of ministers there were 1,162 in the United Kingdom and 3,316
+elsewhere. It will be obvious that British and Irish Methodism even
+then formed a body whose allegiance was highly valuable.
+
+The 1837 Conference had to discuss the subject of the approaching
+Centenary of Methodism, which had for years been anticipated with
+great interest. With Mr. Butterworth--a Member of Parliament and a
+loyal Methodist and generous supporter of our funds--originated the
+idea of commemorating God's goodness in a fitting manner, not in a
+boastful spirit; a committee which had been appointed reported to the
+next Conference "that the primary object of the said celebration
+should be the religious and devotional improvement of the centenary";
+and that there should also be "thank-offering to Almighty God" in
+money contributions for some of the institutions of the Church. The
+Conference approved these suggestions, and appointed a day of united
+prayer in January, 1839, "for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit" on
+the Connexion during the year.
+
+[Illustration: Centenary meeting at Manchester.]
+
+There had been some difficulty in fixing the date of the birth of
+Methodism; but 1739 was determined on, because then the first
+class-meetings were held, the first chapel at Bristol was opened, the
+first hymn-book published; then the United Societies were formed,
+then field-preaching began, and then Whitefield, Charles Wesley, and
+others held that historic lovefeast in Fetter Lane when the Holy
+Spirit came so mightily on them that all were awed into silence, some
+sank down insensible, and on recovering they sang with one voice
+their Te Deum of reverent praise.
+
+The centenary year being decided, a three days' convention of
+ministers and laymen was held at Manchester to make the needful
+arrangements; its proceedings were marked by a wonderful enthusiasm
+and liberality.
+
+The Centenary Conference assembled at Liverpool in 1839. It could
+report an increase of 13,000 members. On August 5 it suspended its
+ordinary business for the centenary services--a prayer-meeting at six
+in the morning being followed by sermons preached by the Rev. Thomas
+Jackson and the President, the Rev. Theophilus Lessey. A few weeks
+later came the festal day, October 25, morning prayer-meetings and
+special afternoon and evening services being held throughout the
+country. Never had there been such large gatherings for rejoicing and
+thanksgiving; there were festivities for the poor and for the
+children of the day and Sunday schools. These celebrations, in which
+the whole Methodist Church joined, aroused the interest of the
+nation, and called forth appreciative criticism from press and
+pulpit.
+
+[Illustration: Wesleyan Centenary Hall.]
+
+When the idea of this first great Thanksgiving Fund was originally
+contemplated, the most hopeful only dared look for £10,000; but when
+the accounts were closed the treasurers were in possession of
+£222,589, one meeting at City Road having produced £10,000; and the
+effort was made at a time of great commercial depression. This
+remarkable liberality drew the attention of the Pope, who said in an
+encyclical that _the heretics were putting to shame the offerings of
+the faithful_.
+
+Not a few meetings took the form of lovefeasts, where generous giving
+proved the reality of the religious experiences; for there has ever
+been an intimate connexion between the fellowship and the finance of
+Methodism. Part of the great sum raised went to the Theological
+Institution, part to Foreign Missions; Wesleyan education was helped
+by a grant, £1,000 were paid over to the British and Foreign Bible
+Society; and the laymen desiring to help the worn-out ministers and
+their widows and children, £16,000 were set aside to form the
+Auxiliary Fund for this purpose.
+
+It was now that the Missionary Committee were enabled to secure the
+Centenary Hall, the present headquarters of the Missionary Society.
+The remaining sums were given to other useful purposes.
+
+Methodism in 1839 in all its branches [Footnote] reckoned more than
+1,400,000 members, with 6,080 itinerant preachers and 350
+missionaries; 50,000 pupils were instructed in the mission schools,
+and there were upwards of 70,000 communicants and at least 200,000
+hearers of the gospel in Methodist mission chapels. In England alone
+the Wesleyan Methodists owned 3,000 chapels, and had many other
+preaching places; there were 3,300 Sunday schools, 341,000 scholars,
+and 4,000 local preachers. These figures, when, compared with those
+given at the end of our sketch, will furnish some idea of the
+numerical advance of Methodism throughout the world during the
+Queen's reign.
+
+[Footnote: "Methodism in all its branches" must be understood of
+_all_ bodies bearing the name of Methodist, including the New
+Connexion and the Primitive Methodists. The membership of Wesleyan
+Methodism alone throughout the world, according to the _Minutes of
+Conference_ for 1839, was 1,112,519; and the total ministry,
+including 335 missionaries, 4,957.]
+
+The centenary celebrations marked the high flood-tide of spiritual
+prosperity for many ensuing years, for a time of great trial
+followed. Gladly would we forget the misunderstandings of our
+fathers; yet this sketch would be incomplete without reference to
+unhappy occurrences which caused the loss of 100,000 members, and
+allowance must be made for this terrible loss in estimating the
+progress of Wesleyan Methodism. The troubles began when certain
+anonymous productions, known as "Fly Sheets," severely criticised the
+administration of Methodism and libellously assailed the characters
+of leading ministers, especially Dr. Bunting, who stood head and
+shoulders above all others in this Methodist war. He was chosen
+President when only forty-one, and on three other occasions filled
+the chair of the Conference. He became an authority on Methodist
+government and policy. Dr. Gregory says, "As an administrator, he was
+unapproached in sagacity, aptitude, personal influence, and
+indefatigability... his character was spotless." He was a born
+commander. The "Liverpool Minutes," describing the ideal Methodist
+preacher, are his work.
+
+Dr. Bunting volunteered to be tried by the Conference as to the
+anonymous charges against him, but no one came forward with proofs to
+sustain them. Three ministers, Messrs. Everett, Dunn, and Griffiths,
+supposed to be the chief movers of this agitation, refused to be
+questioned on the matter, and defying the Conference, were expelled.
+Thereafter the agitation was kept up, and caused great disaffection
+in the Societies, resulting in the loss we have referred to. The
+seceders called themselves "Reformers"; many of them eventually
+joined similar bodies of seceders, forming with them the "United
+Methodist Free Churches." These in 1857 reported a membership of
+41,000, less than half that which was lost to Wesleyan Methodism. But
+now they may be congratulated on better success, the statistics for
+1896 showing, at home and abroad, a total of nearly 90,000 members,
+with 1,622 chapels, 417 ministers, 3,448 local preachers, 1,350
+Sunday schools, and 203,712 scholars. It may be noted with pleasure
+that the leaders of the movement outlived all hostility to the mother
+Church; one of them attended the Ecumenical Conference of 1881, and
+took the sacrament with the other delegates.
+
+With great regret we speak of this painful disruption, now that so
+much better feeling animates the various Methodist Churches.
+Practically there is no difference of doctrine among them. It has
+been well said, "Our articles of faith stand to-day precisely as in
+the last century, which makes us think that, like Minerva from the
+brain of Jupiter, they were born full-grown and heavily armoured."
+
+An influential committee has been appointed to ascertain how
+concerted action may be taken by the Methodist Churches; and the hope
+is cherished that their suggestions may lead to the adoption of
+methods which will prevent strife and friction and unworthy rivalry.
+The New Connexion and Methodist Free Church Conferences also
+appointed a joint committee to consider the same subject. The
+brotherly desire for spiritual fellowship and mutual help and counsel
+thus indicated must be held as a very hopeful token of something
+better than numerical advance.
+
+[Illustration: Group of Presidents Number Two.]
+
+The bitter experiences through which the Church passed called
+attention to the need for modification and expansion of Wesleyan
+Methodist polity. The Conference of 1851 appointed a committee of
+ministers to consider the question; 745 laymen were invited to join
+them. Their recommendations led Conference to adopt resolutions
+defining the proper constitution of the quarterly meeting, and to
+provide for special circuit meetings to re-try cases of discipline,
+which had been brought before the leaders' meeting, when there was
+reason to think that the verdict had been given in a factious spirit.
+The chairman of the district, with twelve elected by the quarterly
+meeting, formed a tribunal to re-try the case. From this decision
+there was an appeal to the district synods, and also to the
+Conference. Provision was made for the trial of trustees, so that
+every justice should be done them. Local Church meetings were
+guaranteed the right of appeal to Conference, and circuits were
+allowed to memorialise Conference on Connexional subjects, within
+proper limits. The quarterly meetings, having considered these
+resolutions, gave them a cordial reception, and they were confirmed
+by the Conference of 1853.
+
+No new rule is enforced by Conference until opportunity is given to
+bring it before all the quarterly meetings, and it is not likely to
+become Methodist law if the majority object. The enlarged district
+synods are an additional safeguard for the privileges of the people.
+By ballot the circuit quarterly meetings may now elect one, or in
+some cases two gentlemen, who, with the circuit steward, shall
+represent the circuit in the district synod.
+
+In 1889, Conference sanctioned the formation of Methodist councils,
+composed of ministers and laymen, to consult on matters pertaining to
+Methodist institutions in the towns. Their decisions of course do not
+bind any particular Society.
+
+The disaffection so fruitful of suffering had been due to a suspicion
+that men were retained in departmental offices when they no longer
+had the confidence of the people. Now such officials are only elected
+for six years, though eligible for re-election. One-sixth of the
+laymen on Connexional committees retire yearly; they may be
+re-elected, but must receive a four-fifths vote. Visitors may be
+present when the President is inducted into office, and during the
+representative session, when also reporters other than ministers are
+now allowed to take notes.
+
+It was the year 1878 which witnessed that most important development
+of Methodist economy, the introduction of lay representatives to take
+part with ministers in the deliberations of Conference. This was no
+sudden revolution; laymen had long had their share in the work of
+quarterly meetings, district synods, and great Connexional
+committees; in 1861 they were admitted to the Committees of Review,
+which arranged the business of Conference; they sat in the nomination
+committee each year, and had power to scrutinise, and even to alter,
+the lists of names for the various committees. Now in natural
+sequence they were to be endowed with legislative as well as
+consultative functions; it might be said they had been educated to
+this end.
+
+The committee appointed to consider the matter having done its work,
+the report was submitted to the district synods and then to
+Conference. Long, earnest, animated, but loving was the debate that
+ensued; the assembled ministers, by a large majority, determined that
+the laity should henceforth share in their deliberations on all
+questions not strictly pastoral.
+
+It was resolved that there should be a representative session of 240
+ministers and 240 laymen. The ministerial quota was to consist of
+President and secretary, members of the Legal Hundred, assistant
+secretary, chairmen of districts not members of the Hundred, and
+representatives of the great departments; six ministers stationed in
+foreign countries, but visiting England at the time; and the
+remainder elected by their brethren in the district synods; the
+laymen to be elected in the synods by laymen only. A small proportion
+at one Conference is chosen to attend the next.
+
+Such were the new arrangements that came into force in 1878, causing
+no friction, since they secured "a maximum of adaptation with a
+minimum of change"; there was no difficulty in deciding what business
+should belong to either session of Conference. It is needless to
+dwell here on minor alterations, introduced in the past, or
+contemplated for the future, as to the order of the sessions; it may
+amply suffice us to remark that Wesleyan Methodism, thanks to the
+modifications of its constitution which we have briefly touched upon,
+is one of the most truly popular Church systems ever devised. For, as
+the Pastoral Address of 1896 puts it, "Methodism gives every class,
+every member, all the rights which can be reasonably claimed, listens
+to every complaint, asserts no exclusive privilege, but insures that
+all things are done 'decently and in order.'"
+
+The great change just described, being the work of the ministers
+themselves, and accomplished by them before there was any loud demand
+for it, was effected with such moderation and discretion as not to
+entail the loss of a single member or minister. This was justly held
+a cause for great thankfulness; and it was determined to raise a
+thanksgiving fund for the relief of the various departments.
+
+Great central meetings, extending over two years (1878--1880), were
+held throughout the country, and were characterised by enthusiasm and
+wonderful generosity. At a time when the country was suffering almost
+unheard of commercial depression, the sum of £297,500 was raised, to
+be apportioned between Foreign Missions, the Extension of Methodism
+in Great Britain, Education, Home Missions, Methodism in Scotland,
+the Sunday-school Union, a new Theological College, the "Children's
+Home," the Welsh and German chapels in London, a chapel at Oxford,
+the relief of necessitous local preachers, and the promotion of
+temperance. The missionary debt was paid, and the buildings for
+soldiers and sailors at Malta and Aldershot were cleared of debt.
+
+Such work could not be done if the circuits acted independently; but
+united as they are, and forming one vast connexion, much which would
+otherwise be impossible can be achieved by means of the great
+Connexional funds. Of these funds not a few have been established
+since 1837; but the most important among them, the Foreign Mission
+fund, can boast an earlier origin.
+
+Wesleyanism, indeed, is essentially missionary in spirit, her
+original aim being to spread scriptural holiness throughout the
+world. "The world is my parish," said Wesley though he himself could
+never visit the whole of that parish, his followers have at least
+explored the greater part of it, causing the darkness to flee before
+the radiance of the lamp of truth.
+
+British Methodism has now missions in almost every quarter of the
+globe--in Asia, in Africa, on the Continent of Europe, in the Western
+Hemisphere. Her mission agencies include medical missions, hospitals,
+schools for the blind, homes for lepers, orphanages, training and
+industrial schools, etc.
+
+In Europe we have set on foot missions in countries that are
+nominally Christian, where the people are too often the victims of
+ignorance, wickedness, vice, scepticism, and superstition; France,
+Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Portugal have all been objects of
+our missionary enterprise during the present reign, and in some
+instances conspicuous success has been attained. Witness the good
+work still going on in Italy, and the independent position attained
+by the _Conférence, Méthodiste de France_.
+
+In India, Ceylon, China, and Burma, our agents are working amongst
+races in which they have to combat heathenism strong in its
+antiquity. The progress is necessarily slow, but a point has been
+reached where great success may be prophesied, as the result largely
+of the work of the pioneers. The schools are turning out many who, if
+they do not all become decided Christians, are intellectually
+convinced that Christianity is right, and will put fewer difficulties
+in the way of their children than they themselves had to contend
+with. This educational work prepares the way for the gospel;
+observers declare that nearly all converts in Ceylon have been
+trained in our schools.
+
+The important missions in Southern and Western Africa must not be
+forgotten, nor those in Honduras and the Bahamas.
+
+The present policy throughout our actual mission-field is as far as
+possible to raise up native agents. Probably the heathen lands will
+be won for the great Captain of salvation by native soldiers; but for
+a long time they will need officers trained in countries familiar for
+generations with the blessings of the gospel. The number of our
+missionaries may be stated at 400, more than half being native
+agents; there are 2,680 other mission workers, 52,058 Church members;
+84,113 children and young people having instruction in the schools.
+But these figures would give a false idea of the progress of the work
+if compared with the statistics of 1837; for _then_ our missions
+included vast regions that have now their own Conferences. When the
+Queen ascended the throne Fiji was a nation of cannibals. Two years
+before her accession our Missionary Society commenced operations in
+those islands. John Hunt laboured with apostolic zeal, and died
+breathing the prayer, "God, for Christ's sake, bless Fiji, save
+Fiji." The prayer is already answered. All these islands have been
+won for Christ, and are trophies of Wesleyan missionary toil. There
+are 3,100 native preachers under the care of nine white missionaries;
+1,322 chapels, 43,339 members and catechumens, and more than 42,000
+scholars. Fiji has become almost a nation of Methodists. But it were
+vain to look for traces of this vast achievement in the "Minutes of
+Conference" of 1896; for a special feature of our missionary policy
+is the establishment of affiliated Conferences, which in course of
+time become self-supporting. In 1883 all the branches of the Canadian
+Methodists united to form one Canadian Conference. The first French
+Conference met in 1852. In 1855 the Conference of Eastern British
+America was formed. The same year the first Australian Conference
+met, and took charge of the Missions in Fiji, the Friendly Isles, and
+New Zealand. The first South African Conference met in 1882, and the
+two West Indian Conferences in 1884. Although more or less
+independent of the mother Conference, they still retain the
+characteristics of Methodism. A distinct branch of Mission work,
+known as the Women's Auxiliary, has been established, and sends forth
+ladies to engage in educational, zenana, and medical work. They are
+doing good service in India, China, and other parts of the world. In
+1896 they expended more than £10,000.
+
+The total expenditure last year (1896) was £124,700, incurred by our
+own Mission work and by grants to the affiliated Conferences. It is
+satisfactory to note that in the districts helped, including those
+covered by these Conferences, an additional £185,000 was raised. We
+have magnificent opportunities; and with full consecration of our
+people's wealth there would be glorious successes in the future.
+Foreign Missions have been the chief honour of Methodism, and it is
+to be hoped the same affection for them will be maintained; for
+wherever Methodism is found throughout the world, it is the result of
+mission work.
+
+Meanwhile there has been no sacrificing of home interests. Never were
+greater efforts made by Methodism for the evangelisation of the
+masses in Great Britain. The Home Mission Fund, first instituted in
+1756, was remodelled in 1856. Its business is to assist the dependent
+circuits in maintaining the administration of the gospel, to provide
+means for employing additional ministers, and to meet various
+contingencies with which the circuits could not cope unassisted. Our
+needs as a Connexion demand such a Contingent Fund. One-third of the
+amount raised by the Juvenile Home and Foreign Missionary Association
+is devoted to Home Missions. The income, which in 1837 was less than
+£10.000, is now more than £36,000; an increase witnessing to a spirit
+of aggression and enterprise in modern Methodism. This fund provides
+for the support of the Connexional evangelists and district
+missionaries.
+
+In the year 1882, under the head "Home Missions," there was a new and
+important departure, by the appointment of the first "Connexional
+evangelists," of whom there are now four; they have already been the
+means of great blessing throughout the country, showing that the old
+gospel, preached as in the old days, is still mighty to awaken and
+convert.
+
+Under the direction of the Home Mission Committee, commissioners
+visit certain districts, to give advice and discover the best methods
+for improving the condition of Methodism where it appears to be low.
+
+Special attention is given to the villages. The "Out-and-Out Band"
+subscribed for four Gospel Mission vans, each carrying two
+evangelists, and a large quantity of literature, to the villages; the
+evangelists in charge conducting services in the village chapels and
+in the open air. The sale of books and the voluntary contributions of
+the people help to defray the expenses. This agency is now under the
+direction of the Home Mission committee, and the gospel cars will be
+known as "Wesleyan Home Mission Cars."
+
+Another new movement, helpful to village Methodism, is the "Joyful
+News" mission, originating with the Rev. Thomas Champness, who has
+been set free from ordinary circuit work to manage it. He trains lay
+agents, for whose services there is a great demand in villages where
+the people are too poor to maintain additional ministers, and where
+the supply of local preachers is deficient. Some of these agents are
+at work abroad.
+
+The energetic Home Mission Committee has also set on foot missions
+where Methodism was feeble. Nor are those forgotten who "go down to
+the sea in ships, and do business in great waters." As far as means
+permit, efforts are made for the spiritual benefit of our sailors in
+all the great ports of the world; our soldiers, too, are equally
+cared for. Methodism has always been interested in the army, in which
+some of Wesley's best converts were found; yet there was no
+systematic work in it before 1839, when an order by the
+commander-in-chief permitted every soldier to attend the church of
+his choice. Some years afterwards, the Rev. Dr. Rule strove hard to
+secure the recognition of the rights of Wesleyans, and after much
+struggle the War Office recognised Wesleyan chaplains. The work and
+position of Wesleyan Methodism are now thoroughly organised
+throughout the world. The government allows a capitation grant for
+all declared Wesleyans, and it amounts to a large sum of money every
+year. In 1896 there were, including the Militia, 22,663 declared
+Wesleyans in the army and 1,485 Church members. There are 28 Sailors'
+and Soldiers' Homes, providing 432 beds, and these Homes have been
+established at a cost of £35,000. In them are coffee bars, libraries,
+lecture halls, and, what is most appreciated by Christian soldiers,
+rooms for private prayer. The officiating ministers, who give the
+whole or part of their time to the soldiers and their families,
+number 195.
+
+There are many local preachers among the soldiers, and at least two
+have left the ranks to become ministers.
+
+On the Mission field, soldiers render valuable aid to the missionary
+in building chapels, distributing tracts, and often teaching and
+preaching to the natives and others. Thus, whilst helping to hold the
+empire for their Queen, they are hastening on the day when all the
+kingdoms of the world shall be the kingdom of our Lord and of His
+Christ.
+
+This deeply interesting work in the Army and Royal Navy is
+appropriately mentioned in connexion with our Home and Foreign
+Missions, both intimately concerned in its maintenance and
+management. It is right to mention that the Soldiers' and Sailors'
+Homes described are free to all members of H.M.'s sea and land
+forces, irrespective of religious denomination.
+
+PART II.
+
+One great event in Methodist history since 1837 now calls for
+notice--the assembling of the first Oecumenical Conference in
+Wesley's Chapel, City Road, London, in 1861. This idea was in strict
+keeping with the spirit Wesley discovered when, five weeks before his
+death, he wrote to his children in America: "See that you never give
+place to one thought of separating from your brethren in Europe. Lose
+no opportunity of declaring to all men that the Methodists are one
+people in all the world, and that it is their full determination so
+to continue,
+
+       "'Though mountains rise, and oceans roll,
+            To sever us in vain.'"
+
+The growing affection among Methodists of all branches made the idea
+of an Oecumenical Conference practicable.
+
+[Illustration: Sir Francis Lycett.]
+
+The suggestion took form at the Joint Conference of the Methodist
+Episcopal Church of America in 1876. The American Methodists sent a
+delegate to the British Conference, proposing a United Conference
+which should demonstrate to the world the essential oneness in
+doctrine, spirit, and principle of all the Churches which
+historically trace their origin to John Wesley; such a manifestation,
+it was hoped, would strengthen and perpetuate that unity.
+
+Further, the Conference was to discover how to adjust our mission
+work so as to prevent waste and friction; suggesting also modes and
+agencies for the most successful work of evangelisation. Nor was this
+all; its promoters trusted to gain light on the relation of universal
+Methodism to education, civil government, other Christian bodies, and
+missionary enterprise at large, and looked for a vast increase in
+spiritual power and intelligent, enthusiastic activity among the
+various branches of Methodism, whose gathering together might well
+draw "the attention of scholars and reformers and thinkers to the
+whole Methodist history, work, and mission," while a new impulse
+should be given to every good work, and a more daring purpose of
+evangelisation kindled. The British Conference pointed out the need
+of frankly recognising the not unimportant differences amongst the
+various Methodist bodies, so as to rule out of discussion any points
+which had a suggestion of past controversies. The American Conference
+accepted this.
+
+[Illustration: The Methodist Settlement, Bermondsey, London, S.E.]
+
+The smaller Methodist bodies being invited to join, the four hundred
+delegates were sent up by the various branches of the Methodist
+Church as nearly as possible in proportion to their numerical
+strength; seven sections of British Methodism and thirteen from the
+United States and the Mission fields, numbering probably twenty
+millions, were represented. It was fitting that the first Oecumenical
+Conference should meet in City Road, the cathedral of Methodism.
+Bishop Simpson preached the opening sermon; the delegates then
+partook of the sacrament together, and Dr. Osborn, President of the
+Conference, gave the opening address. The Oecumenical Conference did
+not aim at determining any debated condition of Church membership, or
+at defining any controverted doctrine, or settling any question of
+ritual; it met for consultative, not legislative purposes. As such,
+the gathering brought about the thing which is written: "Thy watchmen
+shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they
+sing... Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall
+fear, and be enlarged."
+
+By a happy coincidence, that largehearted son of Methodism, the late
+Sir William M'Arthur, was then Lord Mayor of London, and he gave a
+congratulatory welcome to the delegates at a magnificent reception in
+the Mansion House.
+
+The next important event in Methodist history during the Queen's
+reign is the rise and progress of the great Wesleyan Missions in the
+towns--a vast beneficent movement, in which some at least of the
+aspirations cherished by the promoters of the first Oecumenical
+Conference appeared to have been realised.
+
+The tendency of our day is towards a steady flow of population from
+the villages to the towns, especially to London. In 1837, there was
+only one London district, covering a very wide area, and including
+six circuits, whose total membership was only 11,460, after a hundred
+years of Methodism. The various branches of the recently established
+London Mission report more than a third of this number after less
+than ten years' labour.
+
+[Illustration: Theological Institution, Richmond.]
+
+The success of London Methodism in late years is largely due to the
+establishment of the Metropolitan Chapel Building fund in 1862. The
+late Sir Francis Lycett gave £50,000, on condition that an equal
+amount should be raised throughout the country, and that ten chapels,
+each seating at least a thousand persons, should in ten years be
+built in the metropolitan area. The noble challenge called forth a
+fit response. In his will he left a large sum to the same fund, so
+the committee could offer an additional £500 pounds to every chapel
+commenced before the end of 1898, with a proportionate grant to
+smaller chapels; aid will also be given by the committee in securing
+additional ministerial supply. Such offers should stimulate chapel
+building for the two years. Already, since the establishment of the
+fund, more than ninety chapels have been built in London at a cost of
+£630,000, towards which the fund contributed in grants and loans
+£213,000. Before 1862, there were only three important chapels south
+of the Thames, and now there are thirty-seven. During the last ten or
+twelve years unprecedented prosperity has been shown, not only in
+chapel building, but in chapel filling, and the establishment of
+successful missions.
+
+In 1885 the earnest attention of the Churches was directed to
+"outcast London." The deepest interest was aroused, especially in
+Methodist circles; and that year great meetings were held in City
+Road, to initiate a movement that should benefit London's outcasts. A
+large sum of money was raised, and the London Mission formed. The
+West London Mission at St. James's Hall, the East End branch, and the
+almost deserted chapel in Clerkenwell became notable centres. Thus at
+one time efforts were put forth to reach the rich, the artisans, and
+the outcasts. The success has abundantly justified the enterprise. In
+addition to evangelistic work, the missions make strenuous efforts to
+improve the social condition of the people, for Methodism realises
+that she is called to minister not only to the souls, but also to the
+bodies of men. Already, as a result of the London Mission, a new,
+fully organised circuit has grown up; the West London Mission alone
+reporting a membership which is one-tenth of the whole membership of
+London in 1837.
+
+The latest and most novel branch of the work is the "Bermondsey
+Settlement," established six years ago in the poorest district of
+south-east London. In this hall of residence live devoted workers who
+have been trained in our universities or in our high-class schools,
+and who spend their leisure in benefiting their poor neighbours by
+religious, educational, and social effort. A home for women, in which
+about ten ladies reside, is connected with the settlement, which is
+in special connexion with Wesleyan schools throughout the country.
+The programme of work is extensive, and in addition the settlement
+takes an increasing part in local administration and philanthropy,
+many non-resident workers assisting.
+
+[Illustration: Theological Institution, Didsbury.]
+
+To support the London Mission, appeal is made to Methodists
+throughout the country and the world. The meetings held on its behalf
+in the provinces have greatly blessed the people, stimulating them to
+fresh efforts in their own localities. Similar agencies had
+previously been established in various great trading centres, where
+the tendency is for the people who can afford it to leave the towns
+and to live in the suburbs. Thus many chapels have become almost
+deserted. The Conference decided that the best method of filling
+these chapels would be to utilise them as Mission halls, for
+aggressive evangelistic and social effort; which has been done with
+surprising success in Manchester, Leeds, Hull, Birmingham, and many
+other large towns. In Manchester there are from ten to twelve
+thousand people reached by the Mission agencies, and already a new
+circuit has been formed, the members of its Society having been
+gathered in from the army of distress and destitution. It would be
+impossible here to enumerate the thousand ways in which the Mission
+workers toil for the redemption of the downfallen, or to tell half
+the tale of their success. But all this work could not be so well
+carried on without the assistance of another important department.
+The Wesleyan Chapel Building Committee, instituted in 1818, was
+reconstituted in 1854; it meets monthly in Manchester to dispose of
+grants and loans, to consider cases of erections, alterations,
+purchases, and sales of Wesleyan trust property, and to afford advice
+in difficult cases. It has also to see that all our trust property is
+duly secured to the Connexion. The erection of the Central Hall in
+Manchester, to be at once the headquarters of our Chapel Committee
+and of the great Mission, marked a most important era in Methodist
+aggressive enterprise. The income of the Chapel Fund from all sources
+last year was £9,115. It was reported that the entire debt discharged
+or provided for during the last forty-one years was £2,389,073, and
+the total debt remaining on trust property is not more than £800,000;
+while £9,000,000 had been expended on chapel buildings during the
+thirty years preceding 1893.
+
+[Illustration: Theological Institution, Headingley.]
+
+The Extension of Methodism Fund was established in 1874, to
+supplement the ordinary funds of the Connexion and the local
+resources of the people, by aiding in the increase of chapel
+accommodation throughout the country, and in the extension of
+Methodism by Home Mission and similar agencies. At first the building
+of a thousand chapels was contemplated; but already 1,796 cases have
+been helped, with grants and loans amounting to £122,999. In 1867 a
+fund was started for the relief and extension of Methodism in
+Scotland; a Chapel Fund for the North Wales District was instituted
+in 1867, and for South Wales in 1873. There are now in Great Britain
+10,000 Wesleyan chapels, which will accommodate 2,156,209 hearers,
+more than four times the number of members returned; for there is
+something misleading, as far as the general public is concerned, in
+the published statistics of Methodism, which take account of
+class-meeting membership only. Estimating the other Methodist bodies
+at the same rate, Methodist chapels provide accommodation for
+3,000,000 people; so that the united Methodist Church in this country
+is second only to the Established Church of England.
+
+The Wesleyan Methodist Trust Assurance Company was established in
+1872, for the insurance of Methodist Trust property only. The Board
+of Trustees for Chapel Purposes was formed in 1866, which undertakes
+to invest money intended for the chapel trust and for Methodist
+objects. Seeing that there are so many funds in Methodism, and that
+while some have a balance, others might be obliged to borrow at a
+high rate of interest, it was suggested that a Common Cash Fund
+should be established, making it possible for the committees to
+borrow from and lend to one another, the borrowers paying the
+ordinary bank rate of interest, and the profits being equally divided
+among the funds.
+
+[Illustration: Theological Institution, Handsworth.]
+
+A passing reference must be made to another committee, instituted in
+1803--the Committee of Privileges and Exigency: and in 1845 an acting
+special committee for cases of great emergency was formed. Between
+the sessions of the Conference this committee often renders great
+service, safeguarding Methodist interests when they would be
+endangered by proposed government measures, or in any other way. At
+present it is engaged in trying to get through Parliament several
+measures in the interests of Nonconformity generally.
+
+The subject of education drew the anxious attention of Wesley; his
+followers were less alive to its importance, until just before the
+Queen came to the throne. The training of the ministry was neglected,
+and the young ministers had to educate themselves. Though Wesley
+approved the idea of a seminary for his preachers, it was only three
+years before the Queen's accession that the first Theological
+Institution was opened at Hoxton. The Centenary Fund provided for one
+such institution at Richmond, and another at Didsbury. The Headingley
+branch was opened in 1868, and the Birmingham branch, built with part
+of the Thanksgiving Fund, in 1881. Our ministers are now far better
+trained than were the old Methodist preachers, and, taking them as a
+whole, they do not come short of their predecessors in any necessary
+qualification for their work.
+
+[Illustration: Kingswood School, Bath.]
+
+Their culture must not be judged by the scantiness of their literary
+production. The empress Catherine once said to a French _savant_, "My
+dear philosopher, it is not so easy to write on human flesh as on
+paper." Much more difficult is the task of our ministers, whose
+religious, social, and financial work leaves them little of that
+learned leisure enjoyed by Anglican divines, who by their masterly
+works have made the entire Christian Church their debtor. But in the
+period we are reviewing, despite the demands made on the time of the
+ministers, many have written that which will not easily be forgotten.
+The Church that nurtured Dr. Moulton, whose edition of Winer's "Greek
+Grammar" is a standard work, used by all the greatest Greek New
+Testament scholars, need not be ashamed of her learning. Dr. Moulton
+and Dr. Geden were on the revision committee which undertook the
+fresh translation of the Old and New Testaments. Other Wesleyan
+ministers have made their mark as commentators, apologists, scholars,
+and scientists in the last few decades. The _Fernley Lectures_ have
+proved the ability of many Methodist preachers; we lack space to
+refer to the many able writers who have ceased from their labours.
+
+The _London Quarterly Review_ has kept up the literary reputation of
+Methodism: nor are we behind any Nonconformist Church in journalistic
+matters. Two newspapers represent the varying shades of opinion in
+Methodism, and give full scope to its expression. A high level of
+excellence is seen in the publications of the Book Room, and our
+people when supporting it are also helping important Connexional
+funds, to which the profits are given.
+
+[Illustration: The North House, Leys School, Cambridge.]
+
+While increasing care has been taken with the training of the
+ministry, lay education has not been neglected. Kingswood School,
+founded by Wesley, continues, as in his day, to give excellent
+instruction to ministers' sons. In 1837 a Methodist school, Wesley
+College, was opened at Sheffield, and a few years later one at
+Taunton, well known as Queen's College. The Leys School at Cambridge,
+under the head-mastership of Dr. Moulton, was opened in 1874, and has
+shown "the possibility of reconciling Methodist training with the
+breadth and freedom of English public school life." There are in
+Ireland excellent colleges at Belfast and Dublin.
+
+In 1875, a scheme for establishing middle-class schools was adopted,
+resulting in the opening of such schools at Truro, Jersey, Bury St.
+Edmunds, Woodhouse Grove, Congleton, Canterbury, Folkestone,
+Trowbridge, Penzance, Camborne, and Queenswood; all report
+satisfactorily.
+
+Elementary education, which has made such great progress during the
+Queen's reign, engaged the anxious attention of our authorities long
+before the initiation of the School Board system, under which the
+average attendance in twenty-five years increased almost fourfold.
+Methodism has been in the forefront of the long battle with
+ignorance.
+
+The establishment of "week-day schools" in connexion with this great
+Church owed its origin to the declaration of the Conference in 1833.
+that "such institutions, placed under an efficient spiritual control,
+cannot fail to promote those high and holy ends for which we exist as
+a religious community." The object was to give the scholars "an
+education which might begin in the infant school and end in heaven,"
+thus subserving the lofty aim of Methodism, "to fill the world with
+saints, and Paradise with glorified spirits"; a more ambitious idea
+than that expressed by Huxley when he said, "We want a great highway,
+along which the child of the peasant as well as of the peer can climb
+to the highest seats of learning."
+
+[Illustration: Queen's College, Taunton.]
+
+In 1836 the attention of the Conference was directed to education in
+general, and especially to Wesleyan day schools; the Pastoral Address
+of 1837, regretting that children had to be trained outside the
+Church or be left untaught, expressed the hope that soon, in the
+larger circuits, schools might be established which would give a
+scriptural and Wesleyan education. Already some schools had been
+commenced; and the plan was devised which has been the basis of all
+subsequent Methodist day-school work.
+
+In 1840 it was decided to spend the interest of the £5,000 given from
+the Centenary Fund for the training of teachers, work which was at
+first carried on at Glasgow. The determination of Conference to
+perfect its plan of Wesleyan education was quickened when an unfair
+Education Bill, not the last of its kind, was introduced into
+Parliament in 1843, proposing to hand over the children in factory
+districts to the Church of England. An Education Fund was
+established. Government, in 1847, offered grants for the training of
+elementary school teachers; and in 1851 the Westminster Training
+College was opened, with room for 130 men students. In 1872, in
+response to an increased demand for Wesleyan teachers, a separate
+college for mistresses was opened at Southlands, Battersea. Already
+four thousand have been trained in these institutions. Many hold
+positions in Board schools. In 1896 the number in Wesleyan and Board
+schools was 2,400.
+
+The system thus inaugurated met a great and real need, and under it
+excellent work has been done on the lines laid down by the Department
+at Whitehall; for, receiving State aid, the training colleges and all
+the schools, like other similar denominational institutions on the
+same footing, are inspected and in a measure controlled by the
+national educational authority. In 1837 there were only 31 Wesleyan
+day schools; to-day there are 753 school departments, and on their
+books 162,609 scholars. But the introduction of free education has
+made it difficult for the Methodist Church to maintain her schools,
+efficient though they be. Since 1870, when school boards were
+introduced, the number of Wesleyan day schools has only increased by
+10, while 9,752 Board schools have arisen, and the Church of England
+schools have increased from 9,331 to 16,517; the Roman Catholic
+schools actually trebling in number and attendance.
+
+[Illustration: Wesley College, Sheffield.]
+
+In view of these changed conditions, Conference has expressed itself
+anxious for such a complete national system of education as might
+place a Christian unsectarian school within reasonable distance of
+every family, especially in rural districts, with "adequate
+representative public management"; it has most earnestly deprecated
+the exclusion of the Bible, and suitable religious instruction
+therefrom by the teachers, from the day schools; but, so long as
+denominational schools form part of the national system, it is
+resolved to maintain our schools and Training Colleges, in full
+vigour. Difficulties, undreamed of sixty years ago, surround this
+great question; but assuredly Methodism will be true to its trust and
+its traditions.
+
+The cost of Wesleyan schools last year was £215,634, and was met by
+school fees, subscriptions, and a government grant of £185,780. The
+Education Fund of 1896, amounting to £7,115, was spent on the
+Training Colleges, grants to necessitous schools, etc.
+
+Wesley approved of Sunday schools as means of giving religious
+instruction to the children of the poor, and Hannah Ball at High
+Wycombe, a good Methodist, and Silas Told, teaching at the Foundery,
+both anticipated the work of Raikes by several years. In 1837 there
+were already 3,339 Sunday schools, with 341,442 scholars. Today the
+schools number 7,147, the officers and teachers 131,145, and there
+are in the schools 965,201 children and young people. The formation
+in 1869 of the Circuit Sunday-school Union, and in 1874 of the
+Connexional Sunday-school Union, has done much for the schools, in
+providing suitable literature for teachers and scholars, and in
+organising their work. An additional motive to Scripture study is
+furnished by the "Religious Knowledge Examinations" instituted by
+Conference; certificates, signed by the President, being granted to
+teachers and scholars who succeed in passing the examinations. In
+recognition of the value of so important a department of the Church,
+adequate representation at the quarterly meetings is now accorded to
+the Sunday schools.
+
+It is not in our day only that the pastoral oversight of the young
+has been deemed worthy of attention; the duty has always been
+enforced on ministers; but in 1878 there were first formed junior
+Society classes, to prepare children for full membership. There are
+now seventy-two thousand in such classes.
+
+In 1896 we note a new effort to bring young people into the kingdom,
+in the foundation of the "Wesley Guild," of which the President of
+Conference is the head, with four vice-presidents, two being laymen.
+The guild is "a union of the young people of a congregation. Its
+keynote is comradeship, and its aim is to encourage the young people
+of our Church in the highest aims of life." The story of its origin
+may be briefly told.
+
+The Rev. Charles H. Kelly introduced the subject in the London
+Methodist Council, and then brought the matter before the Plymouth
+Conference of 1895, dwelling on the desire existing to form a Wesley
+Guild that should do for Britain what the Epworth League does for
+American Methodism, and secure the best advantages not only of that
+league, but of the Boys' Brigade, Bands of Hope, Christian Endeavour
+and Mutual Improvement Societies, which it should federate. The
+Liverpool Conference of 1896 therefore sanctioned the formation of
+the "Wesley Guild." Its three grades of members include young people
+already attached to the Church, with others not yet ripe for such
+identification, and "older people young in heart," who all join in
+guild friendship, and aid in forming this federation of the existing
+societies interesting to young people.
+
+By periodical meetings, weekly if possible, for devotional, social,
+and literary purposes, a healthy common life and beneficent activity
+are stimulated, and the rising generation is happily and usefully
+drawn into relation with the older Church workers, whom it aids by
+seeking out the young, lonely, and unattached, and bringing them into
+the warm circle of youthful fellowship.
+
+Such in brief is the programme of the Guild, which may yet greatly
+enrich the Church with which it is connected.
+
+We turn now to one of the most notable changes in Methodism during
+the Queen's reign--the wonderful advance in the temperance movement.
+Wesley himself was an ardent temperance reformer, but his preachers
+were slow to follow him. A few prominent men strove long to induce
+Conference to institute a temperance branch of our work, and finally
+succeeded, their efforts having effected a great change in opinion.
+For many years our theological students, though not compelled
+thereto, have almost all been pledged abstainers. 1873 saw Conference
+appoint a temperance committee "to promote legislation for the more
+effectual control of the liquor traffic--and in general for the
+suppression of intemperance." In 1879 a scheme was sanctioned for the
+formation of Methodist Bands of Hope and Circuit Temperance Unions;
+and a special Sunday, the last in November, is devoted to considering
+"the appalling extent and dire result" of our national sin, one of
+the greatest obstacles to that "spread of scriptural holiness" which
+is the aim of the true Wesleyan Methodist, whose chosen Church, with
+its manifold organisation, has unequalled facilities for temperance
+work. In 1896 the report showed 1,374 temperance societies, with
+80,000 members--figures that do not include all the abstainers in
+Methodism; some societies have no temperance association, and some
+Methodists are connected with other than our own temperance work. The
+4,393 Bands of Hope count 433,027 members.
+
+[Illustration: Children's Home, Bolton.]
+
+We have already spoken of the growth and development of social
+philanthropic work in connexion with the great Methodist missions in
+towns; there remains one most important movement in this direction to
+notice--the establishment of the "Children's Home," which, begun in
+1869 by Dr. Stephenson, received Conference recognition in 1871. It
+has now branches in London, Lancashire, Gravesend, Birmingham, and
+the Isle of Man, and an emigration depot in Canada. Over 900 girls
+and boys are in residence, while more than 2,900 have been sent forth
+well equipped for the battle of life; some of them becoming
+ministers, local preachers, Sunday-school workers, and in many ways
+most useful citizens. The committee of management has the sanction of
+Conference. This "powerful arm of Christian work" not only rescues
+helpless little ones from degradation and misery; it undertakes the
+special training of the workers amongst the children in industrial
+homes and orphanages; and hence has arisen the institution in 1895 of
+the order of Methodist deaconesses, which is recommended by
+Conference to Connexional sympathy and confidence, the deaconesses
+rendering to our Church such services as the Sisters of Mercy give to
+the Church of Rome. One example may suffice. A London superintendent
+minister describes the work of one of the Sisters during the past
+twelvemonth as "simply invaluable. She has visited the poor, nursed
+the sick, held services in lodging-houses, met Society classes and
+Bible-classes, gathered round her a godly band of mission-workers,
+and in a hundred ways has promoted the interests of God's work."
+
+Two events made 1891 memorable for Methodists, the centenary of
+Wesley's death and its commemoration being the first.
+
+The Conference decided that suitable memorial services should be
+held, and an appeal made to Methodists everywhere for funds to
+improve Wesley's Chapel and the graveyard containing his tomb.
+Universal interest was aroused; all branches of Methodism were
+represented; the leading ministers of Nonconformist Churches also
+shared in the services. Crowded and enthusiastic congregations
+assembled in City Road when on Sunday, March 1, the Rev. Charles H.
+Kelly, Ex-President, preached on "The Man, his Teaching, and his
+Work," and when the Rev. Dr. Moulton delivered the centenary sermon.
+On March 2, a statue of Wesley was unveiled--exactly one hundred
+years after his death--Dean Farrar and Sir Henry H. Fowler addressing
+the meeting.
+
+[Illustration: Westminster Training College.]
+
+The Allan Library, the gift of the late Thomas R. Allan, containing
+more than 30,000 books and dissertations, was opened by the
+President; it has since been enriched by gifts of modern books from
+the Fernley Trustees and others, and a circulating library is now
+connected with it. Accessible on easy terms to ministers and local
+preachers, and within the reach of many others, this library should
+be a useful stimulus to the taste for study among ministers and
+people.
+
+The other event of the year was the meeting of the second Oecumenical
+Conference in October, at Washington, in the country where Methodism
+obtained great triumphs. The Conference lasted twelve days, like its
+predecessor; the opening sermon, prepared by the Rev. William Arthur,
+was read for him, Mr. Arthur's voice being too weak to be heard; and
+the President of the United States gave a reception at the Executive
+Mansion, and also visited the Conference. Many topics of deep
+interest were discussed on this occasion, and not the least
+attractive subject was the statistical report presented. The
+difficulty of estimating the actual strength and influence of
+Methodism is very great.
+
+In the present year the membership of the Wesleyan Methodists, for
+Great Britain and Ireland, is estimated at 494,287; of other
+Methodist bodies in the United Kingdom at 373,700; the affiliated
+Conferences of Wesleyan Methodists in France, South Africa, the West
+Indies, and Australasia at 212,849, being 1,942 for France, 62,812
+for South Africa, 50,365 for the two West Indian, and 97,730 for the
+Australasian Conferences. American Methodism in all its branches,
+white and coloured, returns a membership of 5,573,118, while the
+united Methodism of Canada shows 272,392, and the foreign missions of
+British Wesleyan Methodism 52,058 members. These figures, giving a
+total of 6,978,404 members, exclusive of the ministers, estimated at
+43,368, are sufficiently gratifying; yet they do not represent the
+real strength of the Church at large, and give only a faint idea of
+its influence.
+
+The Oecumenical Report gave the number of Methodist "adherents" as
+24,899,421, intending, by the term _adherents_, those whose religious
+home is the Methodist chapel, though their visits to it be irregular.
+For the British Wesleyans the two millions of sittings were supposed
+to represent the number of adherents (yet should all the occasional
+worshippers wish to attend at once, it may be doubted if they could
+be accommodated); for the other branches of Methodism in the United
+Kingdom, four additional persons were reckoned to each member
+reported. The statistics for Ireland and Canada were checked by the
+census returns. Probably in the case of missions the adherents would
+be more than four times the membership. Varying principles were
+adopted for the United States, and the adherents reckoned at less
+than four times the members reported. Should we to-day treat the
+returns of membership on the same principle (Sunday scholars being
+now as then included in the term "adherents "), we should find nearly
+thirty millions of persons in immediate touch with Methodism and
+strongly bound to it. Compare these figures with those of 1837, and
+we must exclaim, "What hath God wrought!"
+
+Estimating the increase of British Methodism, we have to remember
+that the population has almost doubled in the sixty years, while
+British Wesleyan Methodism has not doubled; but the great losses
+occasioned by the agitations must be taken into account, and also the
+curious fact that the ratio of increase for Methodism at large, in
+the ten years between the two Oecumenical Conferences, was thirty per
+cent--twice as great as the increase of population in the countries
+represented; the Methodist Church in Ireland actually increasing
+thirteen per cent, while the population of the country was
+diminishing and the other Protestant Churches reported loss.
+
+If the increase in Great Britain be proportionally smaller, this need
+not cause surprise, in view of that vast development of energy in the
+Established Church which is really due to the reflex action of
+Methodism itself; that Church, with all the old advantages of wealth
+and prestige and connexion with the universities and grammar schools
+which she possessed in the days of her comparative supine-ness, with
+her clergy roll of 23,000, and her many voluntary workers, having in
+twenty-seven years almost doubled the number of her elementary
+schools, largely attended by Methodist children. But the indirect
+influence of Methodism is such as cannot be represented in our
+returns; figures cannot show us the true spiritual status of a
+Church. The total cost of the maintenance of our work in all its
+branches can be estimated; and so able an authority as the Rev. Dr.
+H. J. Pope stated it at from £1,500,000 to £1,750,000 pounds
+annually, a sum more than equal to a dividend on fifty millions of
+consols; but it is impossible to compute the profit to the human race
+from that expenditure and the work it maintains. This may be said
+with certainty, that other Churches have been greatly enriched
+thereby. We may just refer to that remarkable religious movement, the
+Salvation Army, of Methodist origin, though working on new lines;
+doing such work, social and evangelistic, as Methodism has chosen for
+its own, and absorbing into its ranks many of our own trained
+workers. "The Salvationists, taught by Wesley," said the late Bishop
+of Durham, "have learned and taught to the Church again the lost
+secret of the compulsion of human souls to the Saviour."
+
+"The Methodists themselves," says John Richard Green, "are the least
+result of the Methodist revival"; the creation of "a large and
+powerful and active sect," numbering many millions, extending over
+both hemispheres, was, says Lecky, but one consequence of that
+revival, which exercised "a large influence upon the Established
+Church, upon the amount and distribution of the moral forces of the
+nation, and even upon its political history"; an influence which
+continues, the sons of Methodism taking their due part in local and
+imperial government. Eloquent tributes to the work of Wesley are
+frequent to-day, the _Times_, in an article on the centenary of his
+death, saying: "The Evangelical movement in the Church of England was
+the direct result of his influence and example, and since the
+movements and ideas which have moulded the Church of England to-day
+could have found no fitting soil for their development if they had
+not been preceded by the Evangelical movement, it is no paradox to
+say that the Church of England to-day is what it is because John
+Wesley lived and taught in the last century.... He remains the
+greatest, the most potent, the most far-reaching spiritual influence
+which Anglo-Saxon Christianity has felt since the days of the
+Reformation." So far the _Times_, of him whom it styles "the restorer
+of the Church of England." Many impartial writers, some being ardent
+friends of the English Church, have also recognised a gracious
+overflow from Methodism which has blessed that Church, the
+Nonconformist bodies, and the nation at large. If a man would
+understand "the religious history of the last hundred years," that
+"most important ecclesiastical fact of modern times," the rise and
+progress of Methodism, must be studied in relation to the Anglican
+and the older Nonconformist Churches, and the general "missionary
+interests of Christianity": so we are taught by Dr. Stoughton, who
+has traced the influence of Methodism in the general moral condition
+of the country and the voluntary institutions of our age. The
+doctrines once almost peculiar to Wesley and his followers--such as
+entire sanctification--are now accepted and taught by many Churches,
+and the religious usages of Methodism are imitated, watchnight
+services being held, and revival mission services and prayer-meetings
+being conducted, in Anglican churches; while the hymns of Charles
+Wesley, sung by all English-speaking Protestants, and translated into
+many languages, enrich the devotional life of the Christian world.
+
+It was a fit tribute to the benefits which the English Church has
+derived from the Methodist movement, when the memorial tablet to the
+brothers John and Charles Wesley was unveiled in Westminster Abbey by
+the late Dean Stanley, in 1872.
+
+"The bracing breezes," said Dr. Stoughton, "came sweeping down from
+the hills of Methodism on Baptist meadows as well as upon Independent
+fields." We may give some few instances that will show what blessings
+have come to Nonconformist Churches by the agency of Methodism.
+
+A remarkable incident that occurred in 1872 was recorded in the
+_Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_. Dr. Jobson had invited five eminent
+ministers to meet the President of Conference at his house. After
+breakfast their conversation quite naturally took the form of a
+lovefeast, all being familiar with Methodist custom; when Dr. Allon,
+Dr. Raleigh, and Dr. Stoughton all said they were converted in
+Methodist chapels, and began Christian work as Methodists. Thomas
+Binney said that "the direct instrumentality in his conversion was
+Wesleyan," and Dr. Fraser was induced to enter the ministry by a
+Wesleyan lady. Charles H. Spurgeon was converted through the
+instrumentality of a Primitive Methodist local preacher; William Jay
+of Bath was converted at a Methodist service; John Angell James
+caught fire among the Methodists; and Thomas Raffles was a member of
+the Wesleyan Society; Dr. Parker began his ministrations as a
+Methodist local preacher; while Dr. Dale has shown the indebtedness
+of Nonconformity to Methodism. In France and Germany Methodist agency
+has been one of the strongest forces in re-awakening the old
+Protestant Churches; the services held by our Connexional evangelists
+send many converts to swell the fellowship of Churches not our own.
+And the same effects followed the great Methodist revival in America;
+out of 1,300 converts, 800 joined the Presbyterian and other
+denominations. But while calling attention to the spiritual wealth
+and the beneficent overflow of Methodism, we would not be unmindful
+of the debt which Methodism owes to other Churches, and in special of
+its obligations to those Anglican divines of our day who have
+enriched the whole Church of Christ by their scholarly contributions
+to sacred literature; and we would ascribe all the praise of
+Methodist achievement to the almighty Author of good, whom the spirit
+of ostentation and vain glorifying must displease, while it would
+surely hinder His work.
+
+The great desire of Methodism to-day--its great need, as Dr. Handles
+expressed it in his presidential address--is "fulness of spiritual
+life." If this be attained, the actual resources of the Church will
+amply suffice to carry on its glorious future mission; it will not
+fail in its primary duties of giving prominence to the spirituality
+of religion, of maintaining strict fidelity to scriptural doctrine,
+of giving persevering illustration of the fellowship of believers,
+nor in upholding the expansion of home and foreign missions, nor in
+ceaseless efforts to promote social advancement. "There is no rigid
+system of Church mechanism, nor restraining dogma," to hinder
+missions.
+
+[Illustration: Group of Presidents Number Three.]
+
+At present four-sevenths of the human race are in heathen darkness.
+To win the world for Christ demands that Methodists should unite with
+all His true soldiers. Wesley said: "We have strong reason to hope
+that the work He hath begun He will carry on until the day of the
+Lord Jesus; that He will never intermit this blessed work of His
+Spirit until He has fulfilled all His promises, until He hath put a
+period to sin and misery, infirmity and death, re-established
+universal holiness and happiness, and caused all the inhabitants of
+the earth to sing, 'Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.'"
+If Methodism be faithful to her mission, this prophecy may be
+fulfilled.
+
+When the second temple was built, Haggai exhorted Zerubbabel and
+Joshua to be strong, and all the people to be strong, and to work,
+for the Lord was with them. Let Methodists be strong in God's
+strength, and work with the consciousness that the Lord of hosts is
+with them, and they will insure success to the great mission of their
+Church.
+
+We will conclude with the last paragraph of the Rev. Charles H.
+Kelly's sermon at the celebration of the centenary of Wesley's death
+in 1891.
+
+"Surely the lesson to the Methodists of to-day is clear enough. Let
+us cherish the memory of our forefathers, let us emulate their
+spirit, let us cling to their God-given doctrines, let us cultivate,
+as they did, communion with the Master and fellowship with each
+other. Let us aim to be one, to do our duty. Let us strive to make
+our Church a greater power for evangelism among the people of the
+earth than ever, let us look to the Holy Spirit for the richer
+baptism of grace, and Methodism, so blest of the Lord in the past,
+will yet be blest. Her mission is not accomplished, her work is not
+done; long may she live and prosper. Peace be within her walls, and
+prosperity within her palaces. For my brethren and companions' sake,
+the faithful living and the sainted dead, I will now say, Peace be
+within her; peace be within her."
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+The last days of the half-century are fleeting fast as we write, and
+we are yet at peace with Europe, as when Victoria's reign began. How
+long that peace shall last, who shall say? who can say how long it
+may be ere the elements of internal discord that have threatened to
+wreck the prosperity of the empire, shall be composed to a lasting
+peace, and leave the nation free to follow its better destiny? But
+foes within and foes without have many times assailed us in vain in
+past years; many times has the political horizon been shadowed with
+clouds portending war and strife no less gloomily than those which
+now darken it, and as yet the Crimean war is the only war on which we
+have entered that can be called European; many times have grave
+discontents broken our domestic peace, but wise statesmanship has
+found a timely remedy. We need not, if we learn the lessons of the
+past aright, fear greatly to confront the future. Not to us the glory
+or the praise, but to a merciful overruling Providence, ever raising
+up amongst us noble hearts in time, that we are found to-day
+
+        "A nation yet, the rulers and the ruled,"
+
+not quite bankrupt in heart or hope or faith, but possessing
+
+        "Some sense of duty, something of a faith,
+        Some reverence for the laws ourselves have made,
+        Some patient force to change them when we will;"
+
+and we may justly acknowledge, in thankfulness not vainglorious, the
+happier fate that has been ours above many another land, that may
+still be ours, "if England to itself do rest but true."
+
+We have seen during these sixty years the map of Europe remodelled to
+an undreamed of extent. Fair Italy, though still possessing her fatal
+gift of beauty, though still suffering many things, is no longer the
+prey of foreign unloved rulers, but has become a nation, a mere
+"geographical expression" no longer; Germany, whose many little
+princedoms were once a favourite theme of British mockery, is now one
+great and formidable empire; the power of Russia has, despite the
+Crimean check, continued to expand, while desperate internal
+struggles have shaken that half-developed people, proving fatal to
+the gentle successor of Nicholas, the emancipator of the Russian
+serfs, and often threatening the life of _his_ successors; and the
+once formidable American slave-system has been swept away, with
+appalling loss of human life; a second President of the United States
+has fallen by the hand of an assassin; and new difficulties, scarce
+inferior to those connected with slavery, have followed on its
+abolition. Our record shows no calamity comparable to the greatest of
+these, if we set aside the Indian horrors so terribly avenged at the
+moment, but by their teaching resulting ultimately in good rather
+than evil.
+
+Besides the furious strife and convulsion that have rent other lands,
+how inconsiderable seem the disturbances that disfigure our home
+annals, how peaceful the changes in our constitutional system,
+brought about orderly in due form of law, how purely domestic the
+saddest events of our internal history! We wept with our Sovereign in
+her early widowhood, a bereavement to the people as well as to the
+Queen; we trembled with her when the shadow of death hung over her
+eldest son, rejoicing with her when it passed away; we shared her
+grief for two other of her children, inheritors of the noble
+qualities of their father, and for the  doom which took from us one
+whom we had loved to call "our future king"; we deplored the other
+bereavements which darkened her  advancing years; we have lamented
+great  men taken from us, some, like the conqueror of Waterloo, "the
+great world-victor's victor," in the fulness of age and honour,
+others with their glorious work seemingly half done, their career of
+usefulness mysteriously cut short; we have shuddered when the hateful
+terrorism, traditional pest of Ireland through centuries of wrong and
+outrage, has once and again lifted its head among ourselves; we have
+suffered--though far less severely than other lands, even than some
+under our own rule--from plague, pestilence, and famine, from dearth
+of work and food. But what are these woes compared to those that
+other peoples have endured, when it has been said to the sword,
+"Sword, go through the land," and the dread word has been obeyed;
+when war has slain its thousands, and want its tens of thousands; or
+when terrible convulsions of nature have shaken down cities, and
+turned the fruitful land into a wilderness?
+
+Events have moved fast since the already distant day when the
+Colonial and Industrial Exhibition was ministering exultation to many
+a British heart by its wonderful display of the various wealth of our
+distant domains and their great industrial resources. We were even
+then tempted--as have been nations that are no more--to pride
+ourselves on having reached an unassailable height of grandeur. Since
+then our territory has expanded and our wealth increased; but with
+them have increased the evils and the dangers inseparable from great
+possessions, and the responsibilities involved in them. We can only
+"rejoice with trembling" in this our second year of Jubilee.
+Remembering with all gratitude how we have been spared hitherto, and
+mindful of the perils that wait on power and prosperity, let it be
+ours to offer such sacrifices of thanksgiving as can be pleasing to
+the almighty Ruler of the ways of men, whom too often in pride of
+power, in selfish satisfaction with our own achievements, we forget.
+
+Many are the works of mercy, well pleasing in His sight, with which
+we can associate ourselves, even in this favoured land, whose ever
+increasing wealth is balanced by terrible poverty, and its affluence
+of intellectual and spiritual light by grossest heathen darkness. Day
+by day, as our brief account has shown, are increasing efforts put
+forth by our Christian men and women to overcome these evils; and
+through such agencies our country may yet be saved, and may not
+perish like other mighty empires, dragged down by its own
+over-swollen greatness, and by neglect of the eternal truth that
+"righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any
+people."
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT BRITAIN AND HER QUEEN***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 13103-8.txt or 13103-8.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/0/13103
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/old/13103-8.zip b/old/13103-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..21e32a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-8.zip
diff --git a/old/13103-h.zip b/old/13103-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de03154
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h.zip
diff --git a/old/13103-h/13103-h.htm b/old/13103-h/13103-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7057159
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/13103-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,7131 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Great Britain and Her Queen, by Anne E.
+      Keeling
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+	body 	{background:#faebd7;
+			 color:black;
+			 font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;
+			 font-size:14pt;
+			 margin-top:100px;
+			 margin-left:10%;
+			 margin-right:10%;
+			 text-align:justify}
+	hr { width: 100%;
+	     height: 5px; }
+	hr.narrow { width: 50%;
+	            height: 1px; }
+	blockquote { font-size: 14pt; }
+	blockquote.footnote { font-size: 14pt; }
+    .smallcaps { font-variant: small-caps }
+    p.footnote { margin-left: 5%;
+                 margin-right: 0;
+                 text-indent: 0;
+                 font-size: 14pt; }
+	table   {font-size:14pt}
+    p {text-indent: 4% }
+	a:link {color:blue;
+			text-decoration:none}
+	link {color:blue;
+			text-decoration:none}
+	a:visited {color:blue;
+			text-decoration:none}
+	a:hover {color:red}
+	pre		{font-size: 9pt;}
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+    <h1>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook, Great Britain and Her Queen, by Anne E.
+      Keeling
+    </h1>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+    <p>
+      Title: Great Britain and Her Queen
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Author: Anne E. Keeling
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Release Date: August 3, 2004 [eBook #13103]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Language: English
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT BRITAIN AND HER QUEEN***
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      E-text prepared by Roy Brown<br /> <br /> HTML version prepared by Joseph E.
+      Loewenstein, M.D.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL001" id="ILL001"></a> <a
+      href="images/001 Queen Victoria.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/001 Queen Victoria.jpg" alt="Queen Victoria" width="60%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Queen Victoria
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      GREAT BRITAIN AND HER QUEEN
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br /> by<br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      ANNE E. KEELING
+    </h2>
+    <h4>
+      Author of "General Gordon: Hero and Saint,"<br /> "The Oakhurst
+      Chronicles," "Andrew Golding," etc.
+    </h4>
+    <h3>
+      Second Edition. Revised and Enlarged, 1897
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr class="narrow" />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CONTENTS
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td align="right">
+          I.&nbsp;&nbsp;
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#1">THE GIRL QUEEN AND HER KINGDOM</a>
+        </td>
+        <td align="right">
+          II.&nbsp;&nbsp;
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#2">STORM AND SUNSHINE</a>
+        </td>
+        <td align="right">
+          III.&nbsp;&nbsp;
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#3">FRANCE AND ENGLAND</a>
+        </td>
+        <td align="right">
+          IV.&nbsp;&nbsp;
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#4">THE CRIMEAN WAR</a>
+        </td>
+        <td align="right">
+          V.&nbsp;&nbsp;
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#5">INDIA</a>
+        </td>
+        <td align="right">
+          VI.&nbsp;&nbsp;
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#6">THE BEGINNINGS OF SORROWS</a>
+        </td>
+        <td align="right">
+          VII.&nbsp;&nbsp;
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#7">CHANGES GOOD AND EVIL</a>
+        </td>
+        <td align="right">
+          VIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#8">OUR COLONIES</a>
+        </td>
+        <td align="right">
+          IX.&nbsp;&nbsp;
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#9">INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL PROGRESS</a>
+        </td>
+        <td align="right">
+          X.&nbsp;&nbsp;
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#10">PROGRESS OF THE EMPIRE FROM 1887 TO 1897</a>
+        </td>
+        <td valign="top" align="right">
+          XI.&nbsp;&nbsp;
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#11">PROGRESS OF WESLEYAN METHODISM<br />UNDER QUEEN VICTORIA,
+          1837-1897</a>
+        </td>
+        <td align="right">
+          &nbsp;&nbsp;
+        </td>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#12">CONCLUSION</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      ILLUSTRATIONS
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <table>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL001">Queen Victoria</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL002">Claremont</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL003">The Coronation of Queen Victoria</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL004">Kensington Palace</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL005">Duchess of Kent</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL006">Elizabeth Fry</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL007">Rowland Hill</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL008">Father Mathew</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL009">George Stephenson</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL010">Wheatstone</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL011">St. James's Palace</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL012">Prince Albert</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL013">The Queen in Her Wedding-Dress</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL014">Sir Robert Peel</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL015">Daniel O'Connell</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL016">Richard Cobden</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL017">John Bright</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL018">Lord John Russell</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL019">Thomas Chalmers</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL020">John Henry Newmann</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL021">Balmoral</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL022">Buckingham Palace</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL023">Napoleon III</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL024">The Crystal Palace, 1851</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL025">Lord Ashley</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL026">Earl of Derby</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL027">Duke of Wellington</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL028">Florence Nightingale</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL029">Lord Canning</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL030">Sir Colin Campbell</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL031">Henry Havelock</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL032">Sir John Lawrence</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL033">Windsor Castle</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL034">Prince Frederick William</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL035">Princess Royal</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL036">Charles Kingsley</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL037">Lord Palmerston</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL038">Abraham Lincoln and his son</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL039">Princess Alice</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL040">The Mausoleum</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL041">Dr. Norman Macleod</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL042">Prince of Wales</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL043">Princess of Wales</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL044">Osborne House</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL045">Sir Robert Napier</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL046">Mr. Gladstone</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL047">Lord Beaconsfield</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL048">Lord Salisbury</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL049">General Gordon</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL050">Duke of Albany</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL051">Duchess of Albany</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL052">Sydney Heads</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL053">Robert Southey</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL054">William Wordsworth</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL055">Alfred Tennyson</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL056">Robert Browning</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL057">Charles Dickens</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL058">W. M. Thackeray</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL059">Charlotte Brontė</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL060">Lord Macaulay</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL061">Thomas Carlyle</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL062">William Whewell, D.D.</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL063">Sir David Brewster</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL064">Sir James Y. Simpson</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL065">Michael Faraday</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL066">David Livingstone</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL067">Sir John Franklin</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL068">John Ruskin</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL069">Dean Stanley</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL070">"I was sick, and ye visited me"</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL071">Duke of Connaught</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL072">The Imperial Institute</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL073">Duke of Clarence</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL074">Duke of York</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL075">Duchess of York</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL076">Princess Henry of Battenberg</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL077">Prince Henry of Battenberg</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL078">The Czarina of Russia</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL079">H. M. Stanley</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL080">Dr. Fridtjof Nansen</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL081">Miss Kingsley</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL082">J. M. Barrie</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL083">Richard Jefferies</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL084">Rev. J. G. Wood</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL085">Dean Church</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL086">Professor Huxley</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL087">Professor Tyndall</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL088">C. H. Spurgeon</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL089">Dr. Horatius Bonar</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL090">Sir J. E. Millais, P.R.A.</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL091">Sir Frederick Leighton, P.R.A.</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL092">Wesley preaching on his father's tomb</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL093">Group of Presidents No. 1</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL094">Centenary Meeting at Manchester</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          Key to Centenary Meeting
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL095">Wesleyan Centenary Hall</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL096">Group of Presidents No. 2</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL097">Sir Francis Lycett</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL098">The Methodist Settlement, Bermondsey. London, S.E.</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL099">Theological Institution, Richmond</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL101">Theological Institution, Didsbury</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL102">Theological Institution, Headingley</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL103">Theological Institution, Handsworth</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL104">Kingswood School, Bath</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL105">The North House, Leys School, Cambridge</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL106">Queen's College, Taunton</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL107">Wesley College, Sheffield</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL108">Children's Home, Bolton</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL109">Westminster Training College and Schools</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <a href="#ILL110">Group of Presidents No. 3</a>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL002" id="ILL002"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/002 Claremont.jpg" alt="Claremont" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Claremont
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="1"></a> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CHAPTER I<br /> <br /> THE GIRL-QUEEN AND HER KINGDOM
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Rather more than one mortal lifetime, as we average life in these later
+      days, has elapsed since that June morning of 1837, when Victoria of
+      England, then a fair young princess of eighteen, was roused from her
+      tranquil sleep in the old palace at Kensington, and bidden to rise and
+      meet the Primate, and his dignified associates the Lord Chamberlain and
+      the royal physician, who "were come on business of state to the Queen"&mdash;words
+      of startling import, for they meant that, while the royal maiden lay
+      sleeping, the aged King, whose heiress she was, had passed into the deeper
+      sleep of death. It is already an often-told story how promptly, on
+      receiving that summons, the young Queen rose and came to meet her first
+      homagers, standing before them in hastily assumed wrappings, her hair
+      hanging loosely, her feet in slippers, but in all her hearing such royally
+      firm composure as deeply impressed those heralds of her greatness, who
+      noticed at the same moment that her eyes were full of tears. This little
+      scene is not only charming and touching, it is very significant,
+      suggesting a combination of such qualities as are not always found united:
+      sovereign good sense and readiness, blending with quick, artless feeling
+      that sought no disguise&mdash;such feeling as again betrayed itself when
+      on her ensuing proclamation the new Sovereign had to meet her people face
+      to face, and stood before them at her palace window, composed but sad, the
+      tears running unchecked down her fair pale face. <br /> <a name="ILL003"
+      id="ILL003"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/003 The Coronation of Queen Victoria.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/003 The Coronation of Queen Victoria.jpg"
+      alt="The Coronation of Queen Victoria" width="50%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      The Coronation of Queen Victoria
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      That rare spectacle of simple human emotion, at a time when a selfish or
+      thoughtless spirit would have leaped in exultation, touched the heart of
+      England deeply, and was rightly held of happy omen. The nation's feeling
+      is aptly expressed in the glowing verse of Mrs. Browning, praying Heaven's
+      blessing on the "weeping Queen," and prophesying for her the love,
+      happiness, and honour which have been hers in no stinted measure. "Thou
+      shalt be well beloved," said the poetess; there are very few sovereigns of
+      whom it could be so truly said that they <i>have</i> been well beloved,
+      for not many have so well deserved it. The faith of the singer has been
+      amply justified, as time has made manifest the rarer qualities joyfully
+      divined in those early days in the royal child, the single darling hope of
+      the nation. <br /> <a name="ILL004" id="ILL004"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/004 Kensington Palace.jpg" alt="Kensington Palace" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Kensington Palace
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Once before in the recent annals of our land had expectations and desires
+      equally ardent centred themselves on one young head. Much of the loyal
+      devotion which had been alienated from the immediate family of George III.
+      had transferred itself to his grandchild, the Princess Charlotte, sole
+      offspring of the unhappy marriage between George, Prince of Wales, and
+      Caroline of Brunswick. The people had watched with vivid interest the
+      young romance of Princess Charlotte's happy marriage, and had bitterly
+      lamented her too early death&mdash;an event which had overshadowed all
+      English hearts with forebodings of disaster. Since that dark day a little
+      of the old attachment of England to its sovereigns had revived for the
+      frank-mannered sailor and "patriot king," William IV; but the hopes
+      crushed by the death of the much-regretted Charlotte had renewed
+      themselves with even better warrant for Victoria. She was the child of no
+      ill-omened, miserable marriage, but of a fitting union; her parents had
+      been sundered only by death, not by wretched domestic dissensions. People
+      heard that the mortal malady which deprived her of a father had been
+      brought about by the Duke of Kent's simple delight in his baby princess,
+      which kept him playing with the child when he should have been changing
+      his wet outdoor garb; and they found something touching and tender in the
+      tragic little circumstance. And everything that could be noticed of the
+      manner in which the bereaved duchess was training up her precious charge
+      spoke well for the mother's wisdom and affection, and for the future of
+      the daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was indeed a happy day for England when Edward, Duke of Kent, the
+      fourth son of George III, was wedded to Victoria of Saxe-Coburg, the
+      widowed Princess of Leiningen&mdash;happy, not only because of the
+      admirable skill with which that lady conducted her illustrious child's
+      education, and because of the pure, upright principles, the frank, noble
+      character, which she transmitted to that child, but because the family
+      connection established through that marriage was to be yet further
+      serviceable to the interests of our realm. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg
+      was second son of the Duchess of Kent's eldest brother, and thus first
+      cousin of the Princess Victoria&mdash;"the Mayflower," as, in fond
+      allusion to the month of her birth, her mother's kinsfolk loved to call
+      her: and it has been made plain that dreams of a possible union between
+      the two young cousins, very nearly of an age, were early cherished by the
+      elders who loved and admired both. <br /> <a name="ILL005" id="ILL005"></a>
+      <br /> <a href="images/005 Duchess of Kent.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/005 Duchess of Kent.jpg" alt="Duchess of Kent" width="45%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Duchess of Kent<br /> (From an Engraving by Messrs. P. &amp; D. Colnaghi
+      &amp; Co., Pall Mall East)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The Princess's life, however, was sedulously guarded from all disturbing
+      influences. She grew up in healthy simplicity and seclusion; she was not
+      apprised of her nearness to the throne till she was twelve years old; she
+      had been little at Court, little in sight, but had been made familiar with
+      her own land and its history, having received the higher education so
+      essential to her great position; while simple truth and rigid honesty were
+      the very atmosphere of her existence. From such a training much might be
+      hoped; but even those who knew most and hoped most were not quite prepared
+      for the strong individual character and power of self-determination that
+      revealed themselves in the girlish being so suddenly transferred "from the
+      nursery to the throne." It was quickly noticed that the part of Queen and
+      mistress seemed native to her, and that she filled it with not more grace
+      than propriety. "She always strikes me as possessed of singular
+      penetration, firmness, and independence," wrote Dr. Norman Macleod in
+      1860; acute observers in 1837 took note of the same traits, rarer far in
+      youth than in full maturity, and closely connected with the "reasoning,
+      searching" quality of her mind, "anxious to get at the root and reality of
+      things, and abhorring all shams, whether in word or deed <a
+      id="footnotetag1" name="footnotetag1"></a> <a href="#footnote1">[1]</a>."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was well for England that its young Sovereign could exemplify virile
+      strength as well as womanly sweetness; for it was indeed a cloudy and dark
+      day when she was called to her post of lonely grandeur and hard
+      responsibility; and to fill that post rightly would have overtasked and
+      overwhelmed a feebler nature. It is true that the peace of Europe, won at
+      Waterloo, was still unbroken. But already, within our borders and without
+      them, there were the signs of coming storm. The condition of Ireland was
+      chronically bad; the condition of England was full of danger; on the
+      Continent a new period of earth-shaking revolution announced itself not
+      doubtfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would be hardly possible to exaggerate the wretched state of the sister
+      isle, where fires of recent hate were still smouldering, and where the
+      poor inhabitants, guilty and guiltless, were daily living on the verge of
+      famine, over which they were soon to be driven. Their ill condition much
+      aggravated by the intemperate habits to which despairing men so easily
+      fall a prey. The expenditure of Ireland on proof spirits alone had in the
+      year 1829 attained the sum of &pound;6,000,000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In England many agricultural labourers were earning starvation wages, were
+      living on bad and scanty food, and were housed so wretchedly that they
+      might envy the hounds their dry and clean kennels. A dark symptom of their
+      hungry discontent had shown itself in the strange crime of rick-burning,
+      which went on under cloud of night season after season, despite the utmost
+      precautions which the luckless farmers could adopt. The perpetrators were
+      not dimly guessed to be half-famished creatures, taking a mad revenge for
+      their wretchedness by destroying the tantalising stores of grain, too
+      costly for their consumption; the price of wheat in the early years of Her
+      Majesty's reign and for some time previously being very high, and reaching
+      at one moment (1847) the extraordinary figure of a hundred and two
+      shillings per quarter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was threatening distress, too, in some parts of the manufacturing
+      districts; in others a tolerably high level of wages indicated prosperity.
+      But even in the more favoured districts there was needless suffering. The
+      hours of work, unrestricted by law, were cruelly long; nor did there exist
+      any restriction as to the employment of operatives of very tender years.
+      "The cry of the children" was rising up to heaven, not from the factory
+      only, but from the underground darkness of the mine, where a system of
+      pitiless infant slavery prevailed, side by side with the employment of
+      women as beasts of burden, "in an atmosphere of filth and profligacy." The
+      condition of too many toilers was rendered more hopeless by the thriftless
+      follies born of ignorance. The educational provision made by the piety of
+      former ages was no longer adequate to the needs of the ever-growing
+      nation; and all the voluntary efforts made by clergy and laity, by
+      Churchmen and Dissenters, did not fill up the deficiency&mdash;a fact
+      which had only just begun to meet with State recognition. It was in 1834
+      that Government first obtained from Parliament the grant of a small sum in
+      aid of education. Under a defective system of poor-relief, recently
+      reformed, an immense mass of idle pauperism had come into being; it still
+      remained to be seen if a new Poor Law could do away with the mischief
+      created by the old one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Looking at the earliest years of Her Majesty's rule, the first impulse is
+      to exclaim:
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <blockquote>
+        <p>
+          "And all this trouble did not pass, but grew."
+        </p>
+      </blockquote>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      It seemed as if poverty became ever more direful, and dissatisfaction more
+      importunate. A succession of unfavourable seasons and failing crops
+      produced extraordinary distress; and the distress in its turn was fruitful
+      first of deepened discontent, and then of political disturbances. The
+      working classes had looked for immediate relief from their burdens when
+      the Reform Bill should be carried, and had striven hard to insure its
+      success: it had been carried triumphantly in 1832, but no perceptible
+      improvement in their lot had yet resulted; and a resentful feeling of
+      disappointment and of being victims of deception now added bitterness to
+      their blind sense of misery and injury, and greatly exasperated the
+      political agitation of the ten stormy years that followed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No position could well be more trying than that of the inexperienced girl
+      who, in the first bloom of youth, was called to rule the land in this wild
+      transitional period. Her royal courage and gracious tact, her transparent
+      truthfulness, her high sense of duty, and her precocious discretion served
+      her well; but these young excellences could not have produced their full
+      effect had she not found in her first Prime Minister a faithful friend and
+      servant, whose loyal and chivalrous devotion at once conciliated her
+      regard, and who only used the influence thus won to impress on his
+      Sovereign's mind "sound maxims of constitutional government, and truths of
+      every description which it behoved her to learn." The records of the time
+      show plainly that Lord Melbourne, the eccentric head of William IV's last
+      Whig Administration, was not generally credited with either the will or
+      the ability to play so lofty a part. His affectation of a lazy, trifling,
+      indifferent manner, his often-quoted remonstrance to impetuous would-be
+      reformers, "Can't you let it alone?" had earned for him some angry
+      disapproval, and caused him to be regarded as the embodiment of the
+      detested <i>laissez-faire</i> principle. But under his mask of nonchalance
+      he hid some noble qualities, which at this juncture served Queen and
+      country well.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Considered as a frivolous, selfish courtier by too many of the suffering
+      poor and of their friends, he was in truth "acting in all things an
+      affectionate, conscientious, and patriotic part" towards his Sovereign,
+      "endeavouring to make her happy as a woman and popular as a Queen <a
+      id="footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a> <a href="#footnote2">[2]</a>,"
+      telling her uncourtly truths with a blunt honesty that did not displease
+      her, and watching over her with a paternal tenderness which she repaid
+      with frank, noble confidence. He was faithful in a great and difficult
+      trust; let his memory have due honour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under Melbourne's pilotage the first months of the new reign went by with
+      some serenity, though the political horizon remained threatening enough,
+      and the temper of the nation appeared sullen. "The people of England seem
+      inclined to hurrah no more," wrote Greville of one of the Queen's earliest
+      public appearances, when "not a hat was raised nor a voice heard" among
+      the coldly curious crowd of spectators. But the splendid show of her
+      coronation a half-year later awakened great enthusiasm&mdash;enthusiasm
+      most natural and inevitable. It was youth and grace and goodness, all the
+      freshness and the infinite promise of spring, that wore the crimson and
+      the ermine and the gold, that sat enthroned amid the ancient glories of
+      the Abbey to receive the homage of all that was venerable and all that was
+      great in a mighty kingdom, and that bowed in meek devotion to receive the
+      solemn consecrating blessing of the Primate, according to the holy custom
+      followed in England for a thousand years, with little or no variation
+      since the time when Dunstan framed the Order of Coronation, closely
+      following the model of the Communion Service. Some other features special
+      to <i>this</i> coronation heightened the national delight in it. Its
+      arrangements evidently had for their chief aim to interest and to gratify
+      the people. Instead of the banquet in Westminster Hall, which could have
+      been seen only by the privileged and the wealthy, a grand procession
+      through London was arranged, including all the foreign ambassadors, and
+      proceeding from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey by a route two or
+      three miles in length, so that the largest possible number of spectators
+      might enjoy the magnificent pageant. And the overflowing multitudes whose
+      dense masses lined the whole long way, and in whose tumultuous cheering
+      pealing bells and sounding trumpets and thundering cannon were almost
+      unheard as the young Queen passed through the shouting ranks, formed
+      themselves the most impressive spectacle to the half-hostile foreign
+      witnesses, who owned that the sight of these rejoicing thousands of
+      freemen was grand indeed, and impossible save in that England which, then
+      as now, was not greatly loved by its rivals. An element which appealed
+      powerfully to the national pride and the national generosity was supplied
+      by the presence of the Duke of Wellington and of Marshal Soult, his old
+      antagonist, who appeared as French ambassador. Soult, as he advanced with
+      the air of a veteran warrior, was followed by murmurs of admiring
+      applause, which swelled into more than murmurs for the hero of Waterloo
+      bending in homage to his Sovereign. A touch of sweet humanity was added to
+      the imposing scene within the Abbey through what might have been a painful
+      accident. Lord Rolle, a peer between seventy and eighty years of age,
+      stumbling and falling as he climbed the steps of the throne, the Queen
+      impulsively moved as if to aid him; and when the old man, undismayed,
+      persisted in carrying out his act of homage, she asked quickly, "May I not
+      get up and meet him?" and descended one or two steps to save him the
+      ascent. The ready natural kindliness of the royal action awoke ecstatic
+      applause, which could hardly have been heartier had the applauders known
+      how true a type that act supplied of Her Majesty's future conduct. She has
+      never feared to peril her dignity by descending a step or two from her
+      throne, when "sweet mercy, nobility's true badge," has seemed to require
+      such a descent. And her queenly dignity has never been thereby lessened.
+      "She never ceases to be a Queen," says Greville <i>a propos</i> of this
+      scene, "and is always the most charming, cheerful, obliging, unaffected
+      Queen in the world." <br /> <a name="ILL006" id="ILL006"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/006 Elizabeth Fry.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/006 Elizabeth Fry.jpg" alt="Elizabeth Fry" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Elizabeth Fry
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      That "the people" were more considered in the arrangements for this
+      coronation than they had been on any previous occasion of the sort was a
+      circumstance quite in harmony with certain other signs of the times. "The
+      night is darkest before the dawn," and amid all the gloom which enshrouded
+      the land there could be discerned the stir and movement that herald the
+      coming of the day. Men's minds were turning more and more to the healing
+      of the world's wounds. Already one great humane enterprise had been
+      carried through in the emancipation of the slaves in British Colonies;
+      already the vast work of prison reform had been well begun, through the
+      saintly Elizabeth Fry, whose life of faithful service ended ere the Queen
+      had reigned eight years. The very year of Her Majesty's accession was
+      signalised by two noteworthy endeavours to put away wrong. We will turn
+      first to that which <i>seems</i> the least immediately philanthropic,
+      although the injustice which it remedied was trivial in appearance only,
+      since in its everyday triviality it weighed most heavily on the most
+      numerous class&mdash;that of the humble and the poor. <br /> <a
+      name="ILL007" id="ILL007"></a> <br /> <a href="images/007 Rowland Hill.jpg">
+      <img src="images/007 Rowland Hill.jpg" alt="Rowland Hill" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Rowland Hill
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      How would the Englishman of to-day endure the former exactions of the Post
+      Office? The family letters of sixty years ago, written on the largest
+      sheets purchasable, crossed and crammed to the point of illegibility,
+      filled with the news of many and many a week, still witness of the time
+      when "a letter from London to Brighton cost eightpence, to Aberdeen one
+      and threepence-halfpenny, to Belfast one and fourpence"; when, "if the
+      letter were written on more than one sheet, it came under the operation of
+      a higher scale of charges," and when the privilege of franking letters,
+      enjoyed and very largely exercised by members of Parliament and members of
+      the Government, had the peculiar effect of throwing the cost of the mail
+      service exactly on that part of the community which was least able to bear
+      it. The result of the injustice was as demoralising as might have been
+      expected. The poorer people who desired to have tidings of distant friend
+      or relative were driven by the prohibitory rates of postage into all sorts
+      of curious, not quite honest devices, to gratify their natural desire
+      without being too heavily taxed for it. A brother and sister, for
+      instance, unable to afford themselves the costly luxury of regular
+      correspondence, would obtain assurance of each other's well-being by
+      transmission through the post at stated intervals of blank papers duly
+      sealed and addressed: the arrival of the postman with a missive of this
+      kind announced to the recipient that all was well with the sender, so the
+      unpaid "letter" was cheerfully left on the messenger's hands. Such an
+      incident, coming under the notice of Mr. Rowland Hill, impressed him with
+      a sense of hardship and wrong in the system that bore these fruits; and he
+      set himself with strenuous patience to remedy the wrong and the hardship.
+      His scheme of reform was worked out and laid before the public early in
+      1837; in the third year of Her Majesty's reign it was first adopted in its
+      entirety, with what immense profit to the Government we may partly see
+      when we contrast the seventy-six or seventy-seven millions of <i>paid</i>
+      letters delivered in the United Kingdom during the last year of the heavy
+      postage with the number exceeding a thousand millions, and still
+      increasing&mdash;delivered yearly during the last decade; while the
+      population has not doubled. That the Queen's own letters carried postage
+      under the new regime was a fact almost us highly appreciated as Her
+      Majesty's voluntary offer at a later date to bear her due share of the
+      income tax.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is well to notice how later Postmasters General, successors of Rowland
+      Hill in that important office, have striven further to benefit their
+      countrymen. In particular, Henry Fawcett's earnest efforts to encourage
+      and aid habits of thrift are worthy of remembrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, it is during the first year of Her Majesty's reign that we find
+      Father Mathew, the Irish Capuchin friar, initiating his vast crusade
+      against intemperance, and by the charm of his persuasive eloquence and
+      unselfish enthusiasm inducing thousands upon thousands to forswear the
+      drink-poison that was destroying them. In two years he succeeded in
+      enrolling two million five hundred thousand persons on the side of
+      sobriety. The permanence of the good Father's immediate work was impaired
+      by the superstitions which his poor followers associated with it, much
+      against his desire. Not only were the medals which he gave as badges to
+      his vowed abstainers regarded as infallible talismans from the hand of a
+      saint, but the giver was credited with miraculous powers such as only a
+      Divine Being could exercise, and which he disclaimed in vain&mdash;extravagances
+      too likely to discredit his enterprise with more soberly judging persons
+      than the imaginative Celts who were his earliest converts. But,
+      notwithstanding every drawback, his action was most important, and
+      deserves grateful memory. We may see in it the inception of that great
+      movement whose indirect influence in reforming social habits and
+      restraining excess had at least equalled its direct power for good on its
+      pledged adherents. Though it is still unhappily true that drunkenness
+      slays its tens of thousands among us, and largely helps to people our
+      workhouses, our madhouses, and our gaols, yet the fiend walks not now, as
+      it used to do, in unfettered freedom. It is no longer a fashionable vice,
+      excused and half approved as the natural expression of joviality and
+      good-fellowship; peers and commoners of every degree no longer join daily
+      in the "heavy-headed revel" whose deep-dyed stain seems to have soaked
+      through every page of our last-century annals. And it would appear as
+      though the vice were not only held from increasing, but were actually on
+      the decrease. The statistics of the last decade show that the consumption
+      of alcohol is diminishing, and that of true food-stuffs proportionally
+      rising. <br /> <a name="ILL008" id="ILL008"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/008 Father Mathew.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/008 Father Mathew.jpg" alt="Father Mathew" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Father Mathew
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      There were other enterprises now set on foot, by no means directly
+      philanthropic in their aim, which contemplated utility more than virtue or
+      justice&mdash;enterprises whose vast effects are yet unexhausted, and
+      which have so modified the conditions of human existence as to make the
+      new reign virtually a new epoch. As to the real benefit of these immense
+      changes, opinion is somewhat divided; but the majority would doubtless
+      vote in their favour. The first railway in England, that between Liverpool
+      and Manchester, had been opened in 1830, the day of its opening being made
+      darkly memorable by the accident fatal to Mr. Huskisson, as though the new
+      era must be inaugurated by a sacrifice. Three years later there was but
+      this one railway in England, and one, seven miles long, in Scotland. But
+      in 1837 the Liverpool and Birmingham line was opened; in 1838 the London
+      and Birmingham and the Liverpool and Preston lines, and an Act was passed
+      for transmitting the mails by rail; in 1839 there was the opening of the
+      London and Croydon line. The ball was set fairly rolling, and the
+      supersession of ancient modes of communication was a question of time
+      merely. The advance of the new system was much accelerated at the outset
+      by the fact that railway enterprise became the favourite field for
+      speculation, men being attracted by the novelty and tempted by exaggerated
+      prospects of profit; and the mania was followed, like other manias, with
+      results largely disastrous to the speculators and to commerce. But through
+      years of good fortune and of bad fortune the iron network has continued to
+      spread itself, until all the land lies embraced in its ramifications; and
+      it is spreading still, like some strange organism the one condition of
+      whose life is reproduction, knitting the greatest centres of commerce with
+      the loneliest and remotest villages that were wont to lie far out of the
+      travelled ways of men, and bringing <i>Ultima Thule</i> into touch with
+      London. <br /> <a name="ILL009" id="ILL009"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/009 George Stephenson.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/009 George Stephenson.jpg" alt="George Stephenson" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      George Stephenson
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the steam service by sea has advanced almost with that by land.
+      In 1838 three steamships crossed the Atlantic between this country and New
+      York, the <i>Great Western</i>, sailing from Bristol, and <i>Sirius</i>,
+      from Cork, distinguished themselves by the short passages they made,&mdash;of
+      fifteen days in the first case, and seventeen days in the second,&mdash;and
+      by their using steam power <i>alone</i> to effect the transit, an
+      experiment that had not been risked before. It was now proved feasible,
+      and in a year or two there was set on foot that regular steam
+      communication between the New World and the Old, which ever since has
+      continued to draw them into always closer connection, as the steamers,
+      like swift-darting shuttles, weave their multiplying magic lines across
+      the liquid plain between.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The telegraph wires that run beside road and rail, doing the office of
+      nerves in transmitting intelligence with thrilling quickness from the
+      extremities to the head and from the head to the extremities of our State,
+      are now so familiar an object, and their operations, such mere matters of
+      every day, that we do not often recall how utterly unfamiliar they were
+      sixty years ago, when Wheatstone and Cooke on this side the Atlantic, and
+      Morse on the other, were devising their methods for giving signals and
+      sounding alarms in distant places by means of electric currents
+      transmitted through metallic circuits. Submarine telegraphy lay undreamed
+      of in the future, land telegraphy was but just gaining hearing as a
+      practicable improvement, when the crown was set on Her Majesty's head amid
+      all that pomp and ceremony at Westminster. A modern English imagination is
+      quite unequal to the task of realising the manifold hindrances that beset
+      human intercourse at that day, when a journey by coach between places as
+      important and as little remote from each other as Leeds and Newcastle
+      occupied sixteen mortal hours, with changes of horses and stoppages for
+      meals on the road, and when letters, unless forwarded by an "express"
+      messenger at heavy cost, tarried longer on the way than even did
+      passengers; while some prudent dwellers in the country deemed it well to
+      set their affairs in order and make their wills before embarking on the
+      untried perils of a journey up to town. These days are well within the
+      memory of many yet living; but if the newer generations that have arisen
+      during the present reign would understand what it is to be hampered in
+      their movements and their correspondence as were their fathers, they must
+      seek the remoter and more savage quarters of Europe, the less travelled
+      portions of America or of half-explored Australia; they must plunge into
+      Asian or African wilds, untouched by civilisation, where as yet there runs
+      not the iron horse, worker of greater marvels than the wizard steeds of
+      fairy fable, that could, transport a single favoured rider over wide
+      distances in little time. The subjugated, serviceable nature-power Steam,
+      with its fellow-servant the tamed and tutored Lightning, has wonderfully
+      contracted distance during these fifty years, making the earth, once so
+      vast to human imagination, appear as a globe shrunken to a tenth of its
+      ancient size, and bringing nations divided by half the surface of that
+      globe almost within sound of each other's speech. <br /> <a name="ILL010"
+      id="ILL010"></a> <br /> <a href="images/010 Wheatstone.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/010 Wheatstone.jpg" alt="Wheatstone" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Wheatstone
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      That there is damage as well as profit in all these increased facilities
+      of intercourse must be apparent, since there is evil as well as good in
+      the human world, and increased freedom of communication implies freer
+      communication of the evil as of the good. But we may well hope that the
+      cause of true upward progress will be most served by the vast inevitable
+      changes which, as they draw all peoples nearer together, must deepen and
+      strengthen the sense of human brotherhood, and, as they bring the deeds of
+      all within the knowledge of all, must consume by an intolerable blaze of
+      light the once secret iniquities and oppressions abhorrent to the
+      universal conscience of mankind. The public conscience in these realms at
+      least is better informed and more sensitive than it was in the year of
+      William IV's death and of Victoria's accession. <br /> <br /> <br /> <a
+      name="2"></a> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CHAPTER II<br /> <br /> STORM AND SUNSHINE.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <a name="ILL011" id="ILL011"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/011 St James's Palace.jpg" alt="St. James's Palace" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      St. James's Palace
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The beneficent changes we have briefly described were but just
+      inaugurated, and their possible power for good was as yet hardly divined,
+      when the young Queen entered into that marriage which we may well deem the
+      happiest action of her life, and the most fruitful of good to her people,
+      looking to the extraordinary character of the husband of her choice, and
+      to the unobtrusive but always advantageous influence which his great and
+      wise spirit exercised on our national life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The marriage had been anxiously desired, and the way for it judiciously
+      prepared, but it was in no sense forced on either of the contracting
+      parties by their elders who so desired it. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg,
+      second son of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, the Queen's maternal
+      uncle, was nearly of an age with his royal cousin; he had already, young
+      as he was, given evidence of a rare superiority of nature; he had been
+      excellently trained; and there is no doubt that Leopold, king of the
+      Belgians, his uncle, and the Queen's, did most earnestly desire to see the
+      young heiress of the British throne, for whom he had a peculiar
+      tenderness, united to the one person whose position and whose character
+      combined to point him out as the fit partner for her high and difficult
+      destinies. What tact, what patience, and what power of self-suppression
+      the Queen of England's husband would need to exercise, no one could better
+      judge than Leopold, the widowed husband of Princess Charlotte; no one
+      could more fully have exemplified these qualities than the prince in whom
+      Leopold's penetration divined them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cousins had already met, in 1836, when their mutual attraction had
+      been sufficiently strong; and in 1839, when Prince Albert, with his elder
+      brother Ernest, was again visiting England, the impression already
+      produced became ineffaceably deep. The Queen, whom her great rank
+      compelled to take the initiative, was not very long in making up her mind
+      when and how to act. Her favoured suitor himself, writing to a dear
+      relative, relates how she performed the trying task, inviting him to
+      render her intensely happy by making "the <i>sacrifice</i> of sharing her
+      life with her, for she said she looked on it as a sacrifice. The joyous
+      openness with which she told me this enchanted me, and I was quite carried
+      away by it." This was on October 15th; nearly six weeks after, on November
+      23rd, she made to her assembled Privy Council the formal declaration of
+      her intended marriage. There is something particularly touching in even
+      the driest description of this scene; the betrothed bride wearing a simple
+      morning dress, having on her arm a bracelet containing Prince Albert's
+      portrait, which helped to give her courage; her voice, as she read the
+      declaration clear, sweet, and penetrating as ever, but her hands trembling
+      so excessively that it was surprising she could read the paper she held.
+      It was a trying task, but not so difficult as that which had devolved on
+      her a short time before, when, in virtue of her sovereign rank, she had
+      first to speak the words of fate that bound her to her suitor. <br /> <a
+      name="ILL012" id="ILL012"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/012 Prince Albert.jpg" alt="Prince Albert" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Prince Albert
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Endowed with every charm of person, mind, and manner that can win and keep
+      affection, Prince Albert was able, in marrying the Queen, who loved him
+      and whom he loved, to secure for her a happiness rare in any rank, rarest
+      of all on the cold heights of royalty. This was not all; he was the worthy
+      partner of her greatness. Himself highly cultivated in every sense, he
+      watched with keenest interest over the advance of all cultivation in the
+      land of his adoption, and identified himself with every movement to
+      improve its condition. His was the soul of a statesman&mdash;wide, lofty,
+      far-seeing, patient; surveying all great things, disdaining no small
+      things, but with tireless industry pursuing after all necessary knowledge.
+      Add to these intellectual excellences the moral graces of ideal purity of
+      life, chivalrous faithfulness of heart, magnanimous self-suppression, and
+      fervent piety, and we have a slight outline of a character which, in the
+      order of Providence, acted very strongly and with a still living force on
+      the destinies of nineteenth-century England. The Queen had good reasons
+      for the feeling of "confidence and comfort" that shone in the glance she
+      turned on her bridegroom as they walked away, man and wife at last, from
+      the altar of the Chapel Royal, on February 10th, 1840. The union she then
+      entered into immeasurably enhanced her popularity, and strengthened her
+      position as surely as it expanded her nature. Not many years elapsed
+      before Sir Robert Peel could tell her that, in spite of the inroads of
+      democracy, the monarchy had never been safer, nor had any sovereign been
+      so beloved, because "the Queen's domestic life was so happy, and its
+      example so good." Only the Searcher of hearts knoweth how great has been
+      the holy power of a pure, fair, and noble example constantly shining in
+      the high places of the land. <br /> <a name="ILL013" id="ILL013"></a> <br />
+      <a href="images/013 The Queen in her Wedding Dress.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/013 The Queen in her Wedding Dress.jpg"
+      alt="The Queen in her Wedding-Dress" width="35%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      The Queen in her Wedding-Dress<br />(After the Picture by Drummond)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      It was hinted by the would-be wise, in the early days of Her Majesty's
+      married life, that it would be idle to look for the royally maternal
+      feeling of an Elizabeth towards her people in a wedded constitutional
+      sovereign. The judgment was a mistake. The formal limitations of our
+      Queen's prerogative, sedulously as she has respected them, have never
+      destroyed her sense of responsibility; wifehood and motherhood have not
+      contracted her sympathies, but have deepened and widened them. The very
+      sorrows of her domestic life have knit her in fellowship with other
+      mourners. No great calamity can befall her humblest subjects, and she hear
+      of it, but there comes the answering flash of tender pity. She is more
+      truly the mother of her people, having walked on a level with them, and
+      with "Love, who is of the valley," than if she had chosen to dwell alone
+      and aloof. <br /> <a name="ILL014" id="ILL014"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/014 Sir Robert Peel.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/014 Sir Robert Peel.jpg" alt="Sir Robert Peel" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Sir Robert Peel
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      For some years after her marriage the Queen's private life shows like a
+      little isle of brightness in the midst of a stormy sea. Within and without
+      our borders there was small prospect of settled peace at the very time of
+      that marriage. We have said that Lord Melbourne was still Premier; but he
+      and his Ministry had resigned office in the previous May, and had only
+      come back to it in consequence of a curious misunderstanding known as "the
+      Bedchamber difficulty." Sir Robert Peel, who was summoned to form a
+      Ministry on Melbourne's defeat and resignation, had asked from Her Majesty
+      the dismissal of two ladies of her household, the wives of prominent
+      members of the departing Whig Government; but his request conveyed to her
+      mind the sense that he designed to deprive her of all her actual
+      attendants, and against this imagined proposal she set herself
+      energetically. "She could not consent to a course which she conceived to
+      be contrary to usage, and which was repugnant to her feelings." Peel on
+      his part remained firm in his opinion as to the real necessity for the
+      change which he had advocated. From the deadlock produced by mere
+      misunderstanding there seemed at the time only one way of escaping; the
+      defeated Whig Government returned to office. But Ministers who resumed
+      power only because, "as gentlemen," they felt bound to do so, had little
+      chance of retaining it. In September 1841, Lord Melbourne was superseded
+      in the premiership by Sir Robert Peel, and then gave a final proof how
+      single-minded was his loyal devotion by advising the new Prime Minister as
+      to the tone and style likely to commend him to their royal mistress&mdash;a
+      tone of clear straightforwardness. "The Queen," said Melbourne&mdash;who
+      knew of what he was speaking, if any statesman then did&mdash;"is not
+      conceited; she is aware there are many things she cannot understand, and
+      likes them explained to her elementarily, not at length and in detail, but
+      shortly and clearly." The counsel was given and was accepted with equal
+      good feeling, such as was honourable to all concerned; and the Sovereign
+      learned, as years went on, to repose a singular confidence in the Minister
+      with whom her first relations had been so unpropitious, but whose real
+      honesty, ability, and loyalty soon approved themselves to her clear
+      perceptions, which no prejudice has long been able to obscure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are told that in later years Her Majesty referred to the disagreeable
+      incident we have just related as one that could not have occurred, if she
+      had had beside her Prince Albert "to talk to and employ in explaining
+      matters," while she refused the suggestion that her impulsive resistance
+      had been advised by any one about her. "It was entirely my own foolishness
+      <a id="footnotetag3" name="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3">[3]</a>,"
+      she is said to have added&mdash;words breathing that perfect simplicity of
+      candour which has always been one of her most strongly marked
+      characteristics.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Though the matter caused a great sensation at the time, and gave rise to
+      some dismal prophesyings, it was of no permanent importance, and is
+      chiefly noted here because it throws a strong light on Her Majesty's need
+      of such an ever-present aid as she had now secured in the husband wise
+      beyond his years, who well understood his constitutional position, and was
+      resolute to keep within it, avoiding entanglement with any party, and
+      fulfilling with equal impartiality and ability the duties of private
+      secretary to his Sovereign-wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Melbourne Ministry had had to contend with difficulties sufficiently
+      serious, and of these the grimmest and greatest remained still unsettled.
+      At the outset of the reign a rebellion in Canada had required strong
+      repression; and we had taken the first step on a bad road by entering into
+      those disputes as to our right to force the opium traffic on China, which
+      soon involved us in a disastrously successful war with that country. On
+      the other hand, our Indian Government had begun an un-called-for
+      interference with the affairs of Afghanistan, which, successful at first,
+      resulted in a series of humiliating reverses to our arms, culminating in
+      one of the most terrible disasters that have ever befallen a British force&mdash;the
+      wholesale massacre of General Elphinstone's defeated and retreating army
+      on its passage through the terrible mountain gorge known as the Pass of
+      Koord Cabul. It was on January 13th, 1842, that the single survivor of
+      this massacre appeared, a half-fainting man, drooping over the neck of his
+      wearied pony, before the fort of Jellalabad, which General Sale still held
+      for the English. He only was "escaped alone" to tell the hideous tale. The
+      ill-advised and ill-managed enterprise which thus terminated had extended
+      over more than three years, had cost us many noble lives, in particular
+      that of the much-lamented Alexander Burnes, had condemned many English
+      women and children to a long and cruel captivity among the savage foe, and
+      had absolutely failed as to the object for which it was undertaken&mdash;the
+      instalment of Shah Soojah, a mere British tool, as ruler of Afghanistan,
+      in place of the chief desired by the Afghan people, Dost Mahomed. When the
+      disasters to our arms had been retrieved, as retrieved they were with
+      exemplary promptness, and when the surviving prisoners were redeemed from
+      their hard captivity, it was deemed sound policy for us to attempt no
+      longer to "force a sovereign on a reluctant people," and to remain content
+      with that limit which "nature appears to have assigned" to our Indian
+      empire on its north-western border. Later adventures in the same field
+      have not resulted so happily as to prove that these views were incorrect.
+      Our prestige was seriously damaged in Hindostan by this first Afghan war,
+      and was only partially re-established in the campaign against the Sikhs
+      several years later, despite the dramatic grandeur of that "piece of
+      Indian history" which resulted in our annexation of the Punjaub in 1846&mdash;a
+      solid advantage balanced by the unpleasant fact that English soldiers had
+      been proved not invincible by natives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will thus appear that there was not too much that was glorious or
+      encouraging in our external affairs in these early years; but the internal
+      condition of the country was never less reassuring. The general discontent
+      of the English lower orders was taking shape as Chartism&mdash;a movement
+      which could not have arisen but for the fierce suspicion with which the
+      working classes had learnt to regard those who seemed their superiors in
+      wealth, in rank, or in political power, and which the higher orders
+      retaliated in dislike and distrust of the labouring population, whom they
+      considered as seditious enemies of order and property. The demon of class
+      hatred was never more alive and busy than in the decade which terminated
+      in 1848.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Charter," which was the watchword of hope to so many, and the very
+      war-note of discord to many more, comprised six points, of which some at
+      least were sufficiently absurd, while others have virtually passed into
+      law, quietly and naturally, in due course of time; and if the universal
+      Age of Gold which ignorant Chartists looked for has not ensued, at least
+      the anarchy and ruin which their opponents associated with the dreaded
+      scheme are equally non-existent. So fast has the time moved that there is
+      now a little difficulty in understanding the passionate hopes with which
+      the Charter was associated on the one side, and the panic which it
+      inspired on the other; and there is much to move wondering compassion in
+      the profound ignorance which those hopes betrayed, and the not inferior
+      misery amid which they were cherished. Few persons are now so credulous as
+      to expect that annual Parliaments or stipendiary members would insure the
+      universal reign of peace and justice; the people have already found that
+      vote by ballot and suffrage all but universal have neither equalised
+      wealth nor abrogated greed and iniquity; and though there be some dreamers
+      in our midst to-day who look for wonderful transformations of society to
+      follow on possible reforms, there is not even in these dreamy schemes the
+      same amazing disproportion of means to be employed and end to be attained
+      as characterised the Chartist delusion. <br /> <a name="ILL015" id="ILL015"></a>
+      <br /> <a href="images/015 Daniel O'Connell.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/015 Daniel O'Connell.jpg" alt="Daniel O'Connell" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Daniel O'Connell
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      In Ireland men were reposing unbounded faith in another sort of political
+      panacea for every personal and social evil&mdash;the Repeal of the Union
+      with England, advocated by Daniel O'Connell, with all the power of his
+      passionate Celtic eloquence, and supported by all his extraordinary
+      personal influence. Apparently he hoped to carry this agitation to the
+      same triumphant issue as that for Catholic emancipation, in which he had
+      taken a conspicuous part; but the new movement did not, like the old one,
+      appeal immediately and plausibly to the English sense of fair play and
+      natural justice. A competent and not unfriendly observer has remarked that
+      O'Connell's "theory and policy were that Ireland was to be saved by a
+      dictatorship entrusted to himself." Whether any salvation for the unhappy
+      land did lie in such a dictatorship was a point on which opinion might
+      well be divided. English opinion was massively hostile to it; but for
+      years all the political enthusiasm of Ireland centred in O'Connell and the
+      cause he upheld. The country might be on the brink of ruin and starvation,
+      but the peril seemed forgotten while the dream lasted. The agitator was
+      wont to refer to the Queen in terms of extravagant loyalty, and it would
+      seem that the feeling was largely shared by his followers. However futile
+      and vainglorious his scheme and methods may appear, we must not deny to
+      him a distinction, rare indeed among Irish agitators, of having steadily
+      disclaimed violence and advocated orderly and peaceable proceedings. He
+      thought his cause would be injured, and not advanced, by such outrages as
+      before and since his day have too often disgraced party warfare in
+      Ireland. His favourite maxim was that "the man who commits a crime gives
+      strength to the enemy." This opinion was not heartily endorsed by all his
+      followers. When it became clear that his dislike of physical force was
+      real, when he did not defy the Government, at last stirred into hostile
+      action by the demonstrations he organised, there was an end of his power
+      over the fiercer spirits whom he had roused against the rule of "the
+      Saxon"&mdash;luckless phrase with which he had enriched the Anglo-Irish
+      controversy, and misleading as luckless. O'Connell died, a broken and
+      disappointed man, on his way to Rome in 1847; but the spirit he had raised
+      and could not rule did not die with him, and the younger, more turbulent
+      leaders, who had outbid him for popular approval, continued their
+      anti-English warfare with growing zeal until the year of fate 1848.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even the Principality of Wales had its own peculiar form of agitation,
+      sometimes accompanied by outrage, during these wild opening years. The
+      farmers and labourers in Wales were unprosperous and poor, and in the
+      season of their adversity they found turnpikes and tolls multiplying on
+      their public roads. They resented what appeared a cruel imposition with
+      wrathful impatience, and ere long gave expression to their anger in wild
+      deeds. A text of Scripture suggested to them a fantastic form of riot.
+      They found that it was said of old to Rebecca, "Let thy seed possess the
+      gate of those which hate them," and ere long "Rebecca and her children,"
+      men masking in women's clothes, made fierce war by night on the "gates"
+      they detested, destroying the turnpikes and driving out their keepers.
+      These raids were not always bloodless. The Government succeeded in
+      repressing the rioting, and then, finding that a real grievance had caused
+      it, did away with the oppressive tolls, and dealt not too hardly with the
+      captured offenders; leniency which soon restored Wales to tranquillity.
+      <br /> <a name="ILL016" id="ILL016"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/016 Richard Cobden.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/016 Richard Cobden.jpg" alt="Richard Cobden" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Richard Cobden
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL017" id="ILL017"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/017 John Bright.jpg"> <img src="images/017 John Bright.jpg"
+      alt="John Bright" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      John Bright
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      A peaceful, strictly constitutional, and finally successful agitation ran
+      its steady course in England for several years contemporaneously with
+      those we have already enumerated. The Anti-Corn-Law League, with which the
+      names of Cobden and Bright are united as closely as those two
+      distinguished men were united in friendship, had in 1838 found a centre
+      eminently favourable to its operations in Manchester. Its leaders were
+      able, well-informed, and upright men, profoundly convinced that their
+      cause was just, and that the welfare of the people was involved in their
+      success or failure. They were men of the middle class, acquainted
+      intimately with the needs and doings of the trading community to which
+      they belonged, and therefore at once better qualified to argue on
+      questions affecting commerce, and less directly interested in the
+      prosperity of agriculture, than the more aristocratic leaders of the
+      nation. Both persuasive and successful speakers, one of them supremely
+      eloquent, they were able to interest even the lowest populace in questions
+      of political economy, and to make Free Trade in Corn the idol of popular
+      passion. Their mode of agitation was eminently reasonable and wise; but it
+      <i>was</i> an agitation, exciting wild enthusiasm and fierce opposition,
+      and must be reckoned not among the forces tending to quiet, but among
+      those that aroused anxious care in the first nine years of the reign. And
+      it was a terrible calamity that at last placed victory within their grasp.
+      The blight on the potato first showed itself in 1845&mdash;a new,
+      undreamed-of disaster, probably owing to the long succession of
+      unfavourable seasons. And the potato blight meant almost certainly famine
+      in Ireland, where perhaps three-fourths of the population had no food but
+      this root. The food supply of a whole nation seemed on the point of being
+      cut off. A loud demand was made for "the opening of the ports." By
+      existing laws the ports admitted foreign grain tinder import duties
+      varying in severity inversely with the fluctuating price of home-grown
+      grain; thus a certain high level in the cost of corn was artificially
+      maintained. These regulations, though framed for the protection of the
+      native producer, did not bear so heavily on the consumer as the law of
+      1815 which they replaced; and the principle represented by them had a
+      large following in the country. But now the argument from famine proved
+      potent to decide the wavering convictions of some who had long been
+      identified with the cause of Protection. The champions of Free Trade were
+      sure of triumph when Sir Robert Peel became one of their converts; and the
+      Corn Bill which he carried in the June of 1846, granting with some little
+      reserve and delay the reforms which the Anti-Corn-Law League had been
+      formed to secure, brought that powerful association to a quiet end. But
+      the threatening Irish famine and the growing Irish disturbances remained,
+      to embarrass the Ministry of Lord John Russell, which came into power
+      within less than a week of that great success of the Tory Minister,
+      defeated on a question of Irish polity on the very day when his Corn Bill
+      received the assent of the House of Lords. <br /> <a name="ILL018"
+      id="ILL018"></a> <br /> <img src="images/018 Lord John Russell.jpg"
+      alt="Lord John Russell" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Lord John Russell
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      We must not omit, as in passing we chronicle this singular fortune of a
+      great Minister, to notice the grief with which Her Majesty viewed this
+      turn of events. Amid all the anxiety of the period, amid her distress at
+      the cruel sufferings of her servants in India, in Britain, in Ireland, and
+      her care for their relief, she had had two sources of consolation: the
+      pure and simple bliss of her home-life, and the assistance of two most
+      valued counsellors&mdash;her husband and her Prime Minister. One was
+      inseparably at her side, but one must now leave it; and she and the Prince
+      met their inevitable loss with the dignified outward acquiescence that was
+      fitting, but with sorrow not less real. The Queen would have bestowed on
+      Peel as distinguished an honour as she could confer&mdash;the Order of the
+      Garter; Peel deemed it best to decline it gratefully. "He was from the
+      people and of the people," and wished so to remain, content if his Queen
+      could say, "You have been a faithful servant, and have done your duty to
+      the country and to myself."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In hapless Ireland, torn by agitation and scourged by pestilence and
+      famine, the general misery had reached a point where no fiscal measures,
+      however wise, could at once alleviate it. The potato famine held on its
+      dreadful way, and the darkest moment of Irish history seemed reached in
+      the year when one hundred and seventy thousand persons perished in that
+      island by hunger or hunger-bred fever. The new plague affected Great
+      Britain also; but its suffering was completely overshadowed by the
+      enormous bulk of Irish woe, which the utmost lavishness of charity seemed
+      scarcely to lessen. That there should be turbulence and even violence
+      accompanying all this wretchedness was no way surprising; but in most
+      men's minds the wretchedness held the larger place, and deservedly so, for
+      the sedition, when ripe enough, was dealt with sharply, though not
+      mercilessly, in such a way that ere long all reasonable dread of a civil
+      war being added to the other horrors, had passed away; and the country had
+      leisure for such recovery as was possible to a land so desolate. <br />
+      <a name="ILL019" id="ILL019"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/019 Thomas Chalmers.jpg" alt="Thomas Chalmers" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Thomas Chalmers
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      There was contemporaneous distress enough and to spare in Great Britain:
+      failures in Lancashire alone to the amount of &pound;16,000,000; failures
+      equally heavy in Birmingham, Glasgow, and other great towns; capital was
+      absorbed by the mad speculations in railway shares; and even Heaven's gift
+      of an abundant harvest, by at once lowering the price of corn, helped to
+      depress commerce. Many banks stopped payment, and even the Bank of England
+      seemed imperilled, saving itself only by adopting a bold line of policy
+      advised by Government. At the same time, the Chartist movement was
+      gathering the strength which was to expend itself in the futile
+      demonstrations of 1848. <br /> <a name="ILL020" id="ILL020"></a> <br />
+      <img src="images/020 John Henry Newman.jpg" alt="John Henry Newman" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      John Henry Newman<br />(From a photograph by Mr. H. J. Whitlock,
+      Birmingham)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      But as if it were not enough for every department of political or
+      commercial life to be so seriously affected, there was now arising within
+      the English National Church itself a singular movement, destined to affect
+      the religious history of the land as powerfully, if not as beneficially,
+      as did the Evangelical revival of the last century; and the National Kirk
+      of Scotland, after long and stern contention on the crucial point of civil
+      control in things spiritual, was ready for that rending in twain from
+      which arose the Free Kirk; while other religious bodies were torn by the
+      same keen spirit of strife, the same revolt against ancient order, as that
+      which was distracting the world of politics. The bitterness of the
+      disruption in Scotland is well-nigh exhausted, though the controversy
+      enlisted at the time all the fervid power of a Chalmers; men honour the
+      memory of the champions, while hoping to see the once sharp differences
+      composed for ever. But the "Catholic Revival," initiated under the
+      leadership of Newman, Pusey, and Keble, has proved to be no transient
+      disturbance: and no figure has in relation to the Church history of the
+      half-century the same portentous importance as that of John Henry Newman,
+      whose powerful magnetism, as it attracted or repelled, drew men towards
+      Romanism or drove them towards Rationalism, his logical art, made more
+      impressive by the noble eloquence with which he sometimes adorned it,
+      seeming to leave those who came under his spell no choice between the two
+      extremes. When he finally decided on withdrawing himself from the Anglican
+      and giving in his adhesion to the Roman communion, he set an example that
+      has not yet ceased to be imitated, to the incalculable damage of the
+      English Establishment. Happily the massive Nonconformity of the country
+      was hardly touched either by his influence or his example.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is pleasant to turn from scenes of doubt and discord, of strife and
+      sorrow, to that bright domestic life which was now vouchsafed to the
+      Sovereign, as if in direct compensation for the storms that raved and beat
+      outside her home&mdash;a home now brightened by the presence of five
+      joyous, healthy children. It is a charming picture of the royal pair and
+      of the manner of life in the palace&mdash;styled by one foreigner "the one
+      really pleasant, comfortable English house, in which one feels at one's
+      ease "&mdash;that is given us by the finely discerning Mendelssohn,
+      invited by the Prince to "come and try his organ" before leaving England
+      in 1842, on which occasion the Queen joined her husband and his guest at
+      the instrument, enjoying and aiding in their musical performance, and
+      singing, "quite faultlessly and with charming feeling and expression," a
+      song written by the great master who was now paying a farewell visit, with
+      nothing of ceremony in it, to English royalty. With a few touches
+      Mendelssohn makes us see the delightful ease and comfort of this royal
+      interior, the Queen gathering up the sheets of music strewn by the wind
+      over the floor&mdash;the Prince cleverly managing the organ-stops so as to
+      suit the master while he played&mdash;the mighty rocking-horse and the two
+      birdcages beside the music-laden piano in the Queen's own sitting-room,
+      beautiful with pictures and richly-bound books&mdash;the pretty difficulty
+      about her finding some of Mendelssohn's own songs to sing to him, since
+      her music was packed up and taken away to Claremont&mdash;her na&iuml;ve
+      confession that she had been "so frightened" at singing before the master,&mdash;all
+      are chronicled with not less zest and affection than the graceful gift of
+      a valuable ring "as a remembrance" to the artist from the Queen, through
+      Prince Albert. It is a much more pleasing impression that we thus obtain
+      than can be given by details of State ceremonial and visits from other
+      sovereigns. Of these last there was no lack, and the princely visitors
+      were entertained with all due pomp and splendour; but neither on account
+      of these costly entertainments nor on behalf of the royal children did the
+      Sovereign ask the nation for so much as a shilling, the Civil List
+      sufficing for every unlooked-for outlay, now that Prince Albert, by dint
+      of persevering effort, had succeeded in putting the arrangements of the
+      royal household on a satisfactory footing, sweeping away a vast number of
+      time-honoured, thriftless expenses, and rendering a wise and generous
+      economy possible. <br /> <a name="ILL021" id="ILL021"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/021 Balmoral.jpg" alt="Balmoral" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Balmoral
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Formerly the great officers of the Crown were charged with the oversight
+      of the commonest domestic business of the palace. Being non-resident,
+      these overseers did no overseeing, and the actual servants were
+      practically masterless. Hence arose numberless vexations and extravagant
+      hindrances. In 1843 this objectionable form of the division of labour was
+      brought to an end, and one Master of the household who did his work
+      replaced the many officials who, by a fiction of etiquette, had been
+      formerly supposed to do everything while they did and could do nothing.
+      The long-needed reform could not but be pleasing to the Queen, being quite
+      in harmony with the upright principles that had always ruled her conduct,
+      she having begun her reign by paying off the debts of her dead father&mdash;debts
+      contracted not in her lifetime nor on her account, and which a spirit less
+      purely honourable might therefore have declined to recognise. <br /> <a
+      name="ILL044" id="ILL044"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/044 Osborne House.jpg" alt="Osborne House" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Osborne House
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Thanks to the Prince's able management, the royal pair found it in their
+      power to purchase for themselves the estate of Osborne, in the Isle of
+      Wight&mdash;a charming retreat all their own, which they could adorn for
+      their delight with no thought of the thronging public; where the Prince
+      could farm and build and garden to his heart's content, and all could
+      escape from the stately restraints of their burdensome rank, and from "the
+      bitterness people create for themselves in London." Before very long they
+      found for themselves that Highland holiday home of Balmoral which was to
+      be so peculiarly dear, and in which Her Majesty&mdash;whose first visit to
+      the <i>then</i> discontented Scotland was deemed quite a risky experiment&mdash;was
+      so completely to win for herself the admiring love of her Scottish
+      subjects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Balmoral Mr. Greville saw them some little time after their acquisition
+      of the place, and witnesses to the "simplicity and ease" with which they
+      lived, to the gay good humour that pervaded their circle&mdash;"the Queen
+      running in and out of the house all day long, often going out alone,
+      walking into the cottages, sitting down and chatting with the old women,"
+      the Prince free from trammels of etiquette, showing what native charm of
+      manner and what high, cultivated intelligence were really his. The
+      impression is identical with that conveyed by Her Majesty's published
+      Journal of that Highland life; and, though lacking the many graceful
+      details of that record, the testimony has its own value. Happy indeed was
+      the Sovereign for whom the black cloud of those years showed such a silver
+      lining! Other potentates were less happy, both as regarded their private
+      blessings and their public fortunes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would be agreeable to English feelings, but not altogether consonant
+      with historic truth, if we could leave unnoticed the scandalous attempts
+      on the Queen's life which marked the earliest period of her reign and have
+      been renewed in later days. The first attacks were by far of the most
+      alarming character, but Her Majesty, whose escape on one occasion seemed
+      due only to her husband's prompt action, never betrayed any agitation or
+      alarm; and her dauntless bearing, and the care for others which she
+      manifested by dispensing with the presence of her usual lady attendants
+      when she anticipated one of these assaults, immensely increased the
+      already high esteem in which her people held her. The first assailant, a
+      half-crazy lad of low station named Oxford, was shut up in a lunatic
+      asylum. For the second, a man named Francis, the same plea could not be
+      urged; but the death-sentence he had incurred was commuted to
+      transportation for life. Almost immediately a deformed lad called Bean
+      followed the example of Francis. Her Majesty, who had been very earnest to
+      save the life of the miserable beings attacking her, desired an alteration
+      in the law as to such assaults; and their penalty was fixed at seven
+      years' transportation, or imprisonment not exceeding three years, to which
+      the court was empowered to add a moderate number of whippings&mdash;punishments
+      having no heroic fascination about them, like that which for heated and
+      shallow brains invested the hideous doom of "traitors." The expedient
+      proved in a measure successful, none of the later assaults, discreditable
+      as they are, betraying a really murderous intention. It has been remarked
+      as a noteworthy circumstance that popular English monarchs have been more
+      exposed to such dangers than others who were cordially disliked. It is not
+      hatred that has prompted these assassins so much as imbecile vanity and
+      the passion for notoriety, misleading an obscure coxcomb to think
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <blockquote>
+        <p>
+          &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+          &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "His
+          glory would be great<br /> According to <i>her</i> greatness whom he
+          quenched."
+        </p>
+      </blockquote>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br /> <a name="3"></a> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CHAPTER III<br /> <br /> FRANCE AND ENGLAND
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <a name="ILL022" id="ILL022"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/022 Buckingham Palace.jpg" alt="Buckingham Palace" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Buckingham Palace
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      It is necessary now to look at the relations of our Government with other
+      nations, and in particular with France, whose fortunes just at this time
+      had a clearly traceable effect on our own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For several years the Court of England had been on terms of unprecedented
+      cordiality with the French Court. The Queen had personally visited King
+      Louis Philippe at the Ch&acirc;teau d'Eu&mdash;an event which we must go
+      back as far as the days of Henry VIII to parallel&mdash;and had contracted
+      a warm friendship for certain members of his family, in particular for the
+      Queen, Marie Am&eacute;lie, for the widowed Duchess of Orleans, a maternal
+      cousin of Prince Albert, and for the perfect Louise, the truthful,
+      unselfish second wife of Leopold, King of the Belgians, and daughter of
+      the King of the French. It was a rude shock to all the warm feelings which
+      our Queen, herself transparently honest, had learnt to cherish for her
+      royal friends when the French King and his Minister, Guizot, entered into
+      that fatal intrigue of theirs, "the Spanish marriages." Isabella, the
+      young Queen of Spain, and her sister and heiress presumptive, Louisa, were
+      yet unmarried at the time of the visit to the Ch&acirc;teau d'Eu; and
+      about that time an undertaking was given by the French to the English
+      Government that the Infanta Louisa should not marry a French prince until
+      her sister, the actual Queen, "should be married and have children." The
+      possible union of the crowns of France and Spain was known for a dream of
+      French ambition, and was equally well known to be an object of dislike and
+      dread to other European Powers. The engagement which the French King had
+      now given seemed therefore well calculated to disarm suspicion and promote
+      peace; but the one was reawakened and the other endangered when it became
+      known that he had so used his power over the Spanish court as to procure
+      that the royal sisters of Spain should be married on one day&mdash;Isabella,
+      the Queen, to the most unfit and uncongenial of all the possible
+      candidates for her hand; Louisa to King Louis Philippe's son, the Duke of
+      Montpensier. The transaction on the face of it was far from respectable,
+      since the credit and happiness of the young Spanish Queen seemed to have
+      hardly entered into the consideration of those who arranged for her the <i>mariage
+      de convenance</i> into which she was led blindfold; but when regarded as a
+      violation of good faith it was additionally displeasing. Queen Victoria,
+      to whom the scheme was imparted only when it was ripe for execution,
+      through her personal friend Louise, Queen of the Belgians, replied to the
+      communication in a tone of earnest, dignified remonstrance; but apparently
+      the King was now too thoroughly committed to his scheme to be deterred by
+      any reasoning or reproaches, and the tragical farce was played out. It had
+      no good results for France; England was chilled and alienated, but the
+      Spanish crown never devolved on the Duchess of Montpensier. Within two
+      little years from her marriage that princess and all the French royal
+      family fled from France, so hastily that they had scarcely money enough to
+      provide for their journey, and appeared in England as fugitives, to be
+      aided and protected by the Queen, who forgot all political resentment, and
+      remembered only her personal regard for these fallen princes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The overthrow of the Orleans dynasty in 1848 was a complete surprise, and
+      men have never ceased to see something disgraceful in its amazing
+      suddenness. Here was a great king, respected for wisdom and daring, and
+      supposed to understand at every point the character of the land he ruled,
+      his power appearing unshaken, while it was known to be backed with an army
+      one hundred thousand strong. And almost without warning a whirlwind of
+      insurrection against this solid power and this able ruler broke out, and
+      in a few wild hours swept the whole fabric into chaos. Nothing caused more
+      surprise at the moment than the extreme bitterness of animosity which the
+      insurgents manifested towards the king's person, unless it were the
+      tameness with which he submitted to his fate and the precipitancy of his
+      flight. There was something rotten in the state of things, men said, which
+      could thus dissolve, crushed like a swollen fungus by a casual foot. And
+      indeed, whether with perfect justice or not, Louis Philippe's
+      Administration had come to be deemed corrupt some time ere his fall. The
+      free-spoken Parisians had openly flouted it as such: witness a mock
+      advertisement placarded in the streets: "<i>A nettoyer, deux Chambres et
+      une Cour</i>": "Two <i>Chambers</i> and a <i>Court</i> to clean." A French
+      Government that had been crafty, but not crafty enough to conceal the
+      fact, that was rather contemned for plotting than dreaded for unscrupulous
+      energy, was already in peril. The still unsubdued revolutionary spirit,
+      working under the smooth surface of French society, was the element which
+      accomplished the destruction of this discredited Government.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The outbreak in France acted like a spark in a powder magazine; ere long
+      great part of Europe was shaken by the second great revolutionary
+      upheaval, when potentates seemed falling and ancient dynasties crumbling
+      on all sides&mdash;a period of eager hope to many, followed by despair
+      when the reaction set in, accompanied in too many places by repressive
+      measures of pitiless severity. The contemptuous feeling with which many
+      Englishmen were wont to view such Continental troubles is well embodied in
+      the lines which Tennyson put into the mouth of one of his characters,
+      speaking of France:
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <blockquote>
+        <p>
+          "Yonder, whiff! there comes a sudden heat,<br /> The gravest citizen
+          seems to lose his head,<br /> The king is scared, the soldier will not
+          fight.<br /> The little boys begin to shoot and stab,<br /> A kingdom
+          topples over with a shriek<br /> Like an old woman, and down rolls the
+          world<br /> In mock-heroics&mdash;<br /> Revolts, republics,
+          revolutions, most<br /> No graver than a schoolboy's barring out;<br />
+          Too comic for the solemn things they are,<br /> Too solemn for the
+          comic touches in them."<br />
+        </p>
+      </blockquote>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      In this wild year 1848, which saw Revolution running riot on the
+      Continent, England too had its share of troubles not less painfully
+      ridiculous; the insurrection headed by Smith O'Brien, a chief of the
+      "Young Ireland" party, coming to an inglorious end in the affray that took
+      place at "the widow McCormick's cabbage-garden, Ballingarry," in the month
+      of July; the greatly dreaded Chartist demonstration at Kennington Common
+      on April 10th by its conspicuous failure having done much to damp the
+      hopes and spirits of the party of disorder generally.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would be easy now to laugh at the frustrated designs of the Chartist
+      leaders and at the sort of panic they aroused in London: the vast
+      procession, which was to have marched in military order to overawe
+      Parliament, resolving itself into a confused rabble easily dispersed by
+      the police, and the monster petition, that should have numbered six
+      million signatures, transported piecemeal to the House, and there found to
+      have but two million names appended, many fictitious; the Chartist leader,
+      completely cowed, thanking the Home Office for its lenient treatment; or,
+      on the other hand, London and its peaceful inhabitants, distracted with
+      wild rumours of combat and bloodshed, apprehending a repetition of
+      Parisian madnesses, and unaware how thoroughly the Duke of Wellington,
+      entrusted with the defence of the capital and its important buildings, had
+      carried out all needful arrangements. The two hundred thousand special
+      constables sworn in to aid in maintaining law and order on that day were
+      visible enough, and had their utility in conveying a certain impression of
+      safety; the troops whom the veteran commander held in readiness were kept
+      out of sight till wanted. These rebellious spirits imagining themselves
+      formidable and free, when caught in an invisible iron network&mdash;these
+      terrified citizens, protected all unconsciously to themselves against the
+      impotent foe whom they dreaded&mdash;might furnish food for mirth if we
+      did not remember the real, deep, and widespread misery which found
+      inarticulate but piteous expression in the movement now coming to
+      confusion under the firm assertion of necessary authority. The
+      disturbances must needs be quieted; but hitherto it has been the glory of
+      our Victorian statesmen to have understood that the grievances which
+      caused them must also be dealt with. Now that all which could be deemed
+      wise and good in Chartist demands has been conceded, orderly and quietly,
+      the name "Chartism" has utterly lost its dread significance. <br /> <a
+      name="ILL023" id="ILL023"></a> <br /> <a href="images/023 Napoleon III.jpg">
+      <img src="images/023 Napoleon III.jpg" alt="Napoleon III" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Napoleon III
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      No cruelly vindictive measures of reprisal followed the collapse of the
+      agitation; none indeed were needed. The revolutionary epidemic, which had
+      spread hitherward from France, found our body politic in too sound a
+      condition, and could not fasten on it; and the subsequent convulsions
+      which shook our great neighbour hardly called forth an answering thrill in
+      England. The strange transactions of December 1851, by means of which
+      Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Prince-President of the new French republic,
+      succeeded in overthrowing that republic and replacing it by an empire of
+      which he was the head, did indeed excite displeasure and distrust in many
+      minds; and though it was believed that his high-handed proceedings had
+      averted much disorder, the English Government was not prepared at once to
+      accept all the proffered explanations of French diplomacy; but the then
+      foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, by the rash proclamation of his
+      individual approval, committed the Ministry of which he was one to a
+      recognition of the <i>de facto</i> Monarch of France. This step was but
+      the last of many instances in which Palmerston had acted without due
+      reference to the premier's or the Sovereign's opinion&mdash;a course of
+      conduct which had justly displeased the Queen, and had drawn from her
+      grave and pointed remonstrances. The final transgression led to his
+      resignation; but its effects on our relations with France remained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile the Emperor's consistent and probably sincere display of
+      goodwill towards England, the apparent complacency with which the French
+      nation acquiesced in his rule, and the outward prosperity accompanying it,
+      did their natural work in conciliating approval, and in making men willing
+      to forget the obscure and tortuous steps by which he had climbed to power.
+      One day he and France were to pay for these things; but meanwhile he was a
+      popular ruler, accepted and approved by the nation he governed, anxious
+      for its prosperity, and earnest in keeping it friendly with Great Britain,
+      which he had found a hospitable home in the days of his obscurity, which
+      was again to offer an asylum to him in a day of utter disaster and
+      overthrow, and where his life, chequered by vicissitudes stranger than any
+      known to romance, was to come to a quiet close. It has been the singular
+      fortune of Her Majesty to receive into the sacred shelter of her realm two
+      dethroned monarchs, two fallen fortunes, two dynasties cast out from
+      sovereign power, while her own throne, "broad-based upon her people's
+      will, and compassed by the inviolate sea," has stood firm and unshaken,
+      even by a breath. And it has been her special honour to cherish with
+      affection, even warmer in their adversity, the friends who had gained her
+      regard when their prosperity seemed as bright and their great position as
+      assured as her own. Visiting the Emperor Napoleon in his splendid capital,
+      f&eacute;ted and welcomed by him and his Empress with every flattering
+      form of honour that his ingenuity could devise or his power enable him to
+      show, she did not forget the Orleans family and their calamities, but
+      frankly urged on her host the injustice of the confiscations with which he
+      had requited the supposed hostility of those princes, and endeavoured to
+      persuade him to milder measures. She visited in his company the tomb of
+      the lamented Duke of Orleans; and her first care on returning to England
+      was to show some kindly attention to the discrowned royalties who were now
+      her guests. In the same spirit, in after years, she extended a friendly
+      hand to the exiled Empress Eug&eacute;nie, escaping from new revolutionary
+      perils to English safety, and altogether declined to consider her personal
+      regard for the lady, whose attractions had deservedly gained it in
+      brighter days, as being in any sense complicated with matters political.
+      The resolute loyalty with which she at once maintained her private
+      friendships and kept them entirely apart from her public action compelled
+      toleration from the persons most inclined to take umbrage at it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An instance of successful and courageous enterprise on Her Majesty's part
+      may well close this brief notice of the internal and external convulsions
+      which for a time shook, though they did not shatter, the peace of our
+      realm. In the late summer of 1849 a royal visit to Ireland, now just
+      reviving from its misery, was planned and carried out with complete
+      success; the wild Irish enthusiasm blazed up into raptures of a loyal
+      welcome, and the Sovereign, who played her part with all the graceful
+      perfection that her compassionate heart and quick intelligence suggested,
+      was delighted with the little tour, from which those who shared in it
+      prophesied "permanent good" for Ireland. At least it had a healing,
+      beneficial effect at the moment; and perhaps more could not have been
+      reasonably hoped. Later royal visits to the sister isle have been less
+      conspicuous, but all fairly successful. <br /> <br /> <br /> <a name="4"></a>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CHAPTER IV<br /> <br /> THE CRIMEAN WAR
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <a name="ILL024" id="ILL024"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/024 The Crystal Palace 1851.jpg" alt="The Crystal Palace, 1851" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      The Crystal Palace, 1851
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The "Exhibition year," 1851, appears to our backward gaze almost like a
+      short day of splendid summer interposed between two stormy seasons; but at
+      the time men were more inclined to regard it as the first of a long series
+      of halcyon days. Indeed, the unexampled number and success of the various
+      efforts to redress injury and reform abuses, which had signalised the new
+      reign, might almost justify those sanguine spirits, who now wrote and
+      spoke as though wars and oppression were well on their way to the limbo of
+      ancient barbarisms, and who looked to unfettered commerce as the
+      peace-making civiliser, under whose influence the golden age&mdash;in more
+      senses than one might revisit the earth. <br /> <a name="ILL025" id="ILL025"></a>
+      <br /> <a href="images/025 Lord Ashley.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/025 Lord Ashley.jpg" alt="Lord Ashley" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Lord Ashley
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      We have already referred to certain of the new transforming forces whose
+      action tended to heighten such hopes; there are two reforms as yet unnamed
+      by us, distinguishing these early years, which are particularly
+      significant; though one at least was stoutly opposed by a special class of
+      reformers. We refer to the legislation dealing with mines and factories
+      and those employed therein, with which is inseparably connected the
+      venerable name of the late Lord Shaftesbury; and to the abolition of
+      duelling in the army, secured by the untiring efforts of Prince Albert,
+      who had enlisted on his side the immense influence of the Duke of
+      Wellington.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That peculiar modern survival of the ancient trial by combat, the duel,
+      was still blocking the way of English civilisation when Her Majesty
+      assumed the sceptre. A palpable anachronism, it yet seemed impossible to
+      make men act on their knowledge of its antiquated and barbarous character;
+      legislation was fruitless of good against a practice consecrated by false
+      sentiment and false ideas of honour; but when dislodged from its chief
+      stronghold, the army, it became quickly discredited everywhere, with the
+      happy result noted by a contemporary historian, that <i>now</i> "a duel in
+      England would seem as absurd and barbarous as an ordeal by touch or a
+      witch-burning." Militarism, that mischievous counterfeit of true soldierly
+      spirit, could not thrive where the duel was discountenanced; and the
+      friends of peace might rejoice with reason.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But those peaceful agitators, the sagacious, energetic Cobden and his
+      allies, resented rather sharply the interference of the Lord Ashley of
+      that day with the "natural laws" of the labour market&mdash;laws to whose
+      operation some of the party attributed the cruelly excessive hours of work
+      in factories, and the indiscriminate employment of all kinds of labour,
+      even that of the merest infants. Undeterred by these objections, convinced
+      that no law which sanctioned and promoted cruelty did so with true
+      authority, Lord Ashley persisted in the struggle on which he had entered
+      1833; in 1842 he scored his first great success in the passing of an Act
+      that put an end to the employment of women and children in mines and
+      collieries; in 1844 the Government carried their Factories Act, which
+      lessened and limited the hours of children's factory labour, and made
+      other provisions for their benefit. It was not all that he had striven
+      for, but it was much; he accepted the compromise, but did not slacken in
+      his efforts still further to improve the condition of the children. His
+      career of steady benevolence far outstretched this early period of battle
+      and endurance; but already his example and achievement were fruitful of
+      good, and his fellow-labourers were numerous. Nothing succeeds like
+      success: people had sneered at the mania for futile legislation that
+      possessed the "humanity-monger" who so embarrassed party leaders with his
+      crusade on behalf of mere mercy and justice; they now approved the
+      practical philanthropist who had taken away a great reproach from his
+      nation, and glorified the age in which they lived because of its special
+      humaneness, while they exulted not less in the brightening prospects of
+      the country. Sedition overcome, law and order triumphant, the throne
+      standing firm, prosperity returning&mdash;all ministered to pride and
+      hope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1850 there had been some painful incidents; the death by an unhappy
+      accident of Sir Robert Peel, and the turbulent excitement of what are
+      known as the "No Popery" disturbances, being the most notable: and of
+      these again incomparably the most important was the untimely loss to the
+      country of the great and honest statesman who might otherwise have
+      rendered still more conspicuous services to the Sovereign and the empire.
+      The sudden violent outburst of popular feeling, provoked by a piece of
+      rash assumption on the part of the reigning Pope, was significant, indeed,
+      as evidencing how little alteration the "Catholic revival" had worked in
+      the temper of the nation at large; otherwise its historic importance is
+      small. At the time, however, the current of agitation ran strongly, and
+      swept into immediate oblivion an event which three years before would have
+      had a European importance&mdash;the 'death of Louis Philippe, whose
+      strangely chequered life came to an end in the old palace of Claremont,
+      just before the "papal aggressions"&mdash;rash, impolitic, and
+      mischievous, as competent observers pronounced it, but powerless to injure
+      English Protestantism&mdash;had thrown all the country into a ferment,
+      which took some months to subside. We are told that Her Majesty, though
+      naturally interested by this affair, was more alive to the quarter where
+      the real peril lay than were some of her subjects; but in the universal
+      distress caused by the death of Peel none joined more truly, none deplored
+      that loss more deeply, than the Sovereign, who would willingly have shown
+      her value for the true servant she had lost by conferring a peerage on his
+      widow&mdash;an honour which Lady Peel, faithful to the wishes and sharing
+      the feeling of her husband, felt it necessary to decline. <br /> <a
+      name="ILL026" id="ILL026"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/026 Earl of Derby.jpg" alt="Earl of Derby" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Earl of Derby
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Amid these agitations, inferior far to many that had preceded them, the
+      year 1850 ran out, and 1851 opened&mdash;the year in which Prince Albert's
+      long-pursued project of a great International Exhibition of Arts and
+      Industries was at last successfully carried out. The idea, as expounded by
+      himself at a banquet given by the Lord Mayor, was large and noble. "It was
+      to give the world a true test, a living picture, of the point of
+      industrial development at which the whole of mankind had arrived, and a
+      new starting-point from which all nations would be able to direct their
+      further exertions." The magnificent success, unflawed by any vexatious or
+      dangerous incident, with which the idea was carried out, had made it
+      almost impossible for us to understand the opposition with which the plan
+      was greeted, the ridicule that was heaped upon it, the foolish fears which
+      it inspired; while the many similar Exhibitions in this and other
+      countries that have followed and emulated, but never altogether equalled,
+      the first, have made us somewhat oblivious of the fact that the scheme
+      when first propounded was an absolute novelty. It was a fascination, a
+      wonder, a delight; it aroused enthusiasm that will never be rekindled on a
+      like occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Paxton's fairy palace of glass and iron, erected in Hyde Park, and
+      canopying in its glittering spaces the untouched, majestic elms of that
+      national pleasure-ground as well as the varied treasures of industrial and
+      artistic achievement brought from every quarter of the globe, divided the
+      charmed astonishment of foreign spectators with the absolute orderliness
+      of the myriads who thronged it and crowded all its approaches on the great
+      opening day. Perhaps on that day the Queen touched the summit of her rare
+      happiness. It was the 1st of May&mdash;her own month&mdash;and the
+      birthday of her youngest son, the godchild and namesake of the great Duke.
+      She stood, the most justly popular and beloved of living monarchy, amid
+      thousands of her rejoicing subjects, encompassed with loving friends and
+      happy children, at the side of the beloved husband whose plan was now
+      triumphantly realised; and she spoke the words which inaugurated that
+      triumph and invited the world to gaze on it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The sight was magical," she says, "so vast, so glorious, so
+      touching...God bless my dearest Albert! God bless my dearest country,
+      which has shown itself so great to-day! One felt so grateful to the great
+      God, Who seemed to pervade all and to bless all. The only event it in the
+      slightest degree reminded me of was the coronation, but this day's
+      festival was a thousand times superior. In fact, it is unique, and can
+      bear no comparison, from its peculiar beauty and combination of such
+      striking and different objects. I mean the slight resemblance only as to
+      its solemnity; the enthusiasm and cheering, too, were much more touching,
+      for in a church naturally all is silent."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Exhibition remained open from the 1st of May to the 11th of October,
+      continuing during all those months to attract many thousands of visitors.
+      It had charmed the world by the splendid embodiment of peace and peaceful
+      industries which it presented, and men willingly took this festival as a
+      sign bespeaking a yet longer reign of world-tranquillity. It proved to be
+      only a sort of rainbow, shining in the black front of approaching tempest.
+      When 1854 opened, the third year from the Exhibition year, we were already
+      committed to war with Russia; and the forty years' peace with Europe,
+      finally won at Waterloo, was over and gone. <br /> <a name="ILL027"
+      id="ILL027"></a> <br /> <a href="images/027 Duke of Wellington.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/027 Duke of Wellington.jpg" alt="Duke of Wellington"
+      width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Duke of Wellington
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      In the interval another great spirit had passed away. The Duke of
+      Wellington died, very quietly and with little warning, at Walmer Castle,
+      on the 14th of September, 1852, "full of years and honours." He was in his
+      eighty-fourth year, and during the whole reign of Queen Victoria he had
+      occupied such a position as no English subject had ever held before. At
+      one time, before that reign began, his political action had made him
+      extraordinarily unpopular, in despite of the splendid military services
+      which no one could deny; now he was the very idol of the nation, and at
+      the same time was treated with the utmost respect and reverent affection
+      by the Sovereign&mdash;two distinctions how seldom either attained or
+      merited by one person! But in Wellington's case there is no doubt that the
+      popular adoration and the royal regard were worthily bestowed and well
+      earned. He had never seemed stirred by the popular odium, he never seemed
+      to prize the popular praise, which he received; it was not for praise that
+      he had worked, but for simple duty; and his experience of the fickleness
+      of public favour might make him something scornful of it. To the honours
+      which his Sovereign delighted to shower on him&mdash;honours perhaps never
+      before bestowed on a subject by a monarch&mdash;he <i>was</i> sensitive.
+      The Queen to him was the noblest personification of the country whose good
+      had ever been, not only the first, but the only object of his public
+      action: and with this patriotic loyalty there mingled something of a
+      personal feeling, more akin to romance in its paternal tenderness than
+      seemed consistent with the granite-hewn strength and sternness of his
+      general character. A thorough soldier, with a soldier's contempt for
+      fine-spun diplomacy, he had been led into many a blunder when acting as a
+      chief of party and of State; but his absolute single-minded honesty had
+      more than redeemed such errors; "integrity and uprightness had preserved
+      him," and through him the land and its rulers, amid difficulties where the
+      finest statecraft might have made shipwreck of all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He had his human failings; yet the moral grandeur of his whole career cast
+      such faults into the shade, and justified entirely the universal grief at
+      his not untimely death. The Queen deplored him as "our immortal hero"&mdash;a
+      servant of the Crown "devoted, loyal, and faithful" beyond all example;
+      the nation endeavoured by a funeral of unprecedented sumptuousness to show
+      its sense of loss; the poet laureate devoted to his memory a majestic Ode,
+      hardly surpassed by any in the language for its stately, mournful music,
+      and finely faithful in its characterisation of the dead hero&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <blockquote>
+        <p>
+          &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+          "The man of long-enduring blood,<br /> The statesman-warrior, moderate,
+          resolute,<br /> Whole in himself, a common good;...<br /> ...The man of
+          amplest influence,<br /> Yet clearest of ambitious crime,<br /> Our
+          greatest yet with least pretence,<br /> Great in council and great in
+          war,<br /> Foremost captain of his time,<br /> Rich in saving
+          common-sense.<br /> And, as the greatest only are.<br /> In his
+          simplicity sublime;...<br /> Who never sold the truth to serve the
+          hour,<br /> Nor paltered with Eternal God for power;<br /> Who let the
+          turbid streams of rumour flow<br /> Through either babbling world of
+          high and low;<br /> Whose life was work, whose language rife<br /> With
+          rugged maxims hewn from life;<br /> Who never spoke against a foe;<br />
+          Whose eighty winters freeze with one rebuke<br /> All great
+          self-seekers trampling on the right:<br /> Truth-teller was our
+          England's Alfred named;<br /> Truth-lover was our English Duke;<br />
+          Whatever record leap to light<br /> He never shall be shamed."<br />
+        </p>
+      </blockquote>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      When, within so short a period after Wellington's death, the nation once
+      more found itself drawn into a European war, there were many whose regret
+      for his removal was quickened into greater keenness. "Had we but the Duke
+      to lead our armies!" was the common cry; but even <i>his</i> military
+      genius might have found itself disastrously fettered, had he occupied the
+      position which his ancient subordinate and comrade, Lord Raglan, was made
+      to assume. It may be doubted if Wellington could have been induced to
+      assume it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether there ever would have been a Crimean war if no special
+      friendliness had existed between France and England may be fair matter for
+      speculation. The quarrel issuing in that war was indeed begun by France;
+      but it would have been difficult for England to take no part in it. The
+      apple of discord was supplied by a long-standing dispute between the Greek
+      and Latin Churches as to the Holy Places situated in Palestine&mdash;a
+      dispute in which France posed as the champion of the Latin and Russia of
+      the Greek right to the guardianship of the various shrines. The claim of
+      France was based on a treaty between Francis I and the then Sultan, and
+      related to the Holy Places merely; the Russian claim, founded on a treaty
+      between Turkey and Catherine II, was far wider, and embraced a
+      protectorate over all Christians of the Greek Church in Turkey, and
+      therefore over a great majority of the Sultan's European subjects. Such a
+      construction of the treaty in question, however, had always been refused
+      by England whenever Russia had stated it; and its assertion at this moment
+      bore an ominous aspect in conjunction with the views which the reigning
+      Czar Nicholas had made very plain to English statesmen, both when he
+      visited England in 1844 and subsequently to that visit. To use his own
+      well-known phrase, he regarded Turkey as "a sick man"&mdash;a death-doomed
+      man, indeed&mdash;and hoped to be the sick man's principal heir. He had
+      confidently reckoned on English co-operation when the Turkish empire
+      should at last be dismembered; he was now to find, not only that
+      co-operation would be withheld, but that strong opposition would be
+      offered to the execution of the plan, for which it had seemed that a
+      favourable moment was presenting itself. The delusion under which he had
+      acted was one that should have been dispelled by plain English speech long
+      before; but now that he found it to be a delusion, he did not recede from
+      his demands upon the Porte: he rather multiplied them. The upshot of all
+      this was war, in spite of protracted diplomatic endeavours to the
+      contrary; and into that war French and English went side by side. Once
+      before they had done so, when Philip Augustus and Richard Coeur de Lion
+      united their forces to wrest the Holy Places from the Saracens; that
+      enterprise had been disgraced by particularly ugly scandals from which
+      this was free; but in respect to glory of generalship, or permanent
+      results secured, the Crimean campaign has little pre-eminence over the
+      Fourth Crusade.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Recent disclosures, which have shown that Lord Aberdeen's Ministry was not
+      rightly reproached with "drifting" idly and recklessly into this
+      disastrous contest, have also helped to clear the English commander's
+      memory from the slur of inefficiency so liberally flung on him at the
+      time, while it has been shown that his action was seriously hampered by
+      the French generals with whom he had to co-operate. From whatever cause,
+      such glory as was gained in the Crimea belongs more to the rank and file
+      of the allied armies than to those highest in command. The first success
+      won on the heights of the Alma was not followed up; the Charge of the Six
+      Hundred, which has made memorable for ever the Russian repulse at
+      Balaklava, was a splendid mistake, valuable chiefly for the
+      spirit-stirring example it has bequeathed to future generations of English
+      soldiers, for its illustration of death-defying, disciplined courage; the
+      great fight at Inkerman was only converted from a calamitous surprise into
+      a victory by sheer obstinate valour, not by able strategy; and the
+      operations that after Lord Raglan's death brought the unreasonably
+      protracted siege of Sebastopol to a close did but evince afresh how grand
+      were the soldierly qualities of both French and English, and how
+      indifferently they were generalled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the allies came out of the conflict with no great glory, they had such
+      satisfaction as could be derived from the severer losses and the
+      discomfiture at all points of the foe. The disasters of the war had been
+      fatal to the Czar Nicholas, who died on March 2nd, 1855, from pulmonary
+      apoplexy&mdash;an attack to which he had laid himself open, it was said,
+      in melancholy recklessness of his health. His was a striking personality,
+      which had much more impressed English imaginations than that of Czar or
+      Czarina since the time of Peter the Great; and the Queen herself had
+      regarded the autocrat, whose great power made him so lonely, with an
+      interest not untouched with compassion at the remote period when he had
+      visited her Court and had talked with her statesmen about the imminent
+      decay of Turkey. At that time the austere majesty of his aspect, seen amid
+      the finer and softer lineaments of British courtiers, had been likened to
+      the half-savage grandeur of an emperor of old Rome who should have been
+      born a Thracian peasant. It proved that the contrast had gone much deeper
+      than outward appearance, and that his views and principles had been as
+      opposed to those of the English leaders, and as impossible of
+      participation by such men as though he had been an imperfectly civilised
+      contemporary of Constantine the Great. Since then he had succeeded in
+      making himself more heartily hated, by the bulk of the English nation,
+      than any sovereign since Napoleon I; for the war, into which the
+      Government had entered reluctantly, was regarded by the people with great
+      enthusiasm, and the foe was proportionately detested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many anticipated that the death of the Czar would herald in a triumphant
+      peace; but in point of fact, peace was not signed until the March of 1856.
+      Its terms satisfied the diplomatists both of France and England; they
+      would probably have been less complacent could they have foreseen the day
+      when this hard-won treaty would be torn up by the Power they seemed to be
+      binding hand and foot with sworn obligations of perdurable toughness;
+      least of all would that foresight have been agreeable to Lord Palmerston,
+      Premier of England when the peace was signed, and quite at one with the
+      mass of the people of England in their deep dislike and distrust of Russia
+      and its rulers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The political advantages which can be clearly traced to this war are not
+      many. Privateers are no longer allowed to prey on the commerce of
+      belligerent nations, and neutral commerce in all articles not contraband
+      of war must be respected, while no blockade must be regarded unless
+      efficiently and thoroughly maintained. Such were the principles with which
+      the plenipotentiaries who signed the Treaty of Paris in 1856 enriched the
+      code of international law; and these principles, which are in force still,
+      alone remain of the advantages supposed to have been secured by all the
+      misery and all the expenditure of the Crimean enterprise. <br /> <a
+      name="ILL028" id="ILL028"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/028 Florence Nightingale.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/028 Florence Nightingale.jpg" alt="Florence Nightingale"
+      width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Florence Nightingale
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      But other benefits, not of a political nature, arose out of the hideous
+      mismanagement which had disgraced the earlier stages of the war. It is a
+      very lamentable fact that of the 24,000 good Englishmen who left their
+      bones in the Crimea, scarce 5,000 had fallen in fair fight or died of
+      wounds received therein. Bad and deficient food, insufficient shelter and
+      clothing, utter disorganisation and confusion in the hospital department,
+      accounted for the rest. These evils, when exposed in the English
+      newspapers, called forth a cry of shame and wrath from all the nation, and
+      stirred noble men and women into the endeavour to mitigate at least the
+      sufferings of the unhappy wounded. Miss Florence Nightingale, the daughter
+      of a wealthy English gentleman, was known to take a deep and well-informed
+      interest in hospital management; and this lady was induced to superintend
+      personally the nursing of the wounded in our military hospitals in the
+      East. Entrusted with plenary powers over the nurses, and accompanied by a
+      trained staff of lady assistants, she went out to wrestle with and
+      overcome the crying evils which too truly existed, and which were the
+      despair of the army doctors. Her success in this noble work, magnificently
+      complete as it was, did indeed "multiply the good," as Sidney Herbert had
+      foretold: we may hope it will continue so to multiply it "to all time."
+      The horrors of war have been mitigated to an incalculable extent by the
+      exertions of the noble men and women who, following in the path first
+      trodden by the Crimean heroines, formed the Geneva Convention, and have
+      borne the Red Cross, its most sacred badge, on many a bloody field, in
+      many a scene of terrible suffering&mdash;suffering touched with gleams of
+      human pity and human gratitude; for the courageous tenderness of many a
+      soft-handed and lion-hearted nursing sister, since the days of Florence
+      Nightingale, has aroused the same half-adoring thankfulness which made
+      helpless soldiers turn to kiss that lady's shadow, thrown by her lamp on
+      the hospital wall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The horrors thus mitigated have become more than ever repugnant to the
+      educated perception of Christendom, because of the merciful devotion
+      which, ever toiling to lessen them, keeps them before the world's eye. In
+      every great war that has shaken the civilised world since the strife in
+      the Crimea broke out, the ambulance, its patients, its attendants, have
+      always been in the foreground of the picture. Never have the inseparable
+      miseries of warfare been so well understood and so widely realised, thanks
+      in part to that new literary force of the Victorian age, the <i>war
+      correspondent</i>, and chiefly, perhaps, to the new position henceforth
+      assumed by the military medical and hospital service. To the same source
+      we may fairly attribute the great improvements wrought in the whole
+      conduct of that distinctively Christian charity, unknown to heathenism,
+      the hospital system: the opening of a new field of usefulness to educated
+      and devoted women of good position, as nurses in hospitals and out; and
+      the vast increase of public interest in and public support of such
+      agencies. Even the Female Medical Mission, now rising into such importance
+      in the jealous lands of the East, may be traced not very indirectly to the
+      same cause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Queen, whose enthusiasm for her beloved army and navy was very
+      earnest, and frankly shown, who had suffered with their sufferings and
+      exulted in their exploits, followed with a keen, personal, unfaltering
+      interest the efforts made for their relief. "Tell these poor, noble
+      wounded and sick men that <i>no one</i> takes a warmer interest, or feels
+      more for their sufferings, or admires their courage and heroism more than
+      their Queen. So does the Prince," was the impulsive, heart-warm message
+      which Her Majesty sent for transmission through Miss Nightingale to her
+      soldier-patients. Her deeds proved that these words were words of truth.
+      Not content with subscribing largely to the fund raised on behalf of those
+      left orphaned and widowed by the war, she took part in the work of
+      providing fitting clothing for the men exposed to all the terrors of a
+      Russian winter; and her daughters, enlisted to aid in this pious work,
+      began that career of beneficence which two of them were to pursue
+      afterwards to such good purpose, amid the ravages of wars whose colossal
+      awfulness dwarfed the Crimean campaign in the memories of men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many of the injured being invalided home while the war was in progress,
+      Her Majesty embraced the opportunity to testify her sympathy and
+      admiration, giving to them in public with her own hands the medals for
+      service rendered at Alma, at Balaklava, and at Inkerman. It would not be
+      easy to say whether the Sovereign or the soldiers were more deeply moved
+      on this occasion. Conspicuous among the maimed and feeble heroes was the
+      gallant young Sir Thomas Troubridge, who, lamed in both feet by a Russian
+      shot at Inkerman, had remained at his post, giving his orders, while the
+      fight endured, since there was none to fill his place. He appeared now,
+      crippled for life, but declared himself "amply repaid for everything,"
+      while the Queen decorated him, and told him he should be one of her
+      aides-de-camp. Her own high courage and resolute sense of duty moved her
+      with special sympathy for heroism like this; and she obeyed the natural
+      dictates of her heart in conspicuously rewarding it. With a similar
+      impulse, on the return of the army, she made a welcoming visit to the sick
+      and wounded at Chatham, and testified the liveliest appreciation of the
+      humane services of Miss Nightingale, to whom a jewel specially designed by
+      the Prince was presented, in grateful recognition of her inestimable work.
+      The new decoration of the Victoria Cross, given "for valour" conspicuously
+      shown in deeds of self-devotion in war time, further proved how keenly the
+      Queen and her consort appreciated soldierly virtue. It was the Prince who
+      first proposed that such a badge of merit should be introduced, the Queen
+      who warmly accepted the idea, and in person bestowed the Cross on its
+      first wearers, thereby giving it an unpurchasable value. <br /> <br /> <br />
+      <a name="5"></a> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CHAPTER V<br /> <br /> INDIA
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lord Aberdeen, who did not hope very great things from the war which had
+      initiated during his Ministry, had yet deemed it possible that Eastern
+      Europe might reap from it the benefit of a quarter of a century's peace.
+      He was curiously near the mark in this estimate; but neither he nor any
+      other English statesman was unwary enough to risk such a prophecy as to
+      the general tranquillity of the Continent. In fact, the peace of Europe,
+      broken in 1853, has been unstable enough ever since, and from time to time
+      tremendous wars have shaken it. Into none of these, however, has Great
+      Britain been again entrapped, though the sympathies of its people have
+      often been warmly enlisted on this side and that. A war with China, which
+      began in 1857, and cannot be said to have ended till 1860, though in the
+      interim a treaty was signed which secured just a year's cessation of
+      hostilities, was the most important undertaking in which the allied forces
+      of France and England took part after the Crimea. In this war the allies
+      were victorious, as at that date any European Power was tolerably certain
+      to be in a serious contest with China. The closing act of the conflict&mdash;the
+      destruction of the Summer Palace at Pekin, in retaliation for the
+      treacherous murder of several French and English prisoners of distinction&mdash;was
+      severely blamed at the time, but defended on the ground that only in this
+      way could any effectual punishment of the offence be obtained. That act of
+      vengeance and the war which it closed have an interest of their own in
+      connection with the late General Gordon, who now entered on that course of
+      extraordinary achievement which lacks a parallel in this century, and
+      which began, in the interests of Chinese civilisation, shortly after he
+      had taken a subordinate officer's part in the work of destruction at
+      Pekin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this date England did not commit itself to any of the singular series
+      of enterprises which our good ally, the French Emperor, set on foot. A
+      feeling of distrust towards that potentate was invading the minds of the
+      very Englishmen who had most cordially hailed his successes and met his
+      advances. "The Emperor's mind is as full of schemes as a warren is full of
+      rabbits, and, like rabbits, his schemes go to ground for the moment to
+      avoid notice or antagonism," were the strong words of Lord Palmerston in a
+      confidential letter of 1860; and when he could thus think and write, small
+      wonder if calmer and more unprejudiced minds saw need for standing on
+      their guard. Amid all the flattering demonstrations of friendship of which
+      the French court had been lavish, and which had been gracefully
+      reciprocated by English royality, the Prince Consort had retained an
+      undisturbed perception of much that was not quite satisfactory in the
+      qualifications of the despotic chief of the French State for his difficult
+      post. Thus it is without surprise that we find the Queen writing in 1859,
+      as to a plan suggested by the Emperor: "The whole scheme is the
+      often-attempted one, that England should take the chestnuts from the fire,
+      and assume the responsibility of making proposals which, if they lead to
+      war, we should be in honour bound to support by arms." The Emperor had
+      once said of Louis Philippe, that he had fallen "because he was not
+      sincere with England"; it looked now as though he were steering full on
+      the same rock, for his own sincerity was flawed by dangerous reservations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      England remained an interested spectator, but a spectator only, while the
+      French ruler played that curiously calculated game of his, which did so
+      much towards insuring the independence of Italy and its consolidation into
+      one free monarchy. It was no disinterested game, as the cession of Nice
+      and Savoy to France by Piedmont would alone have proved. It was daring to
+      the point of rashness; for as a French general of high rank said, there
+      needed but the slightest check to the French arms, and "it was all up with
+      the dynasty!" Yet the "idea" which furnished the professed motive for the
+      Emperor's warlike action was one dear to English sympathies, and many an
+      English heart rejoiced in the solid good secured for Italy, though without
+      our national co-operation. There was a proud compensating satisfaction in
+      the knowledge that, when a crisis of unexampled and terrible importance
+      had come in our own affairs, England had perforce dealt with it
+      single-handed and with supreme success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Those who can remember the fearful summer of 1857 can hardly recall its
+      wild events without some recurrence of the thrill of horror that ran
+      through the land, as week after week the Indian news of mutiny and
+      massacre reached us. It was a surprise to the country at large, more than
+      to the authorities, who were informed already that a spirit of
+      disaffection had been at work among our native troops in Bengal, and that
+      there was good reason to believe in the existence of a conspiracy for
+      sapping the allegiance of these troops. Later events have left little
+      doubt that such a conspiracy did exist, and that its aim was the total
+      subversion of British power. Our advance in Hindostan had been rapid, the
+      changes following on it many, and not always such as the Oriental mind
+      could understand or approve. Early in the reign, in 1847, an energetic
+      Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie, went out to India, who introduced
+      railways, telegraphs, and cheap postage, set on foot a system of native
+      education, and vigorously fought the ancient iniquities of suttee,
+      thuggee, and child-murder. Perhaps his aggressive energy worked too fast,
+      too fierily; perhaps his peremptory reforms, not less than his high-handed
+      annexations of the Punjaub, Oude, and other native States, awakened
+      suspicion in the mind of the Hindoo, bound as he was by the immemorial
+      fetters of caste, and dreading with a shuddering horror innovations that
+      might interfere with its distinctions; for to lose caste was to be
+      outlawed among men and accursed in the sight of God. <br /> <a name="ILL029"
+      id="ILL029"></a> <br /> <a href="images/029 Lord Canning.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/029 Lord Canning.jpg" alt="Lord Canning" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Lord Canning
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Lord Canning, the successor of Lord Dalhousie, entered on his
+      governor-generalship at a moment full of "unsuspected peril"; for the
+      disaffected in Hindostan had so misread the signs of the times as to
+      believe that England's sun was stooping towards its setting, and that the
+      hour had come in which a successful blow could be struck, against the
+      foreign domination of a people alien in faith as in blood from Mohammedan
+      and Buddhist and Brahmin, and apt to treat all alike with the scorn of
+      superiority. A trivial incident, which was held no trifle by the
+      distrustful Sepoys, proved to be the spark that kindled a vast explosion.
+      The cartridges supplied for use with the Enfield rifle, introduced into
+      India in 1856, were greased; and the end would have to be bitten off when
+      the cartridge was used. A report was busily circulated among the troops
+      that the grease used was cow's fat and hog's lard, and that these
+      substances were employed in pursuance of a deep-laid design to deprive
+      every soldier of his caste by compelling him to taste these defiling
+      things. Such compulsion would hardly have been less odious to a Mussulman
+      than to a Hindoo; for swineflesh is abominable to the one, and the cow a
+      sacred animal to the other. Whoever devised this falsehood intended to
+      imply a subtle intention on the part of England to overthrow the native
+      religions, which it was hoped the maddened soldiery would rise to resist.
+      The mischief worked as was desired. In vain the obnoxious cartridges were
+      withdrawn from use; in vain the Governor-General issued a proclamation
+      warning the army of Bengal against the falsehoods that were being
+      circulated. Mysterious signals, little cakes of unleavened bread called <i>chupatties</i>,
+      were being distributed, as the spring of 1857 went on, throughout the
+      native villages under British rule, doing the office of the <i>Fiery Cross</i>
+      among the Scotch Highlanders of an earlier day; and in May the great
+      Mutiny broke out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some of the Bengal cavalry at Meerut had been imprisoned for refusing to
+      use their cartridges; their comrades rose in rebellion, fired on their
+      officers, released the prisoners, and murdered some Europeans. The British
+      troops rallied and repulsed the mutineers, who fled to Delhi, unhappily
+      reached it in safety, and required and obtained the protection of the
+      feeble old King, the last of the Moguls, there residing. Him they
+      proclaimed their Emperor, and avowed the intention of restoring his
+      dynasty to its ancient supremacy. The native troops in the city and its
+      environs at once prepared to join them; and thus from a mere mutiny, such
+      as had occurred once and again before, the rising assumed the character of
+      a vast revolutionary war. For a moment it seemed that our hard-won
+      supremacy in the East was disappearing in a sea of blood. The foe were
+      numerous, fanatical, and ruthless; we ourselves had trained and
+      disciplined them for war; the sympathies of their countrymen were very
+      largely with them. Yet, with incredible effort and heroism more than
+      mortal, the small and scattered forces of England again snatched the
+      mastery from the hands of the overwhelming numbers arrayed against them.
+      <br /> <a name="ILL030" id="ILL030"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/030 Sir Colin Campbell.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/030 Sir Colin Campbell.jpg" alt="Sir Colin Campbell"
+      width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Sir Colin Campbell
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      One name has obtained an immortality of infamy in connection with this
+      struggle&mdash;that of the Nana Sahib, who by his hideous treachery at
+      Cawnpore took revenge on confiding Englishmen and women for certain wrongs
+      inflicted on him in regard to the inheritance of his adopted father by the
+      last Governor-General. But many other names have been crowned with
+      deathless honour, the just reward of unsurpassed achievement, of supreme
+      fidelity and valour, at a crisis under which feeble natures would have
+      fainted and fallen. Of these are Lord Canning himself, the noble brothers
+      John and Henry Lawrence, the Generals Havelock, Outram, and Campbell, and
+      others whom space forbids us even to name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Governor-General remained calm, resolute, and intrepid amidst the
+      panic and the rage which shook Calcutta when the first appalling news of
+      the Mutiny broke upon it. He disdained the cruel counsels of fear, and
+      steadily refused to confound the innocent with the guilty among the
+      natives; but he knew where to strike, and when, and how. On his own
+      responsibility he stayed the British troops on their way to the scene of
+      war in China, and made them serve the graver, more immediate need of
+      India, doing it with the concurrence of Lord Elgin, the envoy responsible
+      for the Chinese business; and he poured his forces on Delhi, the heart of
+      the insurrection, resolving to make an end of it there before ever
+      reinforcement direct from England could come. After a difficult and
+      terrible siege, the place was carried by storm on September 20th, 1857&mdash;an
+      achievement that cost many noble lives, and chief among them that of the
+      gallant Nicholson, a soldier whose mind and character seem to have made on
+      all who knew him an impression as of supernatural grandeur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Five days later General Havelock and his little band of heroes&mdash;some
+      one thousand Englishmen who had marched with him from Allahabad,
+      recaptured by Neill for England, and on to ghastly Cawnpore&mdash;arrived
+      at Lucknow, and relieved the slender British force which since May had
+      been holding the Residency against the fierce and ever-renewed assaults of
+      the thousands of rebels who poured themselves upon it. He came in time to
+      save many a brave life that should yet do good service; but the noblest
+      Englishman of them all, the gentle, dauntless, chivalrous Sir Henry
+      Lawrence, Governor of Oude, had died from wounds inflicted by a rebel
+      shell many weeks before, and lay buried in the stronghold for whose safe
+      keeping he had continued to provide in the hour and article of death. His
+      spirit, however, seemed yet to actuate the survivors. Havelock's march had
+      been one succession of victories won against enormous odds, and half
+      miraculous; but even he could work no miracle, and his troops might merely
+      have shared a tragic fate with the long-tried defenders of Lucknow, but
+      for the timely arrival of Sir Colin Campbell with five thousand men more,
+      to relieve in his turn the relieving force and place all the Europeans in
+      Lucknow in real safety. The news was received in England with a delight
+      that was mingled with mourning for the heroic and saintly Havelock, who
+      sank and died on November 24th. A soldier whose military genius had passed
+      unrecognised and almost unemployed while men far his inferiors were high
+      in command, he had so more than profited by the opportunity for doing good
+      service when it came, that in a few months his name had become one of the
+      dearest in every English home, a glory and a joy for ever. It is rarely
+      that a career so obscured by adverse fortune through all its course blazes
+      into such sunset splendour just at the last hour of life's day. <br /> <a
+      name="ILL031" id="ILL031"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/031 Henry Havelock.jpg" alt="Henry Havelock" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Henry Havelock
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Those months which made the fame of Havelock had been filled with crime
+      and horror. The first reports of Sepoy outrages which circulated in
+      England were undoubtedly exaggerated, but enough remains of sickening
+      truth as to the cruelties endured by English women and children at the
+      hand of the mutineers to account for the fury which filled the breasts of
+      their avenging countrymen, and seemed to lend them supernatural strength
+      and courage, and, alas! in some instances, to merge that courage in
+      ferocity. Delhi had been deeply guilty, when the mutineers seized it, in
+      respect of inhuman outrage on the helpless non-combatants; but the story
+      of Cawnpore is darker yet, and is still after all these years fresh in our
+      memories. A peculiar blackness of iniquity clings about it. That show of
+      amity with which the Nana Sahib responded to the summons of Sir Hugh
+      Wheeler, the hard-pressed commanding officer in the city, only that he
+      might act against him; those false promises by which the little garrison,
+      unconquerable by any force, was beguiled to give itself up to mere
+      butchery; the long captivity of the few scores of women and children who
+      survived the general slaughter, only, after many dreary days of painful
+      suspense, to be murdered in their prison-house as Havelock drew near the
+      gates of Cawnpore: all these circumstances of especial horror made men
+      regard their chief instigator rather as one of the lower fiends
+      masquerading in human guise than as a fellow-creature moved by any motives
+      common to men. It was perhaps well for the fair fame of Englishmen that
+      the Nana never fell into their hands, but saved himself by flight before
+      the soldiers of Havelock had looked into the slaughter-house all strewn
+      with relics of his victims and grimly marked with signs of murder, or had
+      gazed shuddering at the dreadful well choked up with the corpses of their
+      countrywomen. It required more than common courage, justice, and humanity,
+      to withstand the wild demand for mere indiscriminating revenge which these
+      things called forth. Happily those highest in power did possess these rare
+      qualities. Lord Canning earned for himself the nickname of "Clemency
+      Canning" by his perfect resoluteness to hold the balance of justice even,
+      and unweighted by the mad passion of the hour. Sir John (afterwards Lord)
+      Lawrence, the Chief Commissioner of the Punjaub, who, with his able
+      subordinates, had saved that province at the very outset, and thereby in
+      truth saved India, was equally firm in mercy and in justice. The Queen
+      herself, who had very early appreciated the gravity of the situation and
+      promoted to the extent of her power the speedy sending of aid and
+      reinforcement from England, thoroughly endorsed the wise and clement
+      policy of the Governor-General. Replying to a letter of Lord Canning's
+      which deplored "the rabid and indiscriminate vindictiveness abroad," Her
+      Majesty wrote these words, which we will give ourselves the pleasure to
+      quote entire:&mdash; <br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lord Canning will easily believe how
+        entirely the Queen shares his feelings of sorrow and indignation at the
+        unchristian spirit, shown, alas! also to a great extent here by the
+        public, towards Indians in general, and towards Sepoys <i>without
+        discrimination!</i> It is, however, not likely to last, and comes from
+        the horror produced by the unspeakable atrocities perpetrated against
+        the innocent women and children, which make one's blood run cold and
+        one's heart bleed! For the perpetrators of these awful horrors no
+        punishment can be severe enough; and sad as it is, <i>stern</i> justice
+        must be dealt out to all the guilty.<br /> <br /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+        But to the nation at large, to the peaceable inhabitants, to the many
+        kind and friendly natives who have assisted us, sheltered the fugitive,
+        and been faithful and true, there should be shown the greatest kindness.
+        They should know that there is no hatred to a brown skin&mdash;none; but
+        the greatest wish on their Queen's part to see them happy, contented,
+        and flourishing.
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL032" id="ILL032"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/032 Sir John Lawrence.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/032 Sir John Lawrence.jpg" alt="Sir John Lawrence" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Sir John Lawrence
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      These words well became the sovereign who, by serious and cogent argument,
+      had succeeded in inducing her Ministers to strike strongly and quickly on
+      the side of law and order, they having been at first inclined to adopt a
+      "step-by-step" policy as to sending out aid, which would not have been
+      very grateful to the hard-pressed authorities in India; while the Queen
+      and the Prince shared Lord Canning's opinion, that "nothing but a long
+      continued manifestation of England's might before the eyes of the whole
+      Indian empire, evinced by the presence of such an English force as should
+      make the thought of opposition hopeless, would re-establish confidence in
+      her strength."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The necessary manifestation of strength was made; the reputation of
+      England&mdash;so rudely shaken, not only in the opinion of ignorant
+      Hindoos, but in that of her European rivals&mdash;was re-established
+      fully, and indeed gained by the power she had shown to cope with an
+      unparalleled emergency. The counsels of vengeance were set aside, in spite
+      of the obloquy which for a time was heaped on the true wisdom which
+      rejected them. We did not "dethrone Christ to set up Moloch"; had we been
+      guilty of that sanguinary folly, England and India might yet be ruing that
+      year's doing. On the contrary, certain changes which did ensue in direct
+      consequence of the Mutiny were productive of undoubted good.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was recognised that the "fiction of rule by a trading company" in India
+      must now be swept away; one of the very earliest effects of the outbreak
+      had been to open men's eyes to the weak and sore places of that system. In
+      1858 an "Act for the better Government of India" was passed, which
+      transferred to Her Majesty all the territories formerly governed by the
+      East India Company, and provided that all the powers it had once wielded
+      should now be exercised in her name, and that its military and naval
+      forces should henceforth be deemed her forces. The new Secretary of State
+      for India, with an assistant council of fifteen members, was entrusted
+      with the care of Indian interests here; the Viceroy, or Governor-General,
+      also assisted by a council, was to be supreme in India itself. The first
+      viceroy who represented the majesty of England to the Queen's Indian
+      subjects was the statesman who had safely steered us through the imminent,
+      deadly peril of the Mutiny, and whom right feeling and sound policy alike
+      designated as the only fit wearer of this honour. Under the new regime
+      race and class prejudices have softened, education is spreading swiftly,
+      native oppression is becoming more difficult, as improved communications
+      bring the light of day into the remoter districts of the immense
+      peninsula. The public mind of England has never quite relapsed into its
+      former scornful indifference to the welfare of India; rather, that welfare
+      has been regarded with much keener interest, and the nation has become
+      increasingly alive to its duty with regard to that mighty dependency, now
+      one in allegiance with ourselves. There was much of happy omen in the
+      reception accorded by loyal Hindoos to the Queen's proclamation when it
+      reached them in 1858. While the mass of the people gladly hailed the rule
+      of the "Empress," by whom they believed the Company "had been hanged for
+      great offences," there were individuals who were intelligent enough to
+      recognise with delight that noble character of "humanity, mercy, and
+      justice," which was impressed by the Queen's own agency on the
+      proclamation issued in her name. We may say that the joy with which such
+      persons accepted the new reign has been justified by events, and that the
+      same great principles have continued to guide all Her Majesty's own action
+      with regard to India, and also that of her ablest representatives there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We may not leave out of account, in reckoning the loss and gain of that
+      tremendous year, the extraordinary examples of heroism called forth by its
+      trials, which have made our annals richer, and have set the ideal of
+      English nobleness higher. The amazing achievements and the swiftly
+      following death of the gallant Havelock did not indeed eclipse in men's
+      minds the equal patriotism and success of his noble fellows, but the
+      tragic completeness of his story and the antique grandeur of his character
+      made him specially dear to his countrymen; and the fact that he was
+      already in his grave while the Queen and Parliament were busy in assigning
+      to him the honours and rewards which his sixty years of life had hitherto
+      lacked, added something like remorse to the national feeling for him. But
+      the heart of the people swelled high with a worthy pride as we dwelt on
+      his name and those of the Lawrences, the Neills, the Outrams, the
+      Campbells, and felt that all our heroes had not died with Wellington.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Other anxieties and misfortunes had not been lacking while the fate of
+      British India still hung in the balance. The attitude of some European
+      Powers, whom the breaking forth of the Mutiny had encouraged in the idea
+      that England's power was waning, was full of menace, especially in view of
+      what the Prince Consort justly called "our pitiable state of
+      unpreparedness" for resisting attack. Prompted by him, the Queen caused
+      close inquiry to be made into the state of our home defences and of the
+      navy&mdash;the first step towards remedying the deficiencies therein
+      existing. Also a "cold wave" seemed to be passing over the commercial
+      community in England; the year 1857 being marked by very great financial
+      depression, which affected more or less every department of our
+      industries. In connection with this calamity, however, there was at least
+      one hopeful feature: the very different temper which the working classes,
+      then, as always, the greatest sufferers by such depression, manifested in
+      the time of trial. They showed themselves patient and loyal, able to
+      understand that their employers too had evils to endure and difficulties
+      to surmount; they no longer held all who were their superiors in station
+      for their natural enemies: a happy change, testifying to the good worked
+      by the new, beneficent spirit of legislation and reform.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is under the date of this year that we find Mr. Greville, on the
+      authority of Lord Clarendon, thus describing the very thorough and
+      "eminently useful" manner in which the Queen, assisted by the Prince, was
+      exercising her high functions:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "She held each Minister to the discharge of his duty and his
+      responsibility to her, and constantly desired to be furnished with
+      accurate and detailed information about all important matters, keeping a
+      record of all the reports that were made to her, and constantly referring
+      to them; <i>e.g.</i>, she would desire to know what the state of the navy
+      was, and what ships were in readiness for active service, and generally
+      the state of each, ordering returns to be submitted to her from all the
+      arsenals and dockyards, and again, weeks or months afterwards, referring
+      to these returns, and desiring to have everything relating to them
+      explained and accounted for, and so throughout every department....This is
+      what none of her predecessors ever did, and it is, in fact, the act of
+      Prince Albert."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We turn from this picture of the Sovereign's habitual occupations to her
+      public life, and we find it never more full of apparently absorbing
+      excitements&mdash;splendid hospitalities exchanged with other Powers,
+      especially with Imperial France, alternating with messages of
+      encouragement, full of cordiality and grace, to her successful
+      commander-in-chief in India, Sir Colin Campbell, with plans for the
+      conspicuous rewarding of the Indian heroes at large, with public visits to
+      various great English towns, and with preparations for the impending
+      marriage of the Princess Royal; and we realise forcibly that even in those
+      sunny days, when the Queen was surrounded with her unbroken family of nine
+      blooming and promising children, and still had at her right hand the
+      invaluable counsellor by whose aid England was governed with a wisdom and
+      energy all but unprecedented, her position was so far from a sinecure that
+      no subject who had his daily bread to gain by his wits could have worked
+      much harder. <br /> <br /> <br /> <a name="6"></a> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CHAPTER VI<br /> <br /> THE BEGINNINGS OF SORROWS
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <a name="ILL033" id="ILL033"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/033 Windsor Castle.jpg" alt="Windsor Castle" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Windsor Castle
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      It has been the Queen's good fortune to see her own true-love match
+      happily repeated in the marriages of her children. One would almost say
+      that the conspicuous success of that union, the blessing that it brought
+      with it to the nation, had set a new fashion to royalty. There is quite a
+      romantic charm about the first marriage which broke the royal home-circle
+      of England&mdash;that of the Queen's eldest child and namesake, Victoria,
+      Princess Royal, with Prince Frederick William, eldest son of the then
+      Prince of Prussia, whose exaltation to the imperial throne of Germany lay
+      dimly and afar&mdash;if not altogether undreamed of by some prophetic
+      spirits&mdash;in the future. The bride and bridegroom had first met, when
+      the youth was but nineteen and the maiden only ten, at the great Peace
+      Festival, the opening of the first Exhibition. Already the charming grace
+      and rare intelligence of the Princess had attracted attention; and it is
+      on record that at this early period some inkling of a possible attraction
+      between the two had entered one observer's mind, who also notes that the
+      young Prince, greatly interested by all he saw of free England and its
+      rulers, was above all taken with the "perfect domestic happiness which he
+      found pervading the heart, and core, and focus of the greatest empire in
+      the world." Four years later the Prince was again visiting England, a
+      guest of the royal family in its Scottish retreat of Balmoral, where they
+      had just been celebrating with beacon fires and Highland mirth and music
+      the glad news of the fall of Sebastopol. He had the full consent of his
+      own family for his wooing, but the parents of his lady would have had him
+      keep silence at least till the fifteen-year-old maiden should be
+      confirmed. The ease and unconstraint of that mountain home-life, however,
+      were not very favourable to reserve and reticence; a spray of white
+      heather, offered and received as the national emblem of good fortune, was
+      made the flower symbol of something more, and words were spoken that
+      effectually bound the two young hearts, though the formal betrothal was
+      deferred until some time after the Princess, in the following March, had
+      received the rite of Confirmation; and "the actual marriage," said the
+      Prince Consort, "cannot be thought of till the seventeenth birthday is
+      past." "The secret must be kept <i>tant bien que mal</i>," he had written,
+      well knowing that it would be a good deal of an open secret. <br /> <a
+      name="ILL034" id="ILL034"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/034 Prince Frederick William.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/034 Prince Frederick William.jpg"
+      alt="Prince Frederick William" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Prince Frederick William
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL035" id="ILL035"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/035 Princess Royal.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/035 Princess Royal.jpg" alt="Princess Royal" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Princess Royal
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The engagement was publicly announced in May, 1857, and though, when first
+      rumoured, it had been coldly looked on by the English public, now it was
+      accepted with great cordiality. The Prince was openly associated with the
+      royal family; he and his future bride appeared as sponsors at the
+      christening of our youngest Princess, Beatrice; he rode with the Prince
+      Consort beside the Queen when she made the first distribution of the
+      Victoria Cross, and was a prominent and heartily welcomed member of the
+      royal group which visited the Art Treasures Exhibition of Manchester. The
+      marriage, which was in preparation all through the grim days of 1857, was
+      celebrated with due splendour on January 25th, 1858, and awakened a
+      universal interest which was not even surpassed when, five years later,
+      the heir to the throne was wedded. "Down to the humblest cottage," said
+      the Prince Consort, "the marriage has been regarded as a family affair."
+      And not only this splendid and entirely successful match, but every joy or
+      woe that has befallen the highest family in the land, has been felt as "a
+      family affair" by thousands of the lowly. This is the peculiar glory of
+      the present reign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Happy and auspicious as this marriage was, it was nevertheless the first
+      interruption to the pure home bliss that hitherto had filled "the heart of
+      the greatest empire in the world." The Princess Royal, with her "man's
+      head and child's heart," had been the dear companion of the father whose
+      fine qualities she inherited, and had largely shared in his great
+      thoughts. Nor was she less dear to her mother, who had sedulously watched
+      over the "darling flower," admiring and approving her "touching and
+      delightful" filial worship of the Prince Consort, and who followed with
+      longing affection every movement of the dear child now removed from her
+      sheltering care, and making her own way and place in a new world. There
+      she has indeed proved herself, as she pledged herself to do, "worthy to be
+      her mother's child," following her parents in the path of true
+      philanthropy and gentle human care for the suffering and the lowly. So far
+      the ancient prophecy has been well fulfilled which promised good fortune
+      to Prussia and its rulers when the heir of the reigning house should wed a
+      princess from sea-girt Britain. But the wedding so propitious for Germany
+      seemed almost the beginning of sorrows for English royalty. Other
+      betrothals and marriages of the princes and princesses ensued; but the
+      still lamented death of the Prince Consort intervened before one of those
+      betrothals culminated in marriage. <br /> <a name="ILL036" id="ILL036"></a>
+      <br /> <img src="images/036 Charles Kingsley.jpg" alt="Charles Kingsley" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Charles Kingsley<br /> (From a Photograph by Elliott &amp; Fry)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Another event which may be called domestic belongs to the year following
+      this marriage&mdash;the coming of age of the Prince of Wales, fixed,
+      according to English use and wont, when the heir of the crown completes
+      his eighteenth year. Every educational advantage that wisdom or tenderness
+      could suggest had been secured for the Prince. We may note in passing that
+      one of his instructors was the Rev. Charles Kingsley, whom Prince Albert
+      had engaged to deliver a series of lectures on history to his son. This
+      honour, as well as that of his appointment as one of Her Majesty's
+      chaplains, was largely due to royal recognition of the practical
+      Christianity, so contagious in its fervour, which distinguished Mr.
+      Kingsley, not less than his great gifts; of his eagerness "to help in
+      lifting the great masses of the people out of the slough of ignorance and
+      all its attendant suffering and vice"&mdash;an object peculiarly dear to
+      the Queen and to the Prince, as had been consistently shown on every
+      opportunity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the time came that the youth so carefully trained should be
+      emancipated from parental control, it was announced to him by the Queen in
+      a letter characterised by Mr. Greville or his informant as "one of the
+      most admirable ever penned. She tells him," continues the diarist, "that
+      he may have thought the rule they adopted for his education a severe one,
+      but that his welfare was their only object; and well knowing to what
+      seductions of flattery he would eventually be exposed, they wished to
+      prepare and strengthen his mind against them; that he was now to consider
+      himself his own master, and that they should never intrude any advice upon
+      him, although always ready to give it him whenever he thought fit to seek
+      it. It was a very long letter, all in that tone; and it seems to have made
+      a profound impression on the Prince.... The effect it produced is a proof
+      of the wisdom that dictated its composition."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have chosen this as a true typical instance of the blended prudence and
+      tenderness that have marked the relations between our Sovereign and her
+      children. Aware what a power for good or evil the characters of those
+      children must have on the fortunes of very many others, she and her
+      husband sedulously surrounded them with every happy and healthy influence,
+      never forgetting the supreme need of due employment for their energies.
+      "Without a vocation," said the Prince Consort, "man is incapable of
+      complete development and real happiness": his sons have all had their
+      vocation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the same period, marked by these domestic passages of mingled joy
+      and sorrow, that became memorable in another way, through the various
+      troublous incidents which gave an extraordinary impetus to our national
+      Volunteer movement, which were not remotely connected with the War of
+      Italian Independence, and for a short time overthrew the popular Ministry
+      of Lord Palmerston, who was replaced in office by Lord Derby. The futile
+      plot of Felice Orsini, an Italian exile and patriot, against the life of
+      Louis Napoleon, provoked great anger among the Imperialists of France
+      against England, the former asylum of Orsini. A series of violent
+      addresses from the French army, denouncing Great Britain as a mere harbour
+      of assassins, did but give a more exaggerated form to the representations
+      of French diplomacy, urging the amendment of our law, which appeared
+      incompetent to touch murderous conspirators within our borders so long as
+      their plots regarded only foreign Powers. The tone of France was deemed
+      insolent and threatening; Lord Palmerston, who, in apparent deference to
+      it, introduced a rather inefficient measure against conspiracy to murder,
+      fell at once to the nadir of unpopularity, and soon had no choice but to
+      resign; and the Volunteer movement in England&mdash;which had been begun
+      in 1852, owing to the sinister changes that then took place in the French
+      Government&mdash;now at once assumed the much more important character it
+      has never since lost. The immense popularity of this movement and its
+      rapid spread formed a significant reply to the insensate calls for
+      vengeance on England which had risen from the French army, and which
+      seemed worthy of attention in view of the vast increase now made in the
+      naval strength of France, and of other preparations indicating that the
+      Emperor meditated a great military enterprise. That enterprise proved to
+      be the war with Austria which did so much for Italy, and which some
+      observers were disposed to connect with the plot of Orsini&mdash;a rough
+      reminder to the Emperor, they said, that he was trifling with the cause of
+      Italian unity, to which he was secretly pledged. But Englishmen were slow
+      to believe in such designs on the part of the French ruler. "How should a
+      despot set men free?" was their thought, interpreted for them vigorously
+      enough by an anonymous poet of the day; and they enrolled themselves in
+      great numbers for national defence. With this movement there might be some
+      evils mixed, but its purely defensive and manly character entitles it on
+      the whole to be reckoned among the better influences of the day. <br />
+      <a name="ILL037" id="ILL037"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/037 Lord Palmerston.jpg" alt="Lord Palmerston" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Lord Palmerston
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Palmerston's discredit with his countrymen was of short duration, as was
+      his exile from office; he was Premier again in the June of 1859, and was
+      thenceforth "Prime Minister for life." His popularity, which had been for
+      some time increasing, remained now quite unshaken until his death in 1865.
+      Before Lord Derby's Government fell, however, a reform had been carried
+      which could not but have been extremely grateful to Mr. Disraeli, then the
+      Ministerial leader of the House of Commons. The last trace of the
+      disabilities under which the Jews in England had laboured for many
+      generations was now removed, and the Baron Lionel de Rothschild was able
+      quietly to take his seat as one of the members for the City of London. The
+      disabilities in question had never interfered with the ambition or the
+      success of Mr. Disraeli, who at a very early age had become a member of
+      the Christian Church. But his sympathies had never been alienated from the
+      own people, with whom indeed he had always proudly identified himself by
+      bold assertion of their manifold superiority. There are still,
+      undoubtedly, persons in this country whose convictions lead them to think
+      it anything but a wholesome change which has admitted among our
+      legislators men, however able and worthy, who disclaim the name of <i>Christian</i>.
+      But the change was brought about by the conviction, which has steadily
+      deepened among us, that oppression of those of a different faith from our
+      own, either by direct severities or by the withholding of civil rights, is
+      a singularly poor weapon of conversion, and that the adversaries of
+      Christianity are more likely to be conciliated by being dealt with in a
+      Christlike spirit; further, that religious opinion may not be treated as a
+      crime, without violation of God's justice. On the point as to the claim of
+      <i>irreligious</i> opinion to similar consideration, the national feeling
+      cannot be called equally unanimous. In the case of the English Jews, it
+      may be said that the tolerant and equal conduct adopted towards them has
+      been well requited; the ancient people of God are not here, as in lands
+      where they are trampled and trodden down, an offence and a trouble, the
+      cause of repeated violent disturbance and the object of a frenzied hate,
+      always deeply hurtful to those who entertain it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Other changes and other incidents that now occurred engrossed a greater
+      share of the public attention than this measure of relief. The rapid march
+      of events in Italy had been watched with eager interest, divided partly by
+      certain ugly outbreaks of Turkish fanaticism in Syria, and by our
+      proceedings in the Ionian islands, which finally resulted in the quiet
+      transfer of those isles to the kingdom of Greece. The commercial treaty
+      with France effected, through the agency of Mr. Cobden, on Free Trade
+      lines, and Mr. Gladstone's memorable success in carrying the repeal of the
+      paper duty, and thereby immensely facilitating journalistic enterprise,
+      were hailed with great delight as beneficial and truly progressive
+      measures. But events of a more gigantic character now took place, which at
+      the moment affected our prosperity more directly than any fiscal reform,
+      and appealed more powerfully to us than the savagery of our Turkish <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;s</i>
+      or even than the union of Italy under Victor Emmanuel into one free and
+      friendly State. The long-smouldering dissensions between the Northern and
+      Southern States of the American Union at last broke into flame, and war
+      was declared between them, in 1861.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The burning question of slavery was undoubtedly at the bottom of this
+      contest, which has been truly described as a struggle for life between the
+      "peculiar institution" and the principles of modern society. The nobler
+      and more enthusiastic spirits in the Northern States beheld in it a strife
+      between Michael and Satan, the Spirit of Darkness hurling himself against
+      the Spirit of Light in a vain and presumptuous hope to overpower him; and
+      their irritation was great when an eminent English man of letters was
+      found describing it scornfully as "the burning of a dirty chimney," and
+      when English opinion, speaking through very many journalists and public
+      men, appeared half hostile to the Northern cause. Indeed, it might have
+      been thought that opinion in England&mdash;England, which at a great cost
+      had freed its own slaves, and which had never ceased by word and deed to
+      attack slavery and the slave-trade&mdash;would not have faltered for a
+      moment as to the party it would favour, but would have declared itself
+      massively against the slave-holding South. But the contest at its outset
+      was made to wear so doubtful an aspect that it was possible, unhappily
+      possible, for many Englishmen of distinction to close their eyes to the
+      great evils championed by the Southern troops. The war was not avowedly
+      made by the North for the suppression of slavery, but to prevent the
+      Southern States from withdrawing themselves from the Union: the
+      Southerners on their side claimed a constitutional right so to withdraw if
+      it pleased them, and denounced the attempt to retain them forcibly as a
+      tyranny. <br /> <a name="ILL038" id="ILL038"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/038 Abraham Lincoln and his Son.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/038 Abraham Lincoln and his Son.jpg"
+      alt="Abraham Lincoln and his Son" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Abraham Lincoln and his son
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      This false colouring at first given to the contest had mischievous
+      results. English feeling was embittered by the great distress in our
+      manufacturing districts, directly caused up the action of the Northern
+      States in blockading the Southern ports, and thus cutting off our supply
+      of raw material in the shape of cotton. On its side the North, which had
+      calculated securely on English sympathy and respect, and was profoundly
+      irritated by the many displays of a contrary feeling; and the exasperation
+      on both sides more than once reached a point which made war appear almost
+      inevitable&mdash;a war above all others to be deprecated. First came the
+      affair of the <i>Trent</i>&mdash;the English mail-steamer from which two
+      Southern envoys were carried off by an American naval commander, in
+      contempt of the protection of the British flag. The action was technically
+      illegal, and on the demand of the English Government its illegality was
+      acknowledged, and the captives were restored; but the warlike and
+      threatening tone of England on this occasion was bitterly resented at the
+      North, and this resentment was greatly increased when it became known that
+      various armed cruisers, in particular the notorious <i>Alabama</i>,
+      designed to prey on the Northern commerce, were being built and fitted by
+      English shipbuilders in English dockyards under the direction of the
+      Southern foe, while the English Government could not decide if it were
+      legally competent for Her Majesty's Ministers to interfere and detain such
+      vessels. The tardy action at last taken just prevented the breaking out of
+      hostilities. Out of these unfortunate transactions a certain good was to
+      ensue at a date not far distant, when, after the restoration of peace,
+      America and England, disputing as to the compensation due from one to the
+      other for injuries sustained in this matter, gave to the world the great
+      example of two nations submitting a point so grave to peaceful
+      arbitration, instead of calling in the sword to make an end of it&mdash;an
+      example more nearly pointing to the possible extinction of war than any
+      other event of the world's history.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet another hopeful feature may be noted in connection with this time of
+      trouble. While the Secession war lasted, "the cotton famine" had full sway
+      in Lancashire; unwonted and unwelcome light and stillness replaced the dun
+      clouds of smoke and the busy hum that used to tell of fruitful, well-paid
+      industry; and the patient people, haggard and pale but sadly submissive,
+      were kept, and just kept, from starving by the incessant charitable effort
+      of their countrymen. Never had the attitude of the suffering working
+      classes shown such genuine nobility; they understood that the calamity
+      which lay heavy on them was not brought about by the careless and selfish
+      tyranny of their worldly superiors, but came in the order of God's
+      providence; and their conduct at this crisis proved that an immense
+      advance had been made in kindliness between class and class, and in true
+      intelligence and appreciation of the difficulties proper to each. It was
+      significant of this new temper that when at last peace returned, bringing
+      some gleam of returning prosperity, the workers, who greeted with joyful
+      tears the first bales of cotton that arrived, fell on their knees around
+      the hopeful things and sang hymns of thanksgiving to the Author of all
+      good.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were the fruits of that new policy of care and consideration for the
+      toilers and the lowly which had increasingly marked the new epoch, and
+      which had been sedulously promoted by the Queen, in association with her
+      large-thoughted and well-judging husband.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in the midst of the troubles which we have just attempted to recall
+      that a new and greater calamity came upon us, affecting the royal family
+      indeed with the sharpest distress, but hardly less felt, even at the
+      moment, by the nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The year 1861 had already been darkened for Her Majesty by the death in
+      the month of March, of her mother, the Duchess of Kent, to whose wise
+      guardianship of the Queen's youth the nation owed so much, and who had
+      ever commanded the faithful affection of this her youngest but greatest
+      child, and of all her descendants. This death was the first stroke of real
+      personal calamity to the Queen; it was destined to be followed by another
+      bereavement, even severer in its nature, before the year had closed. The
+      Prince Consort's health, though generally good, was not robust, and signs
+      had not been wanting that his incessant toils were beginning to tell upon
+      him. There had been illnesses, transitory indeed, but too significant of
+      "overwork of brain and body." In addition to personal griefs, such as the
+      death of the Duchess of Kent and of a beloved young Coburg prince and
+      kinsman, the King of Portugal, which had been severely felt, there were
+      the unhappy complications arising out of "the affair of the <i>Trent</i>,"
+      which the Prince's statesmanlike wisdom had helped to bring to a peaceful
+      and honourable conclusion. That wisdom, unhappily, was no longer at the
+      service of England when a series of negligences and ignorances on the part
+      of England's statesmen had landed us in the <i>Alabama</i> difficulty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All these agitations had told upon a frame which was rather harmoniously
+      and finely than vigorously constituted. "If I had an illness," he had been
+      known to say, "I am sure I should not struggle for life. I have no
+      tenacity of life." And in the November of 1861 an illness came against
+      which he was not able to struggle, but which took all the country by
+      surprise when, on December 14th, it terminated in death. Very many had
+      hardly been aware that there was danger until the midnight tolling of the
+      great bell of St. Paul's startled men with an instant foreboding of
+      disaster. <i>What</i> disaster it was that was thus knelled forth they
+      knew not, and could hardly believe the tidings when given in articulate
+      words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first it had been said, the Prince had a feverish cold; presently the
+      bulletin announced "fever, unattended with unfavourable symptoms." It was
+      gastric fever, and before long there <i>were</i> unfavourable symptoms&mdash;pallid
+      changes in the aspect, hurried breathing, wandering senses&mdash;all noted
+      with heart-breaking anxiety by the loving nurses, the Queen and Princess
+      Alice&mdash;the daughter so tender and beloved, the "dear little wife,"
+      the "good little wife," whose ministerings were so comfortable to the
+      sufferer overwearied with the great burden of life. He was released from
+      it at ten minutes to eleven on the night of Saturday, December 14th; and
+      there fell on her to whom his last conscious look had been turned, his
+      last caress given, a burden of woe almost unspeakable, and for which the
+      heart of the nation throbbed with well-nigh unbearable sympathy. Seldom
+      has the personal grief of a sovereign been so keenly shared by subjects.
+      Indeed, they had cause to lament; the removal of the Prince Consort, just
+      when his faculties seemed ripest and his influence most assured, left a
+      blank in the councils of the nation which has never been filled up. "We
+      have buried our <i>king</i>" said Mr. Disraeli, regretting profoundly this
+      national loss; but for once the English people forgot the public
+      deprivation in compassionating her who was left more conspicuously lonely,
+      more heavily burdened, than even the poor bereaved colliers' wives in the
+      North for whom <i>her</i> compassion was so quick and so sharply
+      sympathetic. Something remorseful mingled then, and may mingle now, with
+      the affection felt for this lost benefactor, who had not only been
+      somewhat jealously eyed by certain classes on his first coming, but who
+      had suffered much silently from misunderstanding and also from deliberate
+      misrepresentation, and only by patient continuance in well-doing had at
+      last won the favour which was his rightful due.
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <blockquote>
+        <p>
+          "That which we have we prize not to the worth<br /> While we enjoy it;
+          but being lacked and lost,<br /> Why, then we rack the value, then we
+          find<br /> The virtue that possession would not show us<br /> While it
+          was ours."<br />
+        </p>
+      </blockquote>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      A peculiar tenderness was ever after cherished for Princess Alice, who in
+      this dark hour rose up to be her mother's comforter, endeavouring in every
+      way possible to save her all trouble&mdash;"all communications from the
+      Ministers and household passed through the Princess's hands to the Queen,
+      then bowed down with grief.... It was the very intimate intercourse with
+      the sorrowing Queen at that time which called forth in Princess Alice that
+      keen interest and understanding in politics for which she was afterwards
+      so distinguished. The gay, bright girl suddenly developed into a wise,
+      far-seeing woman, living only for others." <br /> <a name="ILL039"
+      id="ILL039"></a> <br /> <img src="images/039 Princess Alice.jpg"
+      alt="Princess Alice" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Princess Alice
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      This ministering angel in the house of mourning had been already
+      betrothed, with her parents' full approval, to Prince Louis of Hesse; and
+      to him she was married on July 1st, 1862, at Osborne, very quietly, as
+      befitted the mournful circumstance of the royal family. Many a heartfelt
+      wish for her happiness followed "England's England-loving daughter" to her
+      foreign home, where she led a beautiful, useful life, treading in her
+      father's footsteps, and continually cherished by the love of her mother;
+      and the peculiarly touching manner of her death, a sort of martyrdom to
+      sweet domestic affections, again stirred the heart of her own people to
+      mournful admiration. A cottager's wife might have died as Princess Alice
+      died, through breathing in the poison of diphtheria as she hung, a
+      constant, loving nurse, over the pillows of her suffering husband and
+      children. This beautiful <i>homeliness</i> that has marked the lives of
+      our Sovereign and her children has been of inestimable value, raising
+      simple human virtues to their proper pre-eminence before the eyes of the
+      English people of to-day, who are very materially, if often unconsciously,
+      swayed by the example set them in high places.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the May after Prince Consort's death the second International
+      Exhibition was opened, amid sad memories of the first, so joyful in every
+      way, and a certain sense of discouragement because the golden days of
+      universal peace seemed farther off than ten years before.
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <blockquote>
+        <p>
+          "Is the goal so far away?<br /> Far, how far no tongue can say;<br />
+          Let us dream our dream to-day."<br />
+        </p>
+      </blockquote>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      Far indeed it seemed, with the fratricidal contest raging in America, and
+      shutting out all contributions to this World's Fair from the United
+      States. <br /> <a name="ILL040" id="ILL040"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/040 The Mausoleum.jpg" alt="The Mausoleum" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      The Mausoleum
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The Queen had betaken herself that May to her Highland home, whose joy
+      seemed dead, and where her melancholy pleased itself in the erection of a
+      memorial cairn to the Prince on Craig Lorigan, after she had returned from
+      Princess Alice's wedding. But in May she had sent for Dr. Norman Macleod,
+      who was not only distinguished as one of her own chaplains, but was also a
+      friend already endeared to the Prince and herself; and she found comfort
+      in the counsels of that faithful minister and loyal man, who has left some
+      slight record of her words. "She said she never shut her eyes to trials,
+      but liked to look them in the face; she would never shrink from duty, but
+      all was at present done mechanically; her highest ideas of purity and love
+      were obtained from the Prince, and God could not be displeased with her
+      love.... There was nothing morbid in her grief.... She said that the
+      Prince always believed he was to die soon, and that he often told her that
+      he had never any fear of death." It seemed that in this persuasion the
+      Prince had made haste to live up to the duties of his difficult station to
+      the very utmost, and "being made perfect in a short time fulfilled a long
+      time <a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4">[4]</a>."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The more I learn about the Prince Consort," continues Dr. Macleod, "the
+      more I agree with what the Queen said to me about him: 'that he really did
+      not seem to comprehend a selfish character, or what selfishness was.' And
+      on whatever day his public life is revealed to the world, I feel certain
+      this will be recognised." <br /> <a name="ILL041" id="ILL041"></a> <br />
+      <img src="images/041 Dr Norman Macleod.jpg" alt="Dr Norman Macleod" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Dr. Norman Macleod
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The Queen, by revealing to the world, with a kind of holy boldness, what
+      the Prince's public and private life was, has justified this confidence of
+      her faithful friend.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Early in 1863, Dr. Macleod was led by the Queen into the mausoleum she had
+      caused to be raised for her husband's last resting-place. Calm and quiet
+      she stood and looked on the beautiful sculptured image of him she had
+      lost: having "that within which passeth show," her grief was tranquil.
+      "She is so true, so genuine, I wonder not at her sorrow; it but expresses
+      the greatest loss that a sovereign and wife could sustain," said the
+      deeply moved spectator.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An event was close at hand which was to mingle a little joy in the bitter
+      cup so long pressed to our Sovereign's lips. The Prince of Wales had
+      formed an attachment to the Princess Alexandra of Denmark, a singularly
+      winning and lovely lady, whose popularity, ever since her sweet face first
+      shone on the surging crowds that shouted her welcome into London, has
+      seemed always at flood-tide. Faithful to her experience and convictions,
+      the Queen smiled gladly on the marriage of affection between this gentle
+      princess and the heir to the throne, and was present as a spectator,
+      though still wearing her sombre weeds, at the splendid show of her son's
+      wedding on March 10th, 1863. "Two things have struck me much," writes Dr.
+      Macleod, from whose Journal we again quote: "one was the whole of the
+      royal princesses weeping, though concealing their tears with their
+      bouquets, as they saw their brother, who was to them but their 'Bertie'
+      and their dear father's son, standing alone waiting for his bride. The
+      other was the Queen's expression as she raised her eyes to heaven while
+      her husband's <i>Chorale</i> was sung. She seemed to be with him alone
+      before the throne of God." <br /> <a name="ILL042" id="ILL042"></a> <br />
+      <img src="images/042 Prince of Wales.jpg" alt="Prince of Wales" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Prince of Wales<br /> (From a Photograph by W. &amp; D. Downey, Ebury
+      Street, W)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      "No possible favour can the Queen grant me, or honour bestow," said the
+      manly writer of these words, "beyond what the poor can give the poor&mdash;her
+      friendship." It is rarely that one sitting amid "the fierce light that
+      beats upon the throne" has been able to enjoy the simple bliss of true,
+      disinterested friendship with those of kindred soul but inferior station.
+      Such rare fortune, however, has been the Queen's; and it is worthy of note
+      that her special regard has been won by persons distinguished not less by
+      loftiness and purity of character than by mental power or personal charm.
+      She has not escaped the frequent penalty of strong affection, that of
+      being bereaved of its objects. She has outlived earlier and later friends
+      alike&mdash;Lady Augusta Stanley and her husband, the beloved Dean of
+      Westminster; the good and beautiful Duchess of Sutherland; the two eminent
+      Scotchmen, Principal Tulloch and Dr. Macleod himself; and the Archbishop
+      of Canterbury, Dr. Tait, with his charming wife. To these might be added,
+      among the more eminent objects of her regard, the late poet laureate, who
+      shared with Macaulay the once unique privilege of having been raised to
+      the peerage more for transcendent ability than for any other motive&mdash;a
+      distinction that never would have been so bestowed by our early Hanoverian
+      kings, and which offers a marked contrast to the sort of patronage with
+      which later sovereigns have distinguished the great writers of their time.
+      A new spirit rules now; of this no better evidence could be given than
+      this recently published testimony to the relations between Queen and poet:
+      "Mrs. Tennyson told us that the poet laureate likes and admires the Queen
+      personally very much, and enjoys conversation with her. Mrs. Tennyson
+      generally goes too, and says the Queen's manner towards him is childlike
+      and charming, and they both give their opinions freely, even when those
+      differ from the Queen's, which she takes with perfect good humour, and is
+      very animated herself <a id="footnotetag5" name="footnotetag5"></a><a
+      href="#footnote5">[5]</a>." <br /> <a name="ILL043" id="ILL043"></a> <br />
+      <img src="images/043 Princess of Wales.jpg" alt="Princess of Wales" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Princess of Wales<br /> (From a Photograph by Walery)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br /> <a name="7"></a> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CHAPTER VII<br /> <br /> CHANGES GOOD AND EVIL
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the death of Lord Palmerston in 1865, a sort of truce in the strife
+      of parties, which his supremacy had secured, came to an end. That
+      supremacy had been imperilled for a moment when the Government declined to
+      make an armed intervention in the struggle between Denmark and the German
+      Powers in 1864. Such an intervention would have been very popular with the
+      English people, who could hardly know that "all Germany would rise as one
+      man" to repel it if it were risked. But the English Premier's rare command
+      of his audience in Parliament enabled him to overcome even this
+      difficulty; and the gigantic series of contests on the Continent which
+      resulted in the consolidation of the German empire, the complete
+      liberation of Italy, the overthrow of Imperialism in France and of the
+      temporal power of the Pope even in Rome itself, went on its way without
+      our interference also, which would hardly have been the case had we
+      intermeddled in the ill-understood contention between Denmark and its
+      adversaries as to the Schleswig-Holstein succession. <br /> <a name="ILL045"
+      id="ILL045"></a> <br /> <a href="images/045 Sir Robert Napier.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/045 Sir Robert Napier.jpg" alt="Sir Robert Napier" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Sir Robert Napier
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      That strange crime, the murder of President Lincoln, in America just when
+      the long contest between North and South had ended and the cause of true
+      freedom had triumphed, was actually fruitful of good as regarded this
+      country and the United States. A cry of horror went up from all England at
+      the news of that "most accursed assassination," which seemed at the moment
+      to brand the losing cause, whose partisan was guilty of it, with the very
+      mark of Cain. Expressions of sympathy with the outraged country and of
+      admiring regret for its murdered head were lavished by every respectable
+      organ of opinion; while the Queen, by writing in personal sympathy, as one
+      widow to another, to the bereaved wife of Lincoln, made herself, as she
+      has often done, the mouthpiece of her people's best feeling. Again and
+      again has it been manifested that America and England are in more cordial
+      relations with each other since the tremendous civil war than before it.
+      It is no matter of statecraft, but a better understanding between two
+      great English-speaking peoples, drawn into closer fellowship by far more
+      easy communication than of old.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A little war with Ashantee, not too successful, a difficulty with Japan,
+      some more serious troubles with New Zealand, exhaust the list of the
+      warlike enterprises of England in the last years of Palmerston. In a year
+      or two after his death we were engaged in a brief and entirely successful
+      campaign against the barbaric King Theodore of Abyssinia, "a compound of
+      savage virtue and more than savage ambition and cruelty," who, imagining
+      himself wronged and slighted by England, had seized a number of British
+      subjects, held them in hard captivity, and treated them with such
+      capricious cruelty as made it very manifest that their lives were not
+      worth an hour's purchase. It fell to the Ministry of Mr. Disraeli, Premier
+      on the resignation of his colleague Lord Derby, who had displaced Earl
+      Russell in that office, to bring this strange potentate to reason by force
+      of arms. Under Sir Robert Napier's management the work was done with
+      remarkable precision; no English life was lost; and but few of our
+      soldiers were wounded; Magdala, the mountain eyrie of King Theodore, was
+      stormed and destroyed, and the captives, having been surrendered under
+      dread of the British arms, were restored to freedom and safety. The honour
+      of our land, imperilled by the oppression of our subjects was triumphantly
+      vindicated; other good was not achieved. Theodore, unwilling to survive
+      defeat, was found dead by his own hand when Magdala was carried, and he
+      was afterwards succeeded on the Abyssinian throne by a chief who had more
+      than all his predecessor's vices and none of his virtues. For this
+      well-managed campaign Sir Robert Napier was raised to the peerage as Lord
+      Napier of Magdala. The swift success, the brilliant promptitude, of his
+      achievement are almost painful to recall to-day, in face of another
+      enterprise for the rescue of a British subject, conducted by a commander
+      not less able and resolute, at the head of troops as daring and as
+      enthusiastic, which was turned into a conspicuous failure by unhappy
+      delayings on the part of the civil authorities, in the fatal winter of
+      1884-5. <br /> <a name="ILL046" id="ILL046"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/046 Mr Gladstone.jpg"> <img src="images/046 Mr Gladstone.jpg"
+      alt="Mr. Gladstone" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Mr. Gladstone
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Turning our eyes from foreign matters to the internal affairs of the
+      United Kingdom, we see two great leaders, Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Gladstone&mdash;whose
+      "long Parliamentary duel" had begun early in the fifties of this century&mdash;outbidding
+      each other by turns for the public favour, and each in his different way
+      ministering to the popular craving for reform. With Mr. Disraeli's first
+      appearance as leader of the house of Commons, this rivalry entered on its
+      most noticeable stage; it only really ceased with the life of the
+      brilliant, versatile, and daring <i>litterateur</i> and statesman who died
+      as Earl Beaconsfield, not very long after his last tenure of office
+      expired in 1880. In 1867 Mr. Disraeli, as Leader of the Lower House,
+      carried a measure for the reform of the franchise in England, and the year
+      following similar measures with regard to Ireland and Scotland. In 1869 it
+      was Mr. Gladstone's turn, and he introduced and carried two remarkable
+      Bills&mdash;one for the disestablishment of the Irish Church, and one for
+      the amendment of land tenure in Ireland, the latter passing into law in
+      August, 1870. It had long been felt as a bitter grievance by the mass of
+      Irishmen that the Church established in their country should be one which
+      did not command the allegiance of one-sixth of its people and though
+      opinion in England was sharply divided as to the question of Irish
+      disestablishment, the majority of Englishmen undoubtedly considered the
+      grievance to be something more than a sentimental one, and deserving of
+      removal. Another startling measure of reform was the abolition of purchase
+      in the army, carried in the face of a reluctant House of Lords by means of
+      a sudden exercise of royal prerogative under advice of the Government; the
+      Premier announcing "that as the system of purchase was the creation of
+      royal regulation, he had advised the Queen to take the decisive step of
+      cancelling the royal warrant which made purchase legal"&mdash;a step
+      which, however singular, was undoubtedly legal, as was proved by abundant
+      evidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A measure which may not improbably prove to have affected the fortunes of
+      this country more extensively than any of those already enumerated was the
+      Education Bill introduced by Mr. Forster in 1870, and designed to secure
+      public elementary education for even the humblest classes throughout
+      England and Wales. Hitherto the teaching of the destitute poor had been
+      largely left to private charity or piety, and in the crowded towns it had
+      been much neglected, with the great exception of the work done in Ragged
+      Schools&mdash;those gallant efforts made by unpaid Christian zeal to cope
+      with the multitudinous ignorance and misery of our overgrown cities. It
+      was very slowly that the national conscience was aroused to the peril and
+      sin of allowing the masses to grow up in heathen ignorance; but at last
+      the English State shook off its sluggish indifference to the instruction
+      of its poor, and became as active as it had been supine. Mr. Forster's
+      Bill is the measure which indicates this turning of the tide. We do not
+      propose now to discuss the provisions of this Act, which were sharply
+      canvassed at the time, and which certainly have not worked without
+      friction; but we may say that the stimulus then given to educational
+      activity, if judged by subsequent results, must be acknowledged to have
+      been advantageous. The system of schools under the charge of various
+      religious bodies, which existed before the Education Act, has not been
+      superseded; that indeed would have been a deep misfortune, for it is more
+      needed than ever; the masses of the population have been, to an
+      appreciable extent, reached and instructed; and we shall not much err in
+      connecting as cause and effect the wider instruction with the diminution
+      of pauperism and crime which the statistics of recent years reveal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The same member who honoured himself and benefited his country by this
+      great effort to promote the advance of the "angel Knowledge" also
+      introduced, in 1871, the Ballot Bill, designed to do away with all the
+      violence and corruption that had long disgraced Parliamentary elections in
+      this free land, and that showed no symptom of a tendency to reform
+      themselves. The new system of secret voting which was now adopted has
+      required, it is true, to be further purified by the recent Corrupt
+      Practices Bill and its stringent provisions; but no one, whose memory is
+      long enough to recall the tumultuous and discreditable scenes attendant on
+      elections under the old system, will be inclined to deny that much that
+      was flagrantly disgraceful as well as dishonest has been swept away by the
+      reforming energy of our own day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is to the same period, made memorable by these internal reforms, that
+      we have to refer the final settlement of the long-standing controversy
+      between Great Britain and the United States as to the <i>Alabama</i>
+      claims. We have already referred to these claims and the peaceful though
+      very costly manner of their adjustment. That the award on the whole should
+      go against us was not very grateful to the English people; but when the
+      natural irritation of the hour had time to subside, the substantial
+      justice of the decision was little disputed. While England was thus busied
+      in strengthening her walls and making straight her ways, her great
+      neighbour and rival was passing through a very furnace of misery. The
+      colossal-seeming Empire, whose head was rather of strangely mingled
+      Corinthian metal than of fine gold, and whose iron feet were mixed with
+      miry clay, was tottering to its overthrow, and fell in the wild days of
+      1870 with a world-awakening crash. Again it was a dispute concerning the
+      throne of Spain which precipitated the fall of a French sovereign. It
+      would seem as if interference with the affairs of its Southern neighbour
+      was ever to be ominous of evil to France. The first great Napoleon had had
+      to rue such interference; it had been disastrous to Louis Philippe; now
+      Louis Napoleon, making the candidature of Leopold of Hohenzollern for the
+      Spanish crown a pretext for war with Prussia, forced on the strife which
+      was to dethrone himself, to cast down his dynasty, and to despoil France
+      of two fair provinces, Alsace and Lorraine, once taken from Germany, now
+      reconquered for United Germany. With that strife, which resulted in the
+      exaltation of the Prussian King, our Princess Royal's father-in-law, as
+      German Emperor, England had absolutely nothing to do, except to pity the
+      fallen and help the suffering as far as in her lay; but it awakened
+      profoundest interest, especially while the long siege of Paris dragged on
+      through the hard winter of 1870-71; hardly yet is the interest of the
+      subject exhausted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A certain fleeting effect was produced in England by the erection of a New
+      Republic in France in place of the fallen Empire, while the family of the
+      defeated ruler&mdash;rejected by his realm more for lack of success than
+      for his bad government&mdash;escaped to the safety of this country from
+      the angry hatred of their own. A few people here began to talk
+      republicanism in public, and to commend the "logical superiority" of that
+      mode of government, oblivious of the fact that practical Britain prefers a
+      system, however illogical, that actually works well, to the most
+      beautifully reasoned but untested paper theory. But the wild excesses of
+      the Commune in Paris, outdoing in horror the sufferings of the siege,
+      quickly produced the same effect here that was wrought in the last century
+      by the French Reign of Terror, and English republicanism relapsed into the
+      dormant state from which it had only just awakened. The dangerous illness
+      that attacked the Prince of Wales in the last days of 1871, calling forth
+      such keen anxiety throughout the land that it seemed as if thousands of
+      families had a son lying in imminent peril of death, showed at once that
+      the nation was yet loyal to the core. True prayers were everywhere offered
+      up in sympathy with the mother, the sister, the wife, who watched at the
+      bedside of the heir to the throne; and when, on the very anniversary of
+      the Prince Consort's death, the life that had seemed ebbing away turned to
+      flow upward again; a sort of sob of relief rose from the heart of the
+      people, who rejoiced to be able, at a later day, to share with their Queen
+      her solemn act of thanksgiving for mercy shown, as she went with her
+      restored son, her son's wife, and her son's sons, to worship and give
+      praise in the great cathedral of St. Paul's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Princess Alice, who had shared and softened the grief of her mother ten
+      years before, had been again at her side during all the protracted anxiety
+      of this winter, and had helped to nurse her brother. The Princess's
+      experience of nursing had been terribly increased during the awful wars,
+      when she had been incessantly busied in hospital organisation and work,
+      suffering from the sight of suffering as a sensitive nature must, but ever
+      toiling to lighten it; and she had come with her children to recover a
+      little strength in her mother's Highland home. Thus it was that she was
+      found at Sandringham when her brother's illness declared itself,
+      "fulfilling the same priceless offices" of affection as in her maiden
+      days, and endearing herself the more to the English people, who grieved
+      for her when, in the ensuing year, a mournful accident robbed her of one
+      darling child, and who felt it like a personal domestic loss when in 1878
+      the beautiful life ended. Other royal marriages have from time to time
+      awakened public interest, and one, celebrated between the Princess Louise
+      and the Marquis of Lorne, heir of the dukedom of Argyll, had just preceded
+      the illness of the Prince and was regarded with much more attention
+      because no British subject since the days of George II's legislation as to
+      royal alliances had been deemed worthy of such honour. But not even the
+      more outwardly splendid match between the Queen's sailor son, Alfred, Duke
+      of Edinburgh, and the daughter of the Czar Alexander, could eclipse in
+      popularity the quiet marriage, overclouded with sorrow, and the tranquil,
+      hard-working life of the good and gifted lady who was to die the martyr of
+      her true motherly and wifely devotion. <br /> <a name="ILL047" id="ILL047"></a>
+      <br /> <img src="images/047 Lord Beaconsfield.jpg" alt="Lord Beaconsfield" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Lord Beaconsfield
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL048" id="ILL048"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/048 Lord Salisbury.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/048 Lord Salisbury.jpg" alt="Lord Salisbury" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Lord Salisbury
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      From these glimpses of the joys and troubles affecting the household that
+      is cherished in the heart of England, we return to the more stormy records
+      of our public doings. A sort of link between the two exists in the long
+      and very successful tour which the Prince of Wales, some time after his
+      restoration to health, made of the vast Indian dominions of the crown.
+      Extensive travels and wide acquaintance with the great world to which
+      Britain is bound by a thousand ties have entered largely into the royal
+      scheme of education for the future King. No princes of England in former
+      days have seen so much of other lands as the sons of Queen Victoria; and
+      this particular journey is understood to have had an excellent political
+      effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Gladstone's five years' lease of power, which had been signalised by
+      so many important changes, came to an end in 1874, just before the time
+      when Sir Garnet Wolseley, sent to bring the savage King of Ashantee to
+      reason, returned successful to England, having snatched a complete victory
+      "out of the very jaws of approaching sun and fever" on the pestilent West
+      Coast of Africa in the early days of 1874. The last Ministry of Mr.
+      Disraeli, who now assumed office, was marked by several noticeable events:
+      the proclamation of the Queen as "Empress of India," in formal definite
+      recognition of the new relation between little England and the gigantic,
+      many-peopled realm which through strange adventure has come directly under
+      our Sovereign's sway; the Russo-Turkish war, following on the evil doings
+      in Turkey known as the "Bulgarian atrocities," and terminating in a peace
+      signed at Berlin, with which the English Premier, now known as Lord
+      Beaconsfield, had very much to do; and the acquisition by England of the
+      176,000 shares in the Suez Canal originally held by the Khedive of Egypt&mdash;a
+      transaction to which France, also largely interested in the Canal, was a
+      consenting party. To this period belong the distressful Afghan and Zulu
+      wars, the latter unhappily memorable by the tragic fate that befell the
+      young son of Louis Napoleon, a volunteer serving with the English army.
+      Deep sympathy was felt for his imperial mother, widowed since 1873, and
+      now bereaved of her only child; and by none was her sorrow more keenly
+      realised than by the Queen, who herself had to mourn the loss of the
+      beloved Princess Alice, the first of her children to follow her father
+      into the silent land. The death of the Prince Louis Napoleon at the hands
+      of savage Zulus was severely felt by the still strong Bonapartism of
+      France; but Englishmen, remembering the early melancholy death of the heir
+      of the first Napoleon, were struck by the fatal coincidence, while they
+      could honestly deplore the premature extinction of so much youth,
+      gallantry, and hope-fulness, cast away in our own ill-starred quarrel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An agitation distinctly humanitarian and domestic had been going on during
+      the early years of this Ministry, which resulted in the passing of the
+      Merchant Shipping Bill, intended to remedy the many wrongs to which our
+      merchant seamen were subject, a measure almost entirely procured by the
+      fervent human sympathy and resoluteness of one member of Parliament,
+      Samuel Plimsoll; and other measures belonging to this period, and designed
+      to benefit the toilers of the land principally, were initiated by the
+      energy of the Home Secretary, Mr. Cross. But neither the imposing foreign
+      action of Lord Beaconsfield's Government, nor the domestic improvements
+      wrought during its period of power, could maintain it in public favour.
+      There was great and growing distress in the country; depression of trade,
+      severe winters, sunless summers, all produced suffering, and suffering
+      discontent. An appeal to the country, made in the spring of 1880, shifted
+      the Parliamentary majority from the Conservative to the Liberal side. Lord
+      Beaconsfield resigned, and Mr. Gladstone returned to power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The history of the Gladstone Ministry does not come well within the scope
+      of this work. Certain very memorable events must be touched upon; there
+      are dark chapters of our national story, stains and blots on our great
+      name, which force themselves upon us. But to follow the Government through
+      its years of struggle with the ever-growing bulk of Irish difficulty, and
+      to track it through its various enactments designed still further to
+      improve the condition of the English people, would require a small volume
+      to itself. England still remembers the thrill, half fury, half anguish,
+      which ran through her at the tidings that the new Chief Secretary for
+      Ireland, charged with a message of peace and conciliation, had been
+      stabbed to death within twenty-four hours of his landing on that unhappy
+      shore. She cannot forego the deep instinctive feeling&mdash;so generally
+      manifested at the time of Lincoln's murder&mdash;that the lawless spilling
+      of life for any cause dishonours and discredits that cause; nor have
+      various subsequent efforts made to terrorise public opinion here been
+      differently judged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it was a far more cruel shock that was inflicted through the series of
+      ill-advised proceedings that brought about the great disaster of Khartoum.
+      Before we deal with these, we must glance at the African and Afghan
+      troubles, again breaking out and again quieted, the first by a peace with
+      the Boers of the Transvaal that awakened violent discussion not yet at an
+      end, and the second, after some successes of the British arms, by a
+      judicious arrangement designed to secure the neutrality of Afghanistan,
+      interposed by nature as a strong, all but insurmountable, barrier between
+      India and Central Asia. These transactions, the theme of sharp contention
+      at the time, were cast into the shade by events in which we were concerned
+      in Egypt, our newly acquired interests in the Suez Canal making that
+      country far more important to us than of yore. Its condition was very
+      wretched, its government at once feeble and oppressive, and, despite the
+      joint influence which France and England had acquired in Egyptian
+      councils, an armed rebellion broke out, under the leadership of Arabi
+      Pasha. France declining to act in this emergency, the troops and fleet of
+      England put down this revolt single-handed; and in their successes the
+      Queen's third son, Arthur, Duke of Connaught, took his part, under the
+      orders of Sir Garnet (afterwards Lord) Wolseley. There were again
+      rejoicings in Balmoral, where the Queen, with her soldierly son's young
+      wife beside her, was preparing to receive another bride&mdash;Princess
+      Helen of Waldeck, just wedded to our youngest Prince, Leopold, Duke of
+      Albany.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this gleam of brightness was destined to be followed by darker
+      disaster far than that which seemed averted for the moment. A mightier
+      rebellion was arising in the Soudan, a vast tract of country annexed by
+      the ambition of Ismail, the former Khedive of Egypt, to be ill governed by
+      his officials and ravaged by the slave-trade. These evils were checked for
+      a few years by the strong hand of Charles George Gordon, already famous
+      through his achievements in China, and invested with unlimited power by
+      Ismail; but, that potentate being overthrown, the great Englishman left
+      his thankless post, no longer tenable by him. Then it seemed that chaos
+      had come again; and a bold and keen, though probably hypocritical,
+      dervish, self-styled the <i>Mahdi</i>, or Mohammedan Messiah, was able to
+      kindle new flames of revolt, which burned with the quenchless fury of
+      Oriental fanaticism. His Arab and negro soldiers made short work of the
+      poor Egyptian fellaheen sent to fight them, though these were under the
+      command of Englishmen. The army led by Hicks Pasha utterly vanished in the
+      deserts, as that of Cambyses did of old. The army under Baker Pasha did
+      not, indeed, disappear in the same mysterious manner, but it too was
+      routed with great slaughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The English Government, willing to avoid the vast task of crushing the
+      revolt, had counselled the abandonment of the Soudan, and the Khedive's
+      Ministers reluctantly acquiesced. But there were Egyptian garrisons
+      scattered throughout the Soudan which must not be abandoned with the
+      country. Above all, there was Khartoum, an important town at the junction
+      of the Blue and the White Nile, with a large European settlement and an
+      Egyptian garrison, all in pressing danger, loyal as yet, but full of just
+      apprehension. These troops, these officials, these women and children, who
+      only occupied their perilous position through the action of the Khedive's
+      Government, had a right to protection&mdash;a right acknowledged by Her
+      Majesty's Ministers; but they wished to avoid hostilities. General Graham,
+      left in command on the Red Sea littoral, was allowed to take action
+      against the Mahdi's lieutenant who was threatening Suakim, and who was
+      driven back with heavy loss; but he might not follow up the victory. <br />
+      <a name="ILL049" id="ILL049"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/049 General Gordon.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/049 General Gordon.jpg" alt="General Gordon" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      General Gordon
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The English Government hoped to withdraw the garrisons in safety, without
+      force of arms. They had been for some time urging on the Khedive that the
+      marvellous influence which Gordon was known to have acquired in his old
+      province should now be utilised, and that to <i>him</i> should be
+      entrusted the herculean task of tranquillising the Soudan, by reinstating
+      its ancient dynasties of tribal chiefs and withdrawing all Egyptian and
+      European troops and officials. Their plan was at last accepted; then
+      Gordon, hitherto unacquainted, like the public at large, with the
+      Government designs, was informed of them and invited to carry them out. He
+      consented; and, with the chivalric promptitude which essentially belonged
+      to his character, he departed the same night on his perilous errand.
+      Passing through Cairo, he received plenary powers from the Khedive, and
+      went on almost alone to Khartoum, where he was received with an
+      overflowing enthusiasm. But, with all his eager haste, he was too late to
+      bring about the desired results by peaceful means. "He should have come a
+      year ago," muttered his native well-wishers. Week after week and month
+      after month, his position in Khartoum became more perilous; the Mahdi's
+      power waxed greater, and his hordes drew round the city, which long defied
+      them, while garrison after garrison fell into their hands elsewhere. It
+      was in vain that General Gordon urged the despatch of British troops, a
+      few hundred of whom would at one time have sufficed to turn the tide, and
+      insure success in his enterprise. They were still withheld; and he would
+      not secure his own safety by deserting the people whom his presence had
+      induced to stand out against the impostor and his hosts. The city endured
+      a long, cruel siege, and fell at last, reduced by hunger and treachery,
+      just as a tardily despatched British force was making its way to relieve
+      it&mdash;a force commanded by Lord Wolseley, who half a year before had
+      been protesting against the "indelible disgrace" of leaving Gordon to his
+      fate. He was not able even to bury his friend and comrade, slain by the
+      fanatic enemy when they broke into the city in the early morning of
+      January 26th, 1885. <br /> <a name="ILL050" id="ILL050"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/050 Duke of Albany.jpg" alt="Duke of Albany" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Duke of Albany<br /> (From a Photograph by A. BASSANO, Bond Street, W)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      "I have done my best for the honour of our country," were the parting
+      words of the dead hero. His country felt itself profoundly dishonoured by
+      the manner in which it had lost this its famous son&mdash;a man
+      distinguished at once by commanding ability, unsullied honour, heroic
+      valour; a man full of tenderest beneficence towards his fellows, and of
+      utter devotion to his God; "the grandest figure," said an American
+      admirer, "that has crossed the disc of this planet for centuries." Him
+      England had fatally delayed to help, withheld by the dread of costly and
+      cruel warfare; and then just failed to save him by a war enormously costly
+      and cruelly fatal indeed. A general lamentation, blent with cries of
+      anger, rose up from the land. Her Majesty shared the common sorrow, as her
+      messages of sympathy to the surviving relations of Gordon testified.
+      Various charitable institutions, modelled on the lines which he had
+      followed in his work among the poor, rose to keep his memory green; and
+      thus the objects of his Christlike care during his life are now profiting
+      by the world-famous manner of his death. But there is still a deep feeling
+      that even time itself can hardly efface the stain that has been left on
+      our national fame. An English expedition, well commanded, full of ardour
+      and daring, sent to accomplish a specific object, and failing in that
+      object; its commander, entirely guiltless of blame, having to abandon the
+      scene of his triumphs to a savage, fanatic foe as was now the case&mdash;this
+      was evil enough; but that our beloved countryman, a true knight without
+      fear and without reproach, should have been betrayed to desertion and
+      death through his own magnanimity and our sluggishness, added a rankling,
+      poisonous sense of shame to our humiliation. That the same year saw
+      further electoral privileges extended to the humble classes in England,
+      beyond what even the last Reform Bill had conferred, which might prove of
+      advantage afterwards, but was an imperfect consolation at the time.
+      Another grief fell upon the Queen in this year in the early death of
+      Leopold, Duke of Albany, a Prince whose intellectual gifts were nearly
+      allied to those of his father, but on whom lifelong delicacy of health had
+      enforced a life of comparative quietude. His widowed bride and infant
+      children have ever since been cared for tenderly by his royal mother.
+      <br /> <a name="ILL051" id="ILL051"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/051 Duchess of Albany.jpg" alt="Duchess of Albany" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Duchess of Albany<br /> (From a Photograph by A. BASSANO, Bond Street, W)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br /> <a name="8"></a> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CHAPTER VIII<br /> <br /> OUR COLONIES
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <a name="ILL052" id="ILL052"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/052 Sydney Heads.jpg" alt="Sydney Heads" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Sydney Heads
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      If now we turn our eyes a while from the foreign and domestic concerns of
+      Great Britain proper, and look to the Greater Britain beyond the seas, we
+      shall find that its progress has nowise lagged behind that of the mother
+      Isle. To Lord Durham, the remarkable man sent out in 1838 to deal with the
+      rebellion in Lower Canada, we owe the inauguration of a totally new scheme
+      of colonial policy, which has been crowned with success wherever it has
+      been introduced. It has succeeded in the vast Canadian Dominion, now
+      stretching from ocean to ocean, and embracing all British North America,
+      with the single exception of the Isle of Newfoundland. In 1867 this
+      Federation was first formed, uniting then only the two Canadas with New
+      Brunswick and Nova Scotia, under a constitution framed on Lord Durham's
+      plan, and providing for the management of common affairs by a central
+      Parliament, while each province should have its own local legislature, and
+      the executive be vested in the Crown, ruling through its Governor General.
+      It had been made competent for the other provinces of British North
+      America to join this Federation, if they should so will; and one after
+      another has joined it, with the one exception mentioned above, which may
+      or may not be permanent. The population of the Dominion has trebled, and
+      its revenues have increased twenty-fold, since its constitution was thus
+      settled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The same system, it may be hoped, will equally succeed in that wonderful
+      Australasia where our colonists now have the shaping of their destinies in
+      their own hands, amid the yet unexplored amplitude of a land where "in the
+      softest and sweetest air, and in an unexhausted soil, the fable of Midas
+      is reversed; food does not turn to gold, but the gold with which the land
+      is teeming converts itself into farms and vineyards, into flocks and
+      herds, into crops of wild luxuriance, into cities whose recent origin is
+      concealed and compensated by trees and flowers."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In such terms does a recent eye-witness describe the splendid prosperity
+      attained within the last two or three decades by that Australia which our
+      fathers thought of chiefly as a kind of far-off rubbish-heap where they
+      could fling out the human garbage of England, to rot or redeem itself as
+      it might, well out of the way of society's fastidious nostril, and which
+      to our childhood was chiefly associated with the wild gold-fever and the
+      wreck and ruin which that fever too often wrought. The transportation
+      system, so far as Australia was concerned, came virtually to an end with
+      the discovery of gold in the region to which we had been shipping off our
+      criminals. The colonists had long been complaining of this system, which
+      at first sight had much to recommend it, as offering a fair chance of
+      reformation to the convict, and providing cheap labour for the land that
+      received him. But it was found, as a high official said, that convict
+      labour was far less valuable than the uncompelled work of honest freemen;
+      and the contagious vices which the criminal classes brought with them made
+      them little welcome. When to these drawbacks were added the difficulties
+      and dangers with which the presence of the convict element in the
+      population encumbered the new gold-mining industry, the question reached
+      the burning stage. The system was modified in 1853, and totally abolished
+      in 1857. Transports whose sentence were unexpired lingered out their time
+      in Tasmania, whence the aborigines have vanished under circumstances of
+      cruelty assuredly not mitigated by the presence of convicts in the island;
+      but Australia was henceforth free from the blight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The political life of these colonies may be said to have begun in the same
+      year&mdash;1853&mdash;when the importation of criminals received its first
+      check. New South Wales, the eldest of the Australian provinces, received a
+      genuine constitution of its own; Victoria followed in 1856&mdash;Victoria,
+      which is not without its dreams of being one day "the chief State in a
+      federated Australia," an Australia that may then rank as "a second United
+      States of the Southern Hemisphere." Western Australia, South Australia,
+      Queensland, Tasmania, and New Zealand, one after another, attained the
+      same liberties; all have now representative governments, modelled on those
+      of the mother country, but inevitably without the aristocratic element.
+      Such an aristocracy as that of England is the natural growth of many
+      centuries and of circumstances hardly likely to be duplicated&mdash;a fact
+      which the Prince Consort once had occasion to lay very clearly before
+      Louis Napoleon, anxious to surround himself with a similar nobility, if
+      only he could manage it. But though the aristocratic element be lacking,
+      the patriotic passion and the sentiment of loyalty are abundantly present;
+      nor has the mother country any intellectual pre-eminence over her
+      colonies, drawn immeasurably nearer to her in thought and feeling as
+      communication has become rapid and easy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is something almost magical at first sight in the transformation
+      which the Australian colonies have undergone in a very limited space of
+      time; yet it is but the natural result of the untrammelled energy of a
+      race sovereignly fitted to "subdue the earth." It is curious to read how
+      in 1810 the convict settlement at Botany Bay&mdash;name of terror to
+      ignorant home criminals, shuddering at the long, dreadful voyage and the
+      imagined horrors of a savage country&mdash;was almost entirely nourished
+      on imported food, now that the vast flocks and herds of Australia and New
+      Zealand contribute no inconsiderable proportion of the food supply of
+      Britain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The record of New Zealand is somewhat less brilliant than that of its
+      gigantic neighbour. This is due to somewhat less favourable circumstances,
+      to a nobler and less manageable race of aborigines; the land perhaps more
+      beautiful, is by the very character of its beauty less subduable. Its
+      political life is at least as old as that of the old Australian colony,
+      its constitution being granted about the same time; but this colony has
+      needed, what Australia has not, the armed interference of the Home
+      Government in its quarrels with the natives&mdash;a race once bold and
+      warlike, able to hold their own awhile even against the English soldiers,
+      gifted with eloquence, with a certain poetic imagination, and no
+      inconsiderable intelligence. It seemed, too, at one moment as if these
+      Maoris would become generally Christianised; but the kind of Christianity
+      which they saw exemplified in certain colonists, hungry for land and
+      little scrupulous as to the means by which they could gratify that hunger,
+      largely undid the good effected through the agency of missionaries, the
+      countrymen of these oppressors, whose evil deeds they were helpless to
+      hinder. A superstition that was nothing Christian laid hold of many who
+      had once been altogether persuaded to embrace the teachings of Jesus, and
+      the relapsed Maoris doubtless were guilty of savage excesses; yet the
+      original blame lay not chiefly with them; nor is it possible to regard
+      without deep pity the spectacle presented at the present day of "the
+      noblest of all the savage races with whom we have ever been brought in
+      contact, overcome by a worse enemy than sword and bullet, and corrupted
+      into sloth and ruin, ...ruined physically, demoralised in character, by
+      drink." Nobler than other aborigines, who have faded out before the
+      invasion of the white man, as they may be, their savage nobility has not
+      saved them from the common fate; they too have "learned our vices faster
+      than our virtues," aided by the speculative traders in alcoholic poison,
+      who have followed on the track of the colonist, and who, devil's
+      missionaries as they are, have counteracted too quickly the work of the
+      Christian evangelists who preceded them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The extraordinary natural fertility of the country, whose volcanic nature
+      was very recently terribly demonstrated, is yet very far from being
+      utilised to the utmost, the population of the islands, not inferior in
+      extent to Great Britain, being yet a long way below that of London.
+      Probably this "desert treasure-house of agricultural wealth" may, under
+      wise self-government, yet rise to a position of magnificent importance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of all our colonies that in Southern Africa has the least reason to be
+      proud of its recent history, which has not been rendered any fairer by the
+      discovery of the great Diamond Fields, and the rush of all sorts and
+      conditions of men to profit thereby. Into the entangled history of our
+      doings in relation to Cape Colony&mdash;originally a Dutch settlement&mdash;and
+      all our varied and often disastrous dealings with the Dutch-descended
+      Boers and the native tribes in its neighbourhood, we cannot well enter.
+      Our missionary action has the glory of great achievement in Southern
+      Africa; of our political action it is best to say little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A more encouraging scene is presented if we turn to the Fijian Isles,
+      whose natives, once a proverb of cannibal ferocity, have been humanised
+      and Christianised by untiring missionary effort, and by their own
+      free-will have passed under British domination and are ruled by a British
+      governor. The extraordinary change worked in the people of these isles,
+      characterised now, as even in their heathen days, by a certain bold
+      manliness, that hitherto has escaped the usual deterioration, is so great
+      and unmistakable that critics predisposed to unfriendliness do not try to
+      deny it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In consequence of the immensely increased facilities of communication that
+      we now enjoy, our own great food-producing dependencies and the vast
+      corn-growing districts of other lands can pour their stores into our
+      market&mdash;a process much aided by the successive removal of so many
+      restrictions on commerce, and by the practical science which has overcome
+      so many difficulties connected with the transport of slain meat and other
+      perishable commodities. England seems not unlikely to become a wonderfully
+      cheap country to live in, unless some new turn of events interferes with
+      the processes which during the last two decades have so increased the
+      purchasing power of money that, as is confidently stated, fifteen
+      shillings will now buy what it needed twenty shillings to purchase twenty
+      years ago. To this result, as a matter of course, the enormous development
+      of our manufacturing and other industries has also contributed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is another side to the medal, and not so fair a one. The necessaries
+      of life are cheaper; wages are actually higher, when the greater value of
+      money is taken into account; more care is taken as to the housing of the
+      poor; the workers of the nation have more leisure, and spend not a little
+      of it in travelling, being now by far the most numerous patrons of the
+      railway; the altered style of the conveyances provided for them is a
+      sufficient testimony to their higher importance. All this is to the good;
+      so, too, is the diminution in losses by bankruptcy and in general
+      pauperism, the increasing thrift shown by the records of savings banks,
+      the lengthening of life, the falling off in crime, which is actually&mdash;not
+      proportionally&mdash;rarer than ten years ago, to go no further back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Against this we have to set the facts that the terrible malady of insanity
+      is distinctly on the increase&mdash;whether due to mere physical causes,
+      to the high pressure at which modern society lives, or to the prevalent
+      scepticisms which leave many wretched men so little tranquillising hope or
+      faith, who shall say?&mdash;that all trades and professions are more or
+      less overcrowded; and that there is a terrible amount, not of pauperism,
+      but of hard-struggling poverty, massed up in the crowded, wretched, but
+      high-priced tenements of great towns, and maintaining a forlorn life by
+      such incessant, cruel labour as is not exacted from convicted criminals in
+      any English prison. London, where this kind of misery is inevitably at its
+      height, receives every week an accession of a thousand persons, who
+      doubtless, in a great majority of cases, simply help to glut the already
+      crowded labour market and still further lower the wages of the workers;
+      and the other great towns in like manner grow, while the rural population
+      remains stagnant or lessens. Agricultural distress, which helps to keep
+      the tide of emigration high, also accounts in part for this singular,
+      undesirable displacement of population; while recent testimony points to
+      the fact that the terribly unsanitary and inefficient housing of the rural
+      poor does much to drive the best and most laborious members of that class
+      away from the villages and fields which might otherwise be the homes of
+      happy and peaceful industry. For this form of evil, in town and country,
+      private greed&mdash;frequently shown by small proprietors, who have never
+      learnt that property has duties as well as rights&mdash;is very largely
+      responsible; for how many other of the evils we have to deplore is not the
+      greed of gain responsible?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sins of the age are still much the same sins that the Laureate roughly
+      arraigned when the Crimean war broke our long peace; denouncing the race
+      for riches which turned men into "pickpockets, each hand lusting for all
+      that is not its own;" denouncing the cruel selfishness of rich and poor as
+      the vilest kind of civil war, being "underhand, not openly bearing the
+      sword." We had made the blessings of peace a curse, he told us, in those
+      days, "when only the ledger lived, and when only not all men lied; when
+      the poor were hovelled and hustled together, each sex, like swine; when
+      chalk and alum and plaster were sold to the poor for bread, and the spirit
+      of murder worked in the very means of life." Yet those very days saw the
+      uprising of a whole generation of noble servants of humanity, resolute to
+      tight and overcome the rampant evils that surrounded them. And though we
+      would avoid the error of praising our own epoch as though it alone were
+      humane, as though we only, "the latest seed of Time, have loved the people
+      well," and shown our love by deeds; though we would not deny that to-day
+      has its crying abuses as well as yesterday; yet it is hardly possible to
+      survey the broad course of our history during the past sixty years, and
+      not to perceive, amid all the cross-currents&mdash;false ambitions, false
+      pretences, mammon-worship, pitiless selfishness, sins of individuals, sins
+      of society, sins of the nation&mdash;an ever-widening and mastering stream
+      of beneficent energy, which has already wonderfully changed for the better
+      many of the conditions of existence, and which, since its flow shows no
+      signs of abating, we may hope to see spreading more widely, and bearing
+      down in its great flood the wrecks of many another oppression and
+      iniquity. <br /> <br /> <br /> <a name="9"></a> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CHAPTER IX<br /> <br /> INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL PROGRESS
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <a name="ILL053" id="ILL053"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/053 Robert Southey.jpg" alt="Robert Southey" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Robert Southey
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      "Man doth not live by bread alone." The enormous material progress of this
+      country during the last sixty years&mdash;imperfectly indicated by the
+      fact that during the last forty years the taxable income of the United
+      Kingdom has been considerably more than doubled&mdash;would be but a
+      barren theme of rejoicing, if there were signs among us of intellectual or
+      spiritual degeneracy. The great periods of English history have been
+      always fruitful in great thinkers and great writers, in religious and
+      mental activity. Endeavouring to judge our own period by this standard,
+      and making a swift survey of its achievements in literature, we do not
+      find it apparently inferior to the splendours of "great Elizabeth" or of
+      the Augustan age of Anne. Our fifth Queen-regnant, whose reign, longer
+      than that of any of her four predecessors, is also happier than that of
+      the greatest among them, can reckon among her subjects an even larger
+      number of men eminent in all departments of knowledge, though perhaps we
+      cannot boast one name quite equal to Newton in science, and though
+      assuredly neither this nor any modern nation has yet a second imaginative
+      writer whose throne may be set beside that of Shakespeare. <br /> <a
+      name="ILL054" id="ILL054"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/054 William Wordsworth.jpg" alt="William Wordsworth" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      William Wordsworth
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL055" id="ILL055"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/055 Alfred Tennyson.jpg" alt="William Wordsworth" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Alfred Tennyson<br /> (From a Photograph by Elliott &amp; Fry)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      We excel in quantity, indeed; for while, owing to the spread of education,
+      the number of readers has been greatly increased, the number of writers
+      has risen proportionately; the activity of the press has increased
+      tenfold. Journalism has become a far more formidable power in the land
+      than in the earlier years when, as our domestic annals plainly indicate,
+      the <i>Times</i> ruled as the Napoleon of newspapers. This result is
+      largely due to the removal of the duties formerly imposed both on the
+      journals themselves and on their essential paper material; and it would
+      indeed "dizzy the arithmetic of memory" should we try to enumerate the
+      varied periodicals that are far younger than Her Majesty's happy reign. Of
+      these a great number are excellent in both intention and execution, and
+      must be numbered among the educating, civilising, Christianising agencies
+      of the day. They are something more and higher than the "savoury literary
+      <i>entremets</i>" designed to please the fastidious taste of a cultured
+      and leisured class, which was the just description of our periodical
+      literature at large not so very long ago. The number of our imaginative
+      writers&mdash;poets and romancers, but especially the latter&mdash;has
+      been out of all proportion great. We give the place of honour, as is their
+      due, to the singers rather than to the story-tellers, the more readily
+      since the popular taste, it cannot be denied, chooses its favourites in
+      inverse order as a rule. <br /> <a name="ILL056" id="ILL056"></a> <br />
+      <img src="images/056 Robert Browning.jpg" alt="Robert Browning" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Robert Browning<br /> (From a Photograph by Elliott &amp; Fry)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      When Her Majesty ascended the throne, one brilliant poetical constellation
+      was setting slowly, star by star. Keats and Shelley and Byron, none of
+      them much older than the century, had perished in their early prime
+      between 1820 and 1824; Scott had sunk under the storms of fortune in 1832;
+      the fitful glimmer of Coleridge's genius vanished in 1834, and a year
+      later "the gentle Elia" too was gone. Southey, who still held the
+      laureate-ship in 1837, had faded out of life in 1843, and was succeeded in
+      his once-despised office by William Wordsworth, who, with Rogers and Leigh
+      Hunt and Moore, lived far into the new reign, uniting the Georgian and the
+      Victorian school of writers. Thomas Hood, the poet of the poor and
+      oppressed, whose too short life ended in 1845, gives in his serious verse
+      such thrilling expression to the impassioned, indignant philanthropy,
+      which has actuated many workers and writers of our own period, that it is
+      not easy to reckon him with the older group. His song rings like that of
+      Charles Kingsley, poet, novelist, preacher, and "Christian socialist," who
+      did not publish his "Saint's Tragedy" till three years after Hood was
+      dead.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There has, indeed, been no break in the continuity of our great literary
+      history; while one splendid group was setting, another as illustrious was
+      rising. Tennyson, who on Wordsworth's death in 1850 received at Queen
+      Victoria's hand the "laurel greener from the brows of him that uttered
+      nothing base," had published his earliest two volumes of poems some years
+      before Her Majesty's accession; and of that rare poetic pair, the
+      Brownings, each had already given evidence of the great powers they
+      possessed, Robert Browning's tragedy of "Strafford" being produced on the
+      stage in 1837, while his future wife's translation of the "Prometheus
+      Bound" saw the light four years earlier. The Victorian period can boast no
+      greater poetic names than these, each of which is held in highest
+      reverence by its own special admirers. The patriotic fervour with which
+      Lord Tennyson has done almost all his laureate work, the lucid splendour
+      of his style, the perfect music of his rhythm, and the stinging sharpness
+      with which he has sometimes chastised contemporary sins, have all combined
+      to win for him a far wider popularity than even that accorded to the fine
+      lyrical passion of Mrs. Browning, or to the deep-thoughted and splendid,
+      but often perplexing and ruggedly phrased, dramatic and lyric utterances
+      of her husband. All three have honoured themselves and their country by a
+      majestic purity of moral and religious teaching&mdash;an excellence shared
+      by many of their contemporaries, whose powers would have won them a first
+      place in an age and country less fruitful of genius; but not so
+      conspicuous in some younger poets, later heirs of fame, whose lot it may
+      be to carry on the traditions of Victorian greatness into another reign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are not a few writers of our day whose excellent prose work has won
+      more of popular favour than their verse, which notwithstanding is of high
+      quality. Such was the "unsubduable old Roman," Walter Savage Landor, a
+      contemporary of Byron and Wordsworth, who long outlived them, dying in
+      1864. Such&mdash;to bring two extremes together&mdash;are the critic and
+      poet Matthew Arnold, the poet and theologian John Henry Newman. Intimately
+      associated in our thought with the latter, who has enriched our devotional
+      poetry with one touching hymn, is Keble, the singer <i>par excellence</i>
+      of the "Catholic revival," and the most widely successful religious poet
+      of the age, though only very few of his hymns have reached the heart of
+      the people like the far more direct and fervent work of the Wesleys and
+      their compeers. He is even excelled in simplicity and passion, though not
+      in grace and tenderness, by two or three other workers in the same field,
+      who belong to our day, and whose verse is known more widely than their
+      names.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have several women-poets who are only less beloved and less well known
+      than Mrs. Browning; but so far the greatest literary distinction gained by
+      the women of our age and country, notwithstanding the far wider and higher
+      educational advantages enjoyed by them to-day, has been won, as of yore,
+      in the field of prose fiction. More than a hundred years ago a veteran
+      novelist, whose humour and observation, something redeeming his
+      coarseness, have ranked him among classic English authors, referred
+      mischievously to the engrossing of "that branch of business" by female
+      writers, whose "ease, and spirit, and delicacy, and knowledge of the human
+      heart," have not, however, availed to redeem their names from oblivion.
+      For some of their nineteenth-century successors at least we may expect a
+      more enduring memory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Numerous as are our poets, they are far outnumbered by the novelists,
+      whose works are poured forth every season with bewildering profusion; but
+      as story-tellers have always commanded a larger audience than grave
+      philosophers or historians, and as our singers deal as much in philosophy
+      as in narrative, perhaps in seeking for the cause of this overrunning
+      flood of fiction we need go no further than the immensely increased number
+      of readers&mdash;a view in which the records of some English public
+      libraries will bear us out. We may therefore be thankful that, on the
+      whole, such literature has been of a vastly purer and healthier character
+      than of yore, reflecting that higher and better tone of public feeling
+      which we may attribute, in part at least, to the influence of the "pure
+      court and serene life" of the Sovereign. <br /> <a name="ILL057" id="ILL057"></a>
+      <br /> <img src="images/057 Charles Dickens.jpg" alt="Charles Dickens"
+      width="40%" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Charles Dickens<br /> (From a Photograph by Elliott &amp; Fry)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL058" id="ILL058"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/058 W M Thackeray.jpg" alt="W. M. Thackeray" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      W. M. Thackeray<br /> (From a Drawing by Samuel Lawrence)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      This nobler tone is not least perceptible in the eldest of the great
+      masters of fiction whom we can claim for our period&mdash;Dickens, who in
+      1837 first won by his "Pickwick Papers" that astonishing popularity which
+      continued widening until his death; Thackeray, who in that year was
+      working more obscurely, having not yet found a congenial field in the
+      humorous chronicle that reflects for us so much of the Victorian age, for
+      <i>Punch</i> was not started till 1841, and Thackeray's first great
+      masterpiece of pathos and satire, "Vanity Fair," did not begin to appear
+      till five years later. Each of these writers in his own way held "the
+      mirror up" to English human nature, and showed "the very age and body of
+      the time his form and pressure," with manly boldness indeed, but with due
+      artistic reticence also; each knew how to be vivid without being vicious,
+      to be realistic without being revolting; and despite the sometimes
+      offensive caricature in which the one indulged, despite the seeming
+      cynicism of the other their influence must be pronounced healthy.
+      Thackeray did not, like Dickens, use his pen against particular glaring
+      abuses of the time, nor insist on the special virtues that bloom amid the
+      poor and lowly; but he attacked valiantly the crying sins of society in
+      all time&mdash;the mammon-worship and the mercilessness, the false
+      pretences and the fraud&mdash;and never failed to uphold for admiration
+      and imitation "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are
+      honourable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever thing are pure,
+      whatsoever things are lovely." And though both writers were sometimes hard
+      on the professors of religion, neither failed in reverence of tone when
+      religion itself was concerned. <br /> <a name="ILL059" id="ILL059"></a>
+      <br /> <img src="images/059 Charlotte Bronte.jpg"
+      alt="Charlotte Bront&euml;" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Charlotte Bront&euml;
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The sudden death of both these men, in the very prime of life and in the
+      fulness of power, was keenly felt at the time: each had a world-wide fame,
+      and each awakened a blank, distressful sense of personal loss in his many
+      admirers as he was suddenly called away from incomplete work and faithful
+      friendship. Contemporary literature has not benefited by the removal of
+      these two men and the gradual diminishing of the influence they so
+      strongly exerted while yet they "stood up and spoke." The work of
+      Charlotte Bront&euml;&mdash;produced under a fervent admiration for "the
+      satirist of Vanity Fair," whom she deemed "the first social regenerator of
+      his day"&mdash;is, with all its occasional morbidness of sensitive
+      feeling, far more bracing in moral tone, more inspiring in its scorn of
+      baseness and glorifying of goodness, than is the work of recent Positivist
+      emulators of the achievements of George Eliot. Some romances of this
+      school are vivid and highly finished pictures of human misery, unredeemed
+      by hope, and hardly brightened by occasional gleams of humour, of the
+      sardonic sort which may stir a mirthless smile, but never a laugh. Herein
+      they are far inferior to their model, whose melancholy philosophy is half
+      hidden from her readers by the delightful freshness and truth of her
+      "Dutch painter's" portraying of every-day humanity, by her delicately
+      skilful reproduction of its homely wit and harmless absurdity. Happily
+      neither these writers, nor the purveyors of mere sensation who cannot get
+      on without crime and mystery, exhaust the list of our romancers, many of
+      whom are altogether healthful, cheerful, and helpful; and it is no
+      unreasonable hope that these may increase and their gloomier rivals
+      decrease, or at least grow gayer and wiser. <br /> <a name="ILL060"
+      id="ILL060"></a> <br /> <a href="images/060 Lord Macaulay.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/060 Lord Macaulay.jpg" alt="Lord Macaulay" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Lord Macaulay
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      There are many other great writers, working in other fields, whom we may
+      claim as belonging altogether or almost to the Victorian age. Within that
+      period lies almost entirely the brilliantly successful career of Macaulay,
+      essayist, poet, orator, and historian. For the last-named <i>r&ocirc;le</i>
+      Macaulay seemed sovereignly fitted by his extraordinary faculty for
+      assimilating and retaining historical knowledge, and by the vividness of
+      imagination and mastery of words which enabled him to present his facts in
+      such attractive guise as made them fascinating far beyond romance. His
+      "History of England from the Accession of James II," whereof the first
+      volumes appeared in 1849, remains a colossal fragment; the fulness of
+      detail with which he adorned it, the grand scale on which he worked,
+      rendered its completion a task almost impossible for the longest lifetime;
+      and Macaulay died in his sixtieth year. Despite the defects of
+      partisanship and exaggeration freely and not quite unjustly charged upon
+      his great work, it remains a yet unequalled record of the period dealt
+      with, just as his stirring ballads, so seemingly easy of imitation in
+      their ringing, rolling numbers, hold their own against very able rivals
+      and are yet unequalled in our time. <br /> <a name="ILL061" id="ILL061"></a>
+      <br /> <a href="images/061 Thomas Carlyle.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/061 Thomas Carlyle.jpg" alt="Thomas Carlyle" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Thomas Carlyle
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Macaulay was not the first, and he is not the last, of our picturesque
+      historians. It was in 1837 that Carlyle, who four years before had
+      startled the English-reading public by his strangely worded, bewildering
+      "Sartor Resartus," brought out his astonishing "History of the French
+      Revolution"&mdash;a prose poem, an epic without a hero, revealing as by
+      "flashes of lightning" the ghastly tragedy and comedy of that tremendous
+      upheaval; and in 1845 he followed up the vein thus opened by his lifelike
+      study of "Oliver Cromwell," which was better received by his English
+      readers than the later "History of Friedrich II," marvel of careful
+      research and graphic reproduction though it be. To Carlyle therefore and
+      to Macaulay belongs the honour of having given a new and powerful impulse
+      to the study they adorned; dissimilar in other respects, they are alike in
+      their preference for and insistent use of original sources of information,
+      in their able employment of minute detail, and in the graphic touch and
+      artistic power which made history very differently attractive in their
+      hands from what it had ever been previously. Mr. Froude and Mr. Green may
+      be ranked as their followers in this latter respect; hardly so Mr. Freeman
+      or the philosophic Buckle, Grote, and Lecky, who by their style and method
+      belong more to the school of Hallam, however widely they may differ from
+      him or from each other in opinion. But in thoroughness of research and in
+      resolute following of the very truth through all mazes and veils that may
+      obscure it, one group of historians does not yield to the other. <br />
+      <a name="ILL062" id="ILL062"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/062 William Whewell, DD.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/062 William Whewell, DD.jpg" alt="William Whewell, D.D."
+      width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      William Whewell, D.D.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL063" id="ILL063"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/063 Sir David Brewster.jpg" alt="Sir David Brewster" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Sir David Brewster
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      And the same zealous passion for accuracy that has distinguished these and
+      less famous historians and biographers has shown itself in other fields of
+      intellectual endeavour. Our Queen in her desire "to get at the root and
+      reality of things" is entirely in harmony with the spirit of her age. In
+      scientific men we look for the ardent pursuit of difficult truth; and it
+      would be thankless to forget how numerous beyond precedent have been in
+      the Victorian period faithful workers in the field of science. Though some
+      of our <i>savants</i> in later years have injured their renown by straying
+      outside the sphere in which they are honoured and useful and speaking
+      unadvisedly on matters theological, this ought not to deter us from
+      acknowledging the value of true service rendered. The Queen's reign can
+      claim as its own such men as John Herschel, worthy son of an illustrious
+      father, Airy, Adams, and Maxwell, Whewell and Brewster and Faraday, Owen
+      and Buckland and Lyell, Murchison and Miller, Darwin and Tyndall and
+      Huxley, with Wheatstone, one of the three independent inventors of
+      telegraphy, and the Stephensons, father and son, to whose ability and
+      energy we are indebted for the origination and perfection of our method of
+      steam locomotion; it can boast such masters in philosophy as Hamilton and
+      Whately and John Stuart Mill, each a leader of many. It has also the rare
+      distinction of possessing one lady writer on science who has attained to
+      real eminence&mdash;eminence not likely soon to be surpassed by her
+      younger sister-rivals&mdash;the late Mrs. Mary Somerville, who united an
+      entirely feminine and gentle character to masculine powers of mind. <br />
+      <a name="ILL064" id="ILL064"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/064 Sir James Y Simpson.jpg" alt="Sir James Simpson" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Sir James Simpson
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL065" id="ILL065"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/065 Michael Faraday.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/065 Michael Faraday.jpg" alt="Michael Faraday" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Michael Faraday
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Only to catalogue the recent discoveries and inventions we owe to men of
+      science, from merciful an&aelig;sthetics to the latest applications of
+      electric power, would occupy more space than we ought here to give. All
+      honour to these servants of humanity! We rejoice to find among them many
+      who could unite the simplest childlike faith with a wide and grand mental
+      outlook; we exult not less to find in many Biblical students and
+      commentators the same patience, thoroughness, and resolute pursuit of the
+      very truth as that exemplified by the devotees of physical science. God's
+      Word is explored in our day&mdash;the same clay which has seen the great
+      work of the Revised Version of the Scriptures begun and completed&mdash;with
+      no less ardour than God's world. And what vast additions have been made to
+      our knowledge of this earth! We have seen Nineveh unburied, the North-West
+      Passage explored, and the mysterious Nile stream at last tracked to its
+      source. To compare a fifty-years-old map of Africa with one of the present
+      day will a little enable us to estimate the advances made in our
+      acquaintance with the Dark Continent alone; similar maps including the
+      Polar regions of North America will testify also to a large increase of
+      hard-won knowledge. <br /> <a name="ILL066" id="ILL066"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/066 David Livingstone.jpg" alt="David Livingstone" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      David Livingstone
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL067" id="ILL067"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/067 Sir John Franklin.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/067 Sir John Franklin.jpg" alt="Sir John Franklin" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Sir John Franklin
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Exploration&mdash;Arctic, African, Oriental and Occidental&mdash;has had
+      its heroic devotees, sometimes its martyrs. Witness Franklin, Burke and
+      Wills, and Livingstone. The long uncertainty overhanging the fate of the
+      gallant Franklin, after he and the expedition he commanded had vanished
+      into the darkness of Arctic winter in 1845, and the unfaltering
+      faithfulness with which his widow clung to the search for her lost
+      husband, form one of the most pathetic chapters of English story. The veil
+      was lifted at last and the secret of the North-West Passage, to which so
+      many lives had been sacrificed, was brought to light in the course of the
+      many efforts made to find the dead discoverer. As Franklin had disappeared
+      in the North, so Livingstone was long lost to sight in the wilds of
+      Africa, and hardly less feverish interest centred round the point, so long
+      disputed, of his being in life or in death&mdash;interest freshly awakened
+      when the remains of the heroic explorer, who had been found only to be
+      lost again, were brought home to be laid among the mighty dead of England.
+      The fervent Christian philanthropy of Livingstone endeared him yet more to
+      the national heart; and we may here note that very often, as in his case,
+      the missionary has served not only Christianity, as was his first and last
+      aim, but also geographical and ethnological science and colonial and
+      commercial development. We have briefly referred already to some of the
+      struggles, the sufferings, and the triumphs of missionary enterprise in
+      our day: to chronicle all its effort and achievement would be difficult,
+      for these have been world-wide, and often wonderfully successful. Nor has
+      much less success crowned other agencies for meeting the ever-increasing
+      need for religious knowledge, which multiply and grow in number and in
+      power. Witness, among many that might be named, the continuous development
+      of the Sunday School system and the immensely extended operations of the
+      unsectarian Bible Society. <br /> <a name="ILL068" id="ILL068"></a> <br />
+      <a href="images/068 John Ruskin.jpg"> <img src="images/068 John Ruskin.jpg"
+      alt="John Ruskin" width="40%" /> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      John Ruskin<br /> (From a Photograph by Elliott &amp; Fry)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Great advances have been made during this reign in English art and
+      art-criticism, and more particularly in the extension of real artistic
+      education to classes of the community who could hardly attain it before,
+      though it was perhaps more essential to them than to the wealthy and
+      leisurely who had previously monopolised it. The multiplication of Schools
+      of Design over the country, intended to promote the tasteful efficiency of
+      those engaged in textile manufactures and in our decorative and
+      constructive art generally, is one remarkable feature of the time, and the
+      sedulous cultivation of music by members of all classes of society is
+      another, hardly less hopeful. In all these efforts for the benefit and
+      elevation of the community the Prince Consort took deep and active
+      interest, and the royal family themselves, from Her Majesty downwards,
+      highly cultured and accomplished, have not failed to act in the same
+      spirit. But the history of English nineteenth-century art would be
+      incomplete indeed without reference to two powerful influences&mdash;the
+      rise and progress of the new art of photography, which has singularly
+      affected other branches of graphic work; and the career, hitherto
+      unexampled in our land, of the greatest art-critic of this, perhaps of
+      any, age&mdash;John Ruskin, the most eminent also of the many writers and
+      thinkers who have been swayed by the magic spell of Carlyle, whose fierce
+      and fervid genius, for good or for evil, told so strongly on his
+      contemporaries. Ruskin is yet more deeply imbued with his master's
+      philosophy than those other gifted and widely influential teachers,
+      Maurice and Kingsley; and yet perhaps he is more strongly and sturdily
+      independent in his individuality than either, while the unmatched English
+      of his prose style differs not less widely from the rugged strength of
+      Carlyle than from the mystical involution of Maurice and the vehement and,
+      as it were, breathless, yet vivid and poetic, utterance of Kingsley. When
+      every defect has been admitted that is chargeable against one or all of
+      this group of sincere and stalwart workers, it must be allowed that their
+      power on their countrymen has been largely wielded for good. Particularly
+      is this the case with Ruskin, whose influence has reached and ennobled
+      many a life that, from pressure of sordid circumstances, was in great need
+      of such help as his spirituality of tone, and deeply felt reverential
+      belief in the Giver of all good and Maker of all beauty, could afford.
+      <br /> <a name="ILL069" id="ILL069"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/069 Dean Stanley.jpg"> <img src="images/069 Dean Stanley.jpg"
+      alt="Dean Stanley" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Dean Stanley
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL070" id="ILL070"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/070 I was sick, and ye visited me.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/070 I was sick, and ye visited me.jpg"
+      alt="&quot;I was sick, and ye visited me.&quot;" width="45%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      "I was sick, and ye visited me."
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      We have preferred not to dwell on one department of literature which, like
+      every other, has received great additions during our period&mdash;that of
+      religious controversy. A large portion of such literature is in its very
+      nature ephemeral; and some of the disputes which have engaged the energies
+      even of our greatest masters in dialectics have not been in themselves of
+      supreme importance; but many points of doctrine and discipline have been
+      violently canvassed among professing Christians, and attacks of
+      long-sustained vigour and virulence have been made on almost every leading
+      article of the Christian creed by the avowed enemies or the only
+      half-hostile critics of the Church, which the champions of Scripture truth
+      have not been backward to repel. Amid all this confusion and strife of
+      assault and resistance one thing stands out clearly: Christianity and its
+      progress are more interesting to the national mind than ever before. It
+      has been well, too, that through all those fifty years a large-minded and
+      fervent but most unobtrusive and practical piety has been enthroned in the
+      highest places of the land&mdash;a piety which will escape the
+      condemnation of the King when He shall come in His glory, and say to many
+      false followers, "I was an hungred, and ye gave Me no meat; I was thirsty,
+      and ye gave Me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in; naked,
+      and ye clothed Me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited Me not."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These dread words are not for those who have cared as our Sovereign Lady
+      and her beloved ones have cared for the sick and the suffering and the
+      sad; who have bound up the heart-wounds of the widow and the orphan and
+      ministered to their earthly needs; who, like our lost Princess Alice and
+      her royal elder sister, have tended the victims of war, shrinking from no
+      ghastliness or repulsiveness, no horrors of the hospital where victor and
+      vanquished lay moaning in common misery; or, like their queenly mother,
+      have shed the sunshine of royal smiles and soothing words and helpful alms
+      upon the obscurer but hardly less pitiable patients who crowd our English
+      infirmaries. In her northern and southern "homes" of Osborne and Balmoral
+      the Queen, too, has been able to share a true, unsophisticated friendship
+      with her humble neighbours, to rejoice in their joys and lighten their
+      griefs with gentle, most efficient sympathy. It was of a Highland cottage
+      that Dr. Guthrie wrote that "within its walls the Queen had stood, with
+      her kind hands smoothing the thorns of a dying man's pillow. There, left
+      alone with him at her own request, she had sat by the bed of death&mdash;a
+      Queen ministering to the comfort of a saint." It was in a cottage at
+      Osborne that the same gentle and august almsgiver was found reading
+      comfortable Scripture words to a sick and aged peasant, quietly retiring
+      upon the entrance of the clerical visitant, that <i>his</i> message of
+      peace might be freely given, and thus allowing the sufferer to disclose to
+      the pastor that the lady in the widow's weeds was Victoria of England.
+      These are examples, which it would be easy to multiply, of that true
+      oneness of feeling between the lofty and the lowly which is the special,
+      the unique glory of Christ's kingdom. May our land never lack them; may
+      they multiply themselves to all time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The best evidence of the truth of the Gospel is admittedly its unequalled
+      power of lifting up humanity to higher and yet higher levels. In many and
+      mighty instances of that power our age is not barren. And in despite of
+      the foes without and within that have wrought her woe&mdash;of the
+      Pharisaism that is a mask for fraud, of the mammon-worship cloaked as
+      respectability, of scepticism lightly mocking, of the bolder enmity of the
+      blasphemer&mdash;we cannot contemplate the story of Christianity
+      throughout our epoch, even in these islands and this empire, without
+      seeing that the advance of the Faith is real and constant, the advance of
+      the rising tide, and that her seeming defeats are but the deceptive reflux
+      of the ever-mounting waves. <br /> <br /> <br /> <a name="10"></a> <br />
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CHAPTER X<br /> <br /> PROGRESS OF THE EMPIRE FROM 1887 TO 1897
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <a name="ILL071" id="ILL071"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/071 Duke of Connaught.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/071 Duke of Connaught.jpg" alt="Duke of Connaught" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Duke of Connaught
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Resuming our pen after an interval of ten years, we have thought it well,
+      not only to carry on our story of the Sovereign and her realm to the
+      latest attainable point, but also to give some account of the advance made
+      and the work accomplished by the Methodist Church, which, youngest of the
+      greater Nonconformist denominations, has acted more powerfully than any
+      other among them on the religious and social life, not only of the United
+      Kingdom and the Empire, but of the world. This account, very brief, but
+      giving details little known to outsiders, will form a valuable pendant to
+      the sketch of the general history of Victoria's England that we are now
+      about to continue. <br /> <a name="ILL072" id="ILL072"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/072 The Imperial Institute.jpg" alt="The Imperial Institute" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      The Imperial Institute
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Many thousands who rejoiced in the Queen's Jubilee of 1887 are glad to-day
+      that the close of the decade should find the beloved Lady of these isles,
+      true woman and true Queen, still living and reigning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On September 23, 1896, Queen Victoria had reigned longer than any other
+      English monarch, and the desire was general for some immediate celebration
+      of the event; but, by the Queen's express wish, all recognition of the
+      fact was deferred until the sixtieth year should be fully completed, and
+      the nation prepared to celebrate the "Diamond Jubilee" on June 22, 1897,
+      with a fervour of loyalty that should far outshine that of the Jubilee
+      year of 1887.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the personal history of our Queen during those ten years we may note
+      with reverent sympathy some events that must shadow the festival for her.
+      The calm and kindly course of her home-life has again been broken in upon
+      by bereavement. All seemed fair in the Jubilee year itself, and the Queen
+      was appearing more in public than had been her wont&mdash;laying the
+      foundations of the Imperial Institute; unveiling in Windsor Park a statue
+      of the Prince Consort, Jubilee gift of the women of England; taking part
+      in a magnificent naval review at Spithead. But a shadow was already
+      visible to some; and early in 1888 sinister rumours were afloat as to the
+      health of the Crown Prince of Germany, consort of the Queen's eldest
+      daughter. Too soon those rumours proved true. Even when the prince rode in
+      the splendid Jubilee procession, a commanding figure in his dazzling white
+      uniform, the cruel malady had fastened on him that was to slay him in less
+      than a year, proving fatal three months after the death of his aged father
+      had called him to fill the imperial throne. The nation followed the course
+      of this tragedy with a feverish interest never before excited by the lot
+      of any foreign potentate, and deeply sympathised with, the distress of the
+      Queen and of the bereaved empress. <br /> <a name="ILL073" id="ILL073"></a>
+      <br /> <a href="images/073 Duke of Clarence.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/073 Duke of Clarence.jpg" alt="Duke of Clarence" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Duke of Clarence<br /> (From a Photograph by Lafayette, Dublin)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      But the year 1892 held in store a blow yet more cruelly felt. The English
+      people were still rejoicing with the Queen over the betrothal of the Duke
+      of Clarence, eldest son of the Prince of Wales, to his kinswoman Princess
+      May of Teck, when the death of the bridegroom elect in January plunged
+      court and people into mourning. That the Queen was greatly touched by the
+      universal sympathy with her and hers was proved by the pathetic letter she
+      wrote to the nation, and by the frank reliance on their affection which
+      marked the second letter in which, eighteen months later, she asked them
+      to share her joy in the wedding of the Duke of York, now heir-presumptive,
+      to the bride-elect of his late brother. This union has been highly
+      popular, and the Queen's evident delight in the birth of the little Prince
+      Edward of York in June, 1894, touched the hearts of her subjects, who
+      remembered the deep sorrow of 1892. <br /> <a name="ILL074" id="ILL074"></a>
+      <br /> <a href="images/074 Duke of York.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/074 Duke of York.jpg" alt="Duke of York" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Duke of York<br /> (From a Photograph by Russell &amp; Sons, Baker Street,
+      W)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL075" id="ILL075"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/075 Duchess of York.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/075 Duchess of York.jpg" alt="Duchess of York" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Duchess of York<br /> (From a Photograph by Russell &amp; Sons, Baker
+      Street, W)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Once more they were called to grieve with her, when the husband of her
+      youngest daughter Beatrice, Prince Henry of Battenberg, who for years had
+      formed part of her immediate circle, died far from home and England,
+      having fallen a victim to fever ere he could distinguish himself, as he
+      had hoped, in our last expedition to Ashanti. The pathos of such a death
+      was deeply felt when the prince's remains were brought home and laid to
+      rest, in the presence of his widow and her royal mother, in the very
+      church at Whippingham that he had entered an ardent bridegroom. Not all
+      gloom, however, has been Her Majesty's domestic life in these recent
+      years; she has taken joy in the marriages of many of her descendants; and
+      the visits of her grandchildren&mdash;of whom one, Princess Alice of
+      Hesse, daughter of the well-beloved Alice of England, became Czarina of
+      Russia only the other day&mdash;are a source of keen interest to her.
+      <br /> <a name="ILL076" id="ILL076"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/076 Princess Henry of Battenberg.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/076 Princess Henry of Battenberg.jpg"
+      alt="Princess Henry of Battenberg" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Princess Henry of Battenberg<br /> (From a Photograph by Hughes &amp;
+      Mullins, Ryde, Isle of Wight)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL077" id="ILL077"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/077 Prince Henry of Battenberg.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/077 Prince Henry of Battenberg.jpg"
+      alt="Prince Henry of Battenberg" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Prince Henry of Battenberg<br /> (From a Photograph by Hughes &amp;
+      Mullins, Ryde, Isle of Wight)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL078" id="ILL078"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/078 The Czarina of Russia.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/078 The Czarina of Russia.jpg" alt="The Czarina of Russia"
+      width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      The Czarina of Russia
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      But there is no selfish absorption in her own family affairs, no neglect
+      of essential duty. The Prince of Wales and "the Princess" relieve the
+      Queen of many irksome social functions; but she does not shun these when
+      it is clear to her that her people wish her to undertake them. Witness her
+      willingness to take part in the Jubilee Thanksgiving services and pageant,
+      despite the feebleness of her advanced age.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We need not dwell long on the rather stormy Parliamentary history of the
+      last decade, on the divisions and disappointments of the Irish Home Rule
+      party, once so powerful, or on the various attacks aimed at the Welsh and
+      Scottish Church establishments and at the principle of "hereditary
+      legislation" as embodied in the House of Lords. Some useful legislation
+      has been accomplished amid all the strife. We may instance the Act in 1888
+      creating the new system of County Councils, the Parish Councils Act, the
+      Factory and Workshops Amendment Act, and the Education Act of 1891&mdash;measures
+      designed to protect the toiling millions from the evils of "sweating," and
+      to assure their children of practically free education.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Substantial good has been done, whether the reins of power have been held
+      by Mr. Gladstone or by Lord Salisbury&mdash;whose long tenure of office
+      expiring in 1892, the veteran statesman whom he had displaced again took
+      the helm&mdash;or by Lord Rosebery, in whose favour the great leader
+      finally withdrew in 1894 into private life, weary of the burden of State.
+      In 1897 we again see Lord Salisbury directing the destinies of the mighty
+      empire&mdash;a task of exceptional difficulty, now that the gravest
+      complications exist in Europe itself and in Africa. The horrors suffered
+      by the Armenian subjects of the Turk have called for intervention by the
+      great powers; but no sooner had Turkish reforms been promised in response
+      to the joint note of Great Britain, France, and Russia, than new troubles
+      began in Crete, its people rising in arms to shake off the Turkish yoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile our occupation of Egypt is compelling us to use armed force
+      against the wild, threatening dervishes in the Soudan, and well-grounded
+      uneasiness is felt as to the position and action of our countrymen in
+      Southeastern Africa in connexion with the Boer republic of the Transvaal.
+      The British South Africa Chartered Company, formed in 1889, adventurous
+      and ambitious, loomed large in men's eyes during 1896, when the historic
+      and disastrous raid of Dr. Jameson and his followers startled the
+      civilised world. The whole story of that enterprise is yet to unfold; but
+      it has added considerably to the embarrassments of the British government.
+      Hopes were entertained in 1890 that the British East Africa Company, by
+      the pressure it could put on the Sultan of Zanzibar, had secured the
+      cessation of the slave trade on the East African shore; these hopes are
+      not yet fulfilled, but it may be trusted that a step has been taken
+      towards the mitigation of the evil&mdash;the "open sore of the world."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If we turn to India, we see it in 1896-7 still in the grip of a cruel
+      famine, aggravated by an outbreak of the bubonic plague too well known to
+      our fathers, which, appearing three years ago at Hong-Kong, has committed
+      new ravages at Bombay. Government is making giant efforts to meet both
+      evils, and is aided by large free-will offerings of money, sent not only
+      from this country, but also from Canada. "Ten years ago such a
+      manifestation would have been unlikely. The sense of kinship is stronger,
+      the imperial sentiment has grown deeper, the feeling of responsibility has
+      broadened." Kinship with a starving race is felt and shown by the Empress
+      on her throne, and her subjects learn to follow her example.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the sense of brotherhood seems somewhat deficient when we look at the
+      continual labour wars that mark the period in our own land. From the Hyde
+      Park riots of socialists and unemployed, in the end of 1887, to the
+      railway strikes of 1897, the story is one of strikes among all sorts and
+      conditions of workers, paralysing trade, and witnessing to strained
+      relations between labour and capital; the great London strike of dock
+      labourers, lasting five weeks, and keeping 2,500 men out of work, may yet
+      be keenly remembered. There seems an imperative need for the wide
+      diffusion of a true, practical Christianity among employers and employed;
+      some signs point to the growth of that healing spirit: and we may note
+      with delight that while never was there so much wealth and never such deep
+      poverty as during this period, never also were there so many religious and
+      charitable organisations at work for the relief of poverty and the
+      uplifting of the fallen; while not a few of the wealthy, and even one or
+      two millionaires, have shown by generous giving their painful sense of the
+      contrast between their own wealth and the destitution of others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been a period of sharp religious disputes, and every religious and
+      benevolent institution is keenly criticised; but great good is being done
+      notwithstanding by devoted men and women. The centenary of the Baptist
+      Missionary Society, observed in 1892, recalled to mind the vast work
+      accomplished by missions since that pioneer society sent out the apostolic
+      "shoemaker" Carey, to labour in India, and reminds us of the great change
+      wrought in public opinion since he and his enterprise were so bitterly
+      attacked. The heroic missionary spirit is still alive, as is proved by the
+      readiness of new evangelists to step into the place of the missionaries to
+      China, cruelly murdered at Ku-Cheng in 1895 by heathen fanatics.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The immense development of our colonies during the reign has already been
+      noticed; some of them have made surprising advances during the last ten
+      years. In southern and eastern Africa British enterprise has done much to
+      develop the great natural wealth of the land; but the frequent troubles in
+      Matabeleland and the complications with the Transvaal since the discovery
+      of gold there may be regarded as counterbalancing the material advantages
+      secured. Ceylon has a happier record, having more than regained her
+      imperilled prosperity through the successful enterprise of her settlers in
+      cultivating the fine tea which has almost displaced China tea in the
+      British market, Ceylon exporting 100,000,000 lbs. in 1895 as against
+      2,000,000 lbs. ten years previously. Canada also now takes rank as a great
+      maritime state, and the fortunes of Australia, though much shaken a few
+      years ago by a great financial crisis, are again brilliant; in the world
+      of social progress and democracy it is still the colonial marvel of our
+      times. <br /> <a name="ILL079" id="ILL079"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/079 H M Stanley.jpg"> <img src="images/079 H M Stanley.jpg"
+      alt="H. M. Stanley" width="40%" /> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      H. M. Stanley
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The last census, taken in 1891, in Great Britain and Ireland showed a vast
+      increase of population, sixty-two towns in England and Wales returning
+      more than 50,000 inhabitants, and the total population of the United
+      Kingdom being 38,104,975. Alarmists warned us that, with the ratio of
+      increase shown, neither food nor place would soon be found for our people;
+      and a great impetus being given to emigration, our colonies benefited. But
+      despite such alarms, articles of luxury were in greater demand than ever,
+      the tobacco duty reaching in 1892 the sum of &pound;10,135,666, half a
+      million, more than in the previous year; and the consumption of tea and
+      spirits increased in due proportion. The same year saw great improvements
+      in sanitation put into practice as the result of an alarm of cholera, that
+      plague ravaging Hamburg. <br /> <a name="ILL080" id="ILL080"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/080 Dr Fridtjof Nansen.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/080 Dr Fridtjof Nansen.jpg" alt="Dr. Fridtjof Nansen"
+      width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Dr. Fridtjof Nansen
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL081" id="ILL081"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/081 Miss Kingsley.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/081 Miss Kingsley.jpg" alt="Miss Kingsley" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Miss Kingsley
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Vast engineering works, of which the Manchester Ship Canal is the most
+      familiar instance, have been carried on. This great waterway, thirty-five
+      miles long, and placing an inland town in touch with the sea, was begun in
+      1887 and finished in 1894. Numerous exhibitions, at home and abroad, have
+      stimulated industrial and &aelig;sthetic progress; and science has
+      continued to advance with bewildering rapidity, developing chiefly in
+      practical directions. The bacteriologist has unveiled much of the mystery
+      of disease, showing that seed-germs produce it; the photographer comes in
+      aid of surgery, for the discovery of the X or R&ouml;ntgen rays, by the
+      German professor whose name is associated with them, now enables the
+      surgeon to discover foreign bodies lodged within the human frame, and to
+      decide with authority their position and the means of removing them.
+      Burial reforms, in the interests of health and economy, have been
+      introduced, and nursing, elevated into a science, has become an honourable
+      profession for cultured women. In 1894 that eminent <i>savant</i> Lord
+      Rayleigh brought before the British Association his discovery of a
+      hitherto unknown constituent in the atmosphere. The use of steam as a
+      motive power, almost contemporaneous with the Queen's reign, has bound our
+      land in a network of railways: now it is electricity which is being
+      utilised in the same sense, and to the telephone and the telegraph as
+      means of verbal communication is added the motorcar as a means of rapid
+      progression, 1896 seeing its use in streets sanctioned by Parliament. It
+      may not yet supersede the bicycle, which in ten years has greatly
+      increased in favour. Electric lighting, in the same period, has become
+      very general; and further adaptations of this mysterious force to man's
+      service are in the air. <br /> <a name="ILL082" id="ILL082"></a> <br />
+      <img src="images/082 J M Barrie.jpg" alt="J. M. Barrie" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      J. M. Barrie
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL083" id="ILL083"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/083 Richard Jefferies.jpg" alt="Richard Jefferies" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Richard Jefferies
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      This is an age of great explorers. Stanley has succeeded to Livingstone,
+      Nansen to Franklin; but it has been only within comparatively recent years
+      that women have emulated men in penetrating to remote regions. Within the
+      decade we have seen Mrs. Bishop a veteran traveller, visiting south-west
+      Persia; Mrs. French Sheldon has shown how far beyond the beaten track a
+      woman's adventurous spirit may lead her; and Miss Mary Kingsley, a niece
+      of the late Charles Kingsley, has intrepidly explored the interior of
+      Africa, her scientific observations being welcomed by British <i>savants</i>.
+      In 1896 women, who had long sought the privilege, were permitted to
+      compete for the diploma of the Royal College of Surgeons, and in many
+      other walks of usefulness the barriers excluding women have been removed,
+      with benefit to all concerned. It is not other than natural that under the
+      reign of a noble woman there should arise women noble-minded as herself,
+      cherishing ideas of life and duty lofty as her own, and that their
+      greatest elevation of purpose should tent to raise the moral standard
+      among the men who work with them for the uplifting of their fellow
+      subjects. Such signs of the times may be noticed now, more evident than
+      even ten years ago. <br /> <a name="ILL086" id="ILL086"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/086 Professor Huxley.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/086 Professor Huxley.jpg" alt="Professor Huxley" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Professor Huxley<br /> (From a Photograph by the London Stereoscopic Co)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL087" id="ILL087"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/087 Professor Tyndall.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/087 Professor Tyndall.jpg" alt="Professor Tyndall" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Professor Tyndall<br /> (From a Photograph by Alexander Bassano, Ltd)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The educational progress of the last decade has been very great,
+      especially as regards the instruction of women; yet the period has not
+      been noticeably fruitful of literature in the highest sense. In the world
+      of fiction there is much that looks like degeneration; the lighter
+      magazines and serials have multiplied past computation, and form all the
+      reading of not a few persons. To counteract the unhealthy "modern novel"
+      has arisen the Scottish school, the "literature of the kailyard," as it
+      has been termed in scorn; yet a purer air breathes in the pages of J. M.
+      Barrie, "Ian Maclaren," and Crockett. Their many imitators are in some
+      danger of impairing the vogue of these masters, but still the tendency of
+      the school is wholesome. Other artists in fiction assume the part of
+      censors of society, and write of its doings with a bitterness that may or
+      may not profit; the unveiling of cancerous sores is of doubtful advantage
+      to health. <br /> <a name="ILL088" id="ILL088"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/088 C H Spurgeon.jpg" alt="C. H. Spurgeon" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      C. H. Spurgeon
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL089" id="ILL089"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/089 Dr Horatius Bonar.jpg" alt="Dr. Horatius Bonar" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Dr. Horatius Bonar
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The death-roll from 1887 to 1897 is exceptionally heavy; in every
+      department of science, art, literary and religious life, the loss has been
+      great. Many musicians have been taken from us since the well-beloved Jenny
+      Lind Goldschmidt; Canon Sir E. A. Gore Ouseley, Sir G. Macfarren,
+      Principal of the Royal Academy of Music, Rubinstein, Carrodus, and others.
+      <br /> <a name="ILL084" id="ILL084"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/084 Rev J G Wood.jpg"> <img src="images/084 Rev J G Wood.jpg"
+      alt="Rev. J. G. Wood" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Rev. J. G. Wood
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <a name="ILL085" id="ILL085"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/085 Dean Church.jpg"> <img src="images/085 Dean Church.jpg"
+      alt="Dean Church" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Dean Church
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      English letters have suffered by the removal of many whose services in one
+      way or another have been great: the prose-painter Richard Jefferies; the
+      pure and beneficent Mrs. Craik, better known as Miss Muloch; Matthew
+      Arnold, poet, educationalist, critic, whose verse should outlive his
+      criticisms; the noble astronomer Richard Proctor; Gustave Masson, the
+      careful biographer of Milton; Laurence Oliphant, gifted and eccentric
+      visionary; the naturalist J. G. Wood; the explorer and orientalist Burton;
+      the historians Kinglake, Froude, and Freeman; the great ecclesiastics
+      Bishop Lightfoot, Canon Liddon, Archbishop Magee of York, Dean Church,
+      Dean Plumptre, and the Cardinals Newman and Manning; Tennyson and
+      Browning, poets whose mantle has yet fallen on none; Huxley and Tyndall,
+      eminent in science; the justly popular preacher and writer Charles H.
+      Spurgeon; the orator and philanthropist John Bright, whose speeches
+      delight many in book-form; and Robert Louis Stevenson, novelist, essayist,
+      poet. To these we may add Eliza Cook and Martin Tapper, widely popular a
+      generation ago, and surviving into our own day; Lord Lytton, known as
+      "Owen Meredith," a literary artist, before he became viceroy of India and
+      British ambassador at Paris; and Professor Henry Drummond, dead since 1897
+      began, and widely known by his "Natural Law in the Spiritual World." Even
+      so our list is far from complete. <br /> <a name="ILL090" id="ILL090"></a>
+      <br /> <a href="images/090 Sir J E Millais, PRA.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/090 Sir J E Millais, PRA.jpg" alt="J. E. Millais, P.R.A."
+      width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      J. E. Millais, P.R.A.<br /> (From a Photograph by Elliott &amp; Fry)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Of painters and sculptors we have lost since 1887 Frank Holl; Sir Edgar
+      Boehm, buried in St. Paul's by express wish of the Queen; Edwin Long; John
+      Pettie; Sir Noel Paton; Sir Frederick Leighton; and Sir J. E. Millais. The
+      last two illustrious painters were successively Presidents of the Royal
+      Academy, Millais, who followed Leighton in that office, surviving him but
+      a short time. Sir Frederick had been raised to the peerage as Lord
+      Leighton only a few days before he died, the patent arriving too late for
+      him to receive it. <br /> <a name="ILL091" id="ILL091"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/091 Sir Frederick Leighton, PRA.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/091 Sir Frederick Leighton, PRA.jpg"
+      alt="Sir Frederick Leighton, P.R.A." width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Sir Frederick Leighton, P.R.A.<br /> (From a Photograph by J. R. Mayall,
+      Piccadilly, W)
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The English world is the poorer for these many losses, some of which took
+      place under tragic circumstances; yet hope may well be cherished that
+      amongst us are those, not yet fully recognised, who will nobly fill the
+      places of the dead. Some hymn-writer may arise whose note will be as sweet
+      as that of the much loved singer, Dr. Horatius Bonar, some painter as
+      spiritual and powerful as Paton, some poet as grandly gifted as the late
+      laureate and his compeer Browning. We do not at once recognise our
+      greatest while they are with us; therefore we need not think despairingly
+      of our age because the good and the great pass away, and we see not their
+      place immediately filled. Nor, though there be great and crying evils in
+      our midst, need we tremble lest these should prevail, while there is so
+      much earnest and energetic endeavour to cope with and overcome them. <br />
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="11"></a> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CHAPTER XI
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <b>PROGRESS OF WESLEYAN METHODISM<br /> UNDER QUEEN VICTORIA, 1837-1897
+      <a id="footnotetag6" name="footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6">[6]</a>
+      </b> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      Part I
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <a name="ILL092" id="ILL092"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/092 Wesley preaching on his father's tomb.jpg"
+      alt="Wesley preaching on his father's tomb" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Wesley preaching on his father's tomb
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      When the Queen ascended the throne Wesleyan Methodism in this country was
+      recovering from the effects of the agitation occasioned by Dr. Warren, who
+      had been expelled from its ministry; the erection of an organ in a Leeds
+      chapel had caused another small secession. But the Conference of 1837,
+      assembled in Leeds under the presidency of the Rev. Edmund Grindrod, with
+      the Rev. Robert Newton as secretary, had no reason to be discouraged.
+      Faithful to the loyal tradition of Methodism, it promptly attended to the
+      duty of congratulating the young Sovereign who had ascended the throne on
+      June 20, a few weeks before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We may read in its Minutes of the vote in favour of an address, which
+      should assure the Queen of the sincere attachment cherished by her
+      Methodist subjects for her person and government, and of their fervent
+      prayers to Almighty God "for her personal happiness and the prosperity of
+      her reign." By a singular coincidence, it will probably be one of the
+      first acts of a Leeds Conference in 1897 to forward another address,
+      congratulating Her Majesty on the long and successful reign which has
+      realised these aspirations of unaffected devotion. The address of 1837 had
+      gracious acknowledgment, conveyed through Lord John Russell. <br /> <a
+      name="ILL093" id="ILL093"></a> <br /> <a
+      href="images/093 Group of Presidents 1.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/093 Group of Presidents 1.jpg"
+      alt="Group of Presidents Number One" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Group of Presidents Number One
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      At this time Methodism had spread throughout the world. Its membership in
+      Great Britain and Ireland numbered 318,716; in foreign mission stations
+      66,007; in Upper Canada 14,000; while the American Conferences had charge
+      of 650,678 members; thus the total for the world, exclusive of ministers,
+      was 1,049,401.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of ministers there were 1,162 in the United Kingdom and 3,316 elsewhere.
+      It will be obvious that British and Irish Methodism even then formed a
+      body whose allegiance was highly valuable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The 1837 Conference had to discuss the subject of the approaching
+      Centenary of Methodism, which had for years been anticipated with great
+      interest. With Mr. Butterworth&mdash;a Member of Parliament and a loyal
+      Methodist and generous supporter of our funds&mdash;originated the idea of
+      commemorating God's goodness in a fitting manner, not in a boastful
+      spirit; a committee which had been appointed reported to the next
+      Conference "that the primary object of the said celebration should be the
+      religious and devotional improvement of the centenary"; and that there
+      should also be "thank-offering to Almighty God" in money contributions for
+      some of the institutions of the Church. The Conference approved these
+      suggestions, and appointed a day of united prayer in January, 1839, "for
+      the outpouring of the Holy Spirit" on the Connexion during the year. <br />
+      <a name="ILL094" id="ILL094"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/094 Centenary Meeting at Manchester.jpg"
+      alt="Centenary Meeting at Manchester" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Centenary Meeting at Manchester
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      There had been some difficulty in fixing the date of the birth of
+      Methodism; but 1739 was determined on, because then the first
+      class-meetings were held, the first chapel at Bristol was opened, the
+      first hymn-book published; then the United Societies were formed, then
+      field-preaching began, and then Whitefield, Charles Wesley, and others
+      held that historic lovefeast in Fetter Lane when the Holy Spirit came so
+      mightily on them that all were awed into silence, some sank down
+      insensible, and on recovering they sang with one voice their Te Deum of
+      reverent praise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The centenary year being decided, a three days' convention of ministers
+      and laymen was held at Manchester to make the needful arrangements; its
+      proceedings were marked by a wonderful enthusiasm and liberality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Centenary Conference assembled at Liverpool in 1839. It could report
+      an increase of 13,000 members. On August 5 it suspended its ordinary
+      business for the centenary services&mdash;a prayer-meeting at six in the
+      morning being followed by sermons preached by the Rev. Thomas Jackson and
+      the President, the Rev. Theophilus Lessey. A few weeks later came the
+      festal day, October 25, morning prayer-meetings and special afternoon and
+      evening services being held throughout the country. Never had there been
+      such large gatherings for rejoicing and thanksgiving; there were
+      festivities for the poor and for the children of the day and Sunday
+      schools. These celebrations, in which the whole Methodist Church joined,
+      aroused the interest of the nation, and called forth appreciative
+      criticism from press and pulpit. <br /> <a name="ILL095" id="ILL095"></a>
+      <br /> <img src="images/095 Wesleyan Centenary Hall.jpg"
+      alt="Wesleyan Centenary Hall" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Wesleyan Centenary Hall
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      When the idea of this first great Thanksgiving Fund was originally
+      contemplated, the most hopeful only dared look for &pound;10,000; but when
+      the accounts were closed the treasurers were in possession of &pound;222,589,
+      one meeting at City Road having produced &pound;10,000; and the effort was
+      made at a time of great commercial depression. This remarkable liberality
+      drew the attention of the Pope, who said in an encyclical that <i>the
+      heretics were putting to shame the offerings of the faithful</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not a few meetings took the form of lovefeasts, where generous giving
+      proved the reality of the religious experiences; for there has ever been
+      an intimate connexion between the fellowship and the finance of Methodism.
+      Part of the great sum raised went to the Theological Institution, part to
+      Foreign Missions; Wesleyan education was helped by a grant, &pound;1,000
+      were paid over to the British and Foreign Bible Society; and the laymen
+      desiring to help the worn-out ministers and their widows and children,
+      &pound;16,000 were set aside to form the Auxiliary Fund for this purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now that the Missionary Committee were enabled to secure the
+      Centenary Hall, the present headquarters of the Missionary Society. The
+      remaining sums were given to other useful purposes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Methodism in 1839 in all its branches <a id="footnotetag7"
+      name="footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7">[7]</a> reckoned more than
+      1,400,000 members, with 6,080 itinerant preachers and 350 missionaries;
+      50,000 pupils were instructed in the mission schools, and there were
+      upwards of 70,000 communicants and at least 200,000 hearers of the gospel
+      in Methodist mission chapels. In England alone the Wesleyan Methodists
+      owned 3,000 chapels, and had many other preaching places; there were 3,300
+      Sunday schools, 341,000 scholars, and 4,000 local preachers. These
+      figures, when, compared with those given at the end of our sketch, will
+      furnish some idea of the numerical advance of Methodism throughout the
+      world during the Queen's reign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The centenary celebrations marked the high flood-tide of spiritual
+      prosperity for many ensuing years, for a time of great trial followed.
+      Gladly would we forget the misunderstandings of our fathers; yet this
+      sketch would be incomplete without reference to unhappy occurrences which
+      caused the loss of 100,000 members, and allowance must be made for this
+      terrible loss in estimating the progress of Wesleyan Methodism. The
+      troubles began when certain anonymous productions, known as "Fly Sheets,"
+      severely criticised the administration of Methodism and libellously
+      assailed the characters of leading ministers, especially Dr. Bunting, who
+      stood head and shoulders above all others in this Methodist war. He was
+      chosen President when only forty-one, and on three other occasions filled
+      the chair of the Conference. He became an authority on Methodist
+      government and policy. Dr. Gregory says, "As an administrator, he was
+      unapproached in sagacity, aptitude, personal influence, and
+      indefatigability... his character was spotless." He was a born commander.
+      The "Liverpool Minutes," describing the ideal Methodist preacher, are his
+      work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dr. Bunting volunteered to be tried by the Conference as to the anonymous
+      charges against him, but no one came forward with proofs to sustain them.
+      Three ministers, Messrs. Everett, Dunn, and Griffiths, supposed to be the
+      chief movers of this agitation, refused to be questioned on the matter,
+      and defying the Conference, were expelled. Thereafter the agitation was
+      kept up, and caused great disaffection in the Societies, resulting in the
+      loss we have referred to. The seceders called themselves "Reformers"; many
+      of them eventually joined similar bodies of seceders, forming with them
+      the "United Methodist Free Churches." These in 1857 reported a membership
+      of 41,000, less than half that which was lost to Wesleyan Methodism. But
+      now they may be congratulated on better success, the statistics for 1896
+      showing, at home and abroad, a total of nearly 90,000 members, with 1,622
+      chapels, 417 ministers, 3,448 local preachers, 1,350 Sunday schools, and
+      203,712 scholars. It may be noted with pleasure that the leaders of the
+      movement outlived all hostility to the mother Church; one of them attended
+      the Ecumenical Conference of 1881, and took the sacrament with the other
+      delegates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With great regret we speak of this painful disruption, now that so much
+      better feeling animates the various Methodist Churches. Practically there
+      is no difference of doctrine among them. It has been well said, "Our
+      articles of faith stand to-day precisely as in the last century, which
+      makes us think that, like Minerva from the brain of Jupiter, they were
+      born full-grown and heavily armoured."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An influential committee has been appointed to ascertain how concerted
+      action may be taken by the Methodist Churches; and the hope is cherished
+      that their suggestions may lead to the adoption of methods which will
+      prevent strife and friction and unworthy rivalry. The New Connexion and
+      Methodist Free Church Conferences also appointed a joint committee to
+      consider the same subject. The brotherly desire for spiritual fellowship
+      and mutual help and counsel thus indicated must be held as a very hopeful
+      token of something better than numerical advance. <br /> <a name="ILL096"
+      id="ILL096"></a> <br /> <a href="images/096 Group of Presidents 2.jpg">
+      <img src="images/096 Group of Presidents 2.jpg"
+      alt="Group of Presidents Number Two" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Group of Presidents Number Two
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The bitter experiences through which the Church passed called attention to
+      the need for modification and expansion of Wesleyan Methodist polity. The
+      Conference of 1851 appointed a committee of ministers to consider the
+      question; 745 laymen were invited to join them. Their recommendations led
+      Conference to adopt resolutions defining the proper constitution of the
+      quarterly meeting, and to provide for special circuit meetings to re-try
+      cases of discipline, which had been brought before the leaders' meeting,
+      when there was reason to think that the verdict had been given in a
+      factious spirit. The chairman of the district, with twelve elected by the
+      quarterly meeting, formed a tribunal to re-try the case. From this
+      decision there was an appeal to the district synods, and also to the
+      Conference. Provision was made for the trial of trustees, so that every
+      justice should be done them. Local Church meetings were guaranteed the
+      right of appeal to Conference, and circuits were allowed to memorialise
+      Conference on Connexional subjects, within proper limits. The quarterly
+      meetings, having considered these resolutions, gave them a cordial
+      reception, and they were confirmed by the Conference of 1853.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No new rule is enforced by Conference until opportunity is given to bring
+      it before all the quarterly meetings, and it is not likely to become
+      Methodist law if the majority object. The enlarged district synods are an
+      additional safeguard for the privileges of the people. By ballot the
+      circuit quarterly meetings may now elect one, or in some cases two
+      gentlemen, who, with the circuit steward, shall represent the circuit in
+      the district synod.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1889, Conference sanctioned the formation of Methodist councils,
+      composed of ministers and laymen, to consult on matters pertaining to
+      Methodist institutions in the towns. Their decisions of course do not bind
+      any particular Society.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The disaffection so fruitful of suffering had been due to a suspicion that
+      men were retained in departmental offices when they no longer had the
+      confidence of the people. Now such officials are only elected for six
+      years, though eligible for re-election. One-sixth of the laymen on
+      Connexional committees retire yearly; they may be re-elected, but must
+      receive a four-fifths vote. Visitors may be present when the President is
+      inducted into office, and during the representative session, when also
+      reporters other than ministers are now allowed to take notes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the year 1878 which witnessed that most important development of
+      Methodist economy, the introduction of lay representatives to take part
+      with ministers in the deliberations of Conference. This was no sudden
+      revolution; laymen had long had their share in the work of quarterly
+      meetings, district synods, and great Connexional committees; in 1861 they
+      were admitted to the Committees of Review, which arranged the business of
+      Conference; they sat in the nomination committee each year, and had power
+      to scrutinise, and even to alter, the lists of names for the various
+      committees. Now in natural sequence they were to be endowed with
+      legislative as well as consultative functions; it might be said they had
+      been educated to this end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The committee appointed to consider the matter having done its work, the
+      report was submitted to the district synods and then to Conference. Long,
+      earnest, animated, but loving was the debate that ensued; the assembled
+      ministers, by a large majority, determined that the laity should
+      henceforth share in their deliberations on all questions not strictly
+      pastoral.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was resolved that there should be a representative session of 240
+      ministers and 240 laymen. The ministerial quota was to consist of
+      President and secretary, members of the Legal Hundred, assistant
+      secretary, chairmen of districts not members of the Hundred, and
+      representatives of the great departments; six ministers stationed in
+      foreign countries, but visiting England at the time; and the remainder
+      elected by their brethren in the district synods; the laymen to be elected
+      in the synods by laymen only. A small proportion at one Conference is
+      chosen to attend the next.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such were the new arrangements that came into force in 1878, causing no
+      friction, since they secured "a maximum of adaptation with a minimum of
+      change"; there was no difficulty in deciding what business should belong
+      to either session of Conference. It is needless to dwell here on minor
+      alterations, introduced in the past, or contemplated for the future, as to
+      the order of the sessions; it may amply suffice us to remark that Wesleyan
+      Methodism, thanks to the modifications of its constitution which we have
+      briefly touched upon, is one of the most truly popular Church systems ever
+      devised. For, as the Pastoral Address of 1896 puts it, "Methodism gives
+      every class, every member, all the rights which can be reasonably claimed,
+      listens to every complaint, asserts no exclusive privilege, but insures
+      that all things are done 'decently and in order.'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great change just described, being the work of the ministers
+      themselves, and accomplished by them before there was any loud demand for
+      it, was effected with such moderation and discretion as not to entail the
+      loss of a single member or minister. This was justly held a cause for
+      great thankfulness; and it was determined to raise a thanksgiving fund for
+      the relief of the various departments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Great central meetings, extending over two years (1878&mdash;1880), were
+      held throughout the country, and were characterised by enthusiasm and
+      wonderful generosity. At a time when the country was suffering almost
+      unheard of commercial depression, the sum of &pound;297,500 was raised, to
+      be apportioned between Foreign Missions, the Extension of Methodism in
+      Great Britain, Education, Home Missions, Methodism in Scotland, the
+      Sunday-school Union, a new Theological College, the "Children's Home," the
+      Welsh and German chapels in London, a chapel at Oxford, the relief of
+      necessitous local preachers, and the promotion of temperance. The
+      missionary debt was paid, and the buildings for soldiers and sailors at
+      Malta and Aldershot were cleared of debt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such work could not be done if the circuits acted independently; but
+      united as they are, and forming one vast connexion, much which would
+      otherwise be impossible can be achieved by means of the great Connexional
+      funds. Of these funds not a few have been established since 1837; but the
+      most important among them, the Foreign Mission fund, can boast an earlier
+      origin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wesleyanism, indeed, is essentially missionary in spirit, her original aim
+      being to spread scriptural holiness throughout the world. "The world is my
+      parish," said Wesley though he himself could never visit the whole of that
+      parish, his followers have at least explored the greater part of it,
+      causing the darkness to flee before the radiance of the lamp of truth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      British Methodism has now missions in almost every quarter of the globe&mdash;in
+      Asia, in Africa, on the Continent of Europe, in the Western Hemisphere.
+      Her mission agencies include medical missions, hospitals, schools for the
+      blind, homes for lepers, orphanages, training and industrial schools, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Europe we have set on foot missions in countries that are nominally
+      Christian, where the people are too often the victims of ignorance,
+      wickedness, vice, scepticism, and superstition; France, Germany, Austria,
+      Italy, Spain, and Portugal have all been objects of our missionary
+      enterprise during the present reign, and in some instances conspicuous
+      success has been attained. Witness the good work still going on in Italy,
+      and the independent position attained by the <i>Conf&eacute;rence, M&eacute;thodiste
+      de France</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In India, Ceylon, China, and Burma, our agents are working amongst races
+      in which they have to combat heathenism strong in its antiquity. The
+      progress is necessarily slow, but a point has been reached where great
+      success may be prophesied, as the result largely of the work of the
+      pioneers. The schools are turning out many who, if they do not all become
+      decided Christians, are intellectually convinced that Christianity is
+      right, and will put fewer difficulties in the way of their children than
+      they themselves had to contend with. This educational work prepares the
+      way for the gospel; observers declare that nearly all converts in Ceylon
+      have been trained in our schools.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The important missions in Southern and Western Africa must not be
+      forgotten, nor those in Honduras and the Bahamas.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The present policy throughout our actual mission-field is as far as
+      possible to raise up native agents. Probably the heathen lands will be won
+      for the great Captain of salvation by native soldiers; but for a long time
+      they will need officers trained in countries familiar for generations with
+      the blessings of the gospel. The number of our missionaries may be stated
+      at 400, more than half being native agents; there are 2,680 other mission
+      workers, 52,058 Church members; 84,113 children and young people having
+      instruction in the schools. But these figures would give a false idea of
+      the progress of the work if compared with the statistics of 1837; for <i>then</i>
+      our missions included vast regions that have now their own Conferences.
+      When the Queen ascended the throne Fiji was a nation of cannibals. Two
+      years before her accession our Missionary Society commenced operations in
+      those islands. John Hunt laboured with apostolic zeal, and died breathing
+      the prayer, "God, for Christ's sake, bless Fiji, save Fiji." The prayer is
+      already answered. All these islands have been won for Christ, and are
+      trophies of Wesleyan missionary toil. There are 3,100 native preachers
+      under the care of nine white missionaries; 1,322 chapels, 43,339 members
+      and catechumens, and more than 42,000 scholars. Fiji has become almost a
+      nation of Methodists. But it were vain to look for traces of this vast
+      achievement in the "Minutes of Conference" of 1896; for a special feature
+      of our missionary policy is the establishment of affiliated Conferences,
+      which in course of time become self-supporting. In 1883 all the branches
+      of the Canadian Methodists united to form one Canadian Conference. The
+      first French Conference met in 1852. In 1855 the Conference of Eastern
+      British America was formed. The same year the first Australian Conference
+      met, and took charge of the Missions in Fiji, the Friendly Isles, and New
+      Zealand. The first South African Conference met in 1882, and the two West
+      Indian Conferences in 1884. Although more or less independent of the
+      mother Conference, they still retain the characteristics of Methodism. A
+      distinct branch of Mission work, known as the Women's Auxiliary, has been
+      established, and sends forth ladies to engage in educational, zenana, and
+      medical work. They are doing good service in India, China, and other parts
+      of the world. In 1896 they expended more than &pound;10,000.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The total expenditure last year (1896) was &pound;124,700, incurred by our
+      own Mission work and by grants to the affiliated Conferences. It is
+      satisfactory to note that in the districts helped, including those covered
+      by these Conferences, an additional &pound;185,000 was raised. We have
+      magnificent opportunities; and with full consecration of our people's
+      wealth there would be glorious successes in the future. Foreign Missions
+      have been the chief honour of Methodism, and it is to be hoped the same
+      affection for them will be maintained; for wherever Methodism is found
+      throughout the world, it is the result of mission work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meanwhile there has been no sacrificing of home interests. Never were
+      greater efforts made by Methodism for the evangelisation of the masses in
+      Great Britain. The Home Mission Fund, first instituted in 1756, was
+      remodelled in 1856. Its business is to assist the dependent circuits in
+      maintaining the administration of the gospel, to provide means for
+      employing additional ministers, and to meet various contingencies with
+      which the circuits could not cope unassisted. Our needs as a Connexion
+      demand such a Contingent Fund. One-third of the amount raised by the
+      Juvenile Home and Foreign Missionary Association is devoted to Home
+      Missions. The income, which in 1837 was less than &pound;10.000, is now
+      more than &pound;36,000; an increase witnessing to a spirit of aggression
+      and enterprise in modern Methodism. This fund provides for the support of
+      the Connexional evangelists and district missionaries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the year 1882, under the head "Home Missions," there was a new and
+      important departure, by the appointment of the first "Connexional
+      evangelists," of whom there are now four; they have already been the means
+      of great blessing throughout the country, showing that the old gospel,
+      preached as in the old days, is still mighty to awaken and convert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the direction of the Home Mission Committee, commissioners visit
+      certain districts, to give advice and discover the best methods for
+      improving the condition of Methodism where it appears to be low.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Special attention is given to the villages. The "Out-and-Out Band"
+      subscribed for four Gospel Mission vans, each carrying two evangelists,
+      and a large quantity of literature, to the villages; the evangelists in
+      charge conducting services in the village chapels and in the open air. The
+      sale of books and the voluntary contributions of the people help to defray
+      the expenses. This agency is now under the direction of the Home Mission
+      committee, and the gospel cars will be known as "Wesleyan Home Mission
+      Cars."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another new movement, helpful to village Methodism, is the "Joyful News"
+      mission, originating with the Rev. Thomas Champness, who has been set free
+      from ordinary circuit work to manage it. He trains lay agents, for whose
+      services there is a great demand in villages where the people are too poor
+      to maintain additional ministers, and where the supply of local preachers
+      is deficient. Some of these agents are at work abroad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The energetic Home Mission Committee has also set on foot missions where
+      Methodism was feeble. Nor are those forgotten who "go down to the sea in
+      ships, and do business in great waters." As far as means permit, efforts
+      are made for the spiritual benefit of our sailors in all the great ports
+      of the world; our soldiers, too, are equally cared for. Methodism has
+      always been interested in the army, in which some of Wesley's best
+      converts were found; yet there was no systematic work in it before 1839,
+      when an order by the commander-in-chief permitted every soldier to attend
+      the church of his choice. Some years afterwards, the Rev. Dr. Rule strove
+      hard to secure the recognition of the rights of Wesleyans, and after much
+      struggle the War Office recognised Wesleyan chaplains. The work and
+      position of Wesleyan Methodism are now thoroughly organised throughout the
+      world. The government allows a capitation grant for all declared
+      Wesleyans, and it amounts to a large sum of money every year. In 1896
+      there were, including the Militia, 22,663 declared Wesleyans in the army
+      and 1,485 Church members. There are 28 Sailors' and Soldiers' Homes,
+      providing 432 beds, and these Homes have been established at a cost of
+      &pound;35,000. In them are coffee bars, libraries, lecture halls, and,
+      what is most appreciated by Christian soldiers, rooms for private prayer.
+      The officiating ministers, who give the whole or part of their time to the
+      soldiers and their families, number 195.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are many local preachers among the soldiers, and at least two have
+      left the ranks to become ministers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the Mission field, soldiers render valuable aid to the missionary in
+      building chapels, distributing tracts, and often teaching and preaching to
+      the natives and others. Thus, whilst helping to hold the empire for their
+      Queen, they are hastening on the day when all the kingdoms of the world
+      shall be the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This deeply interesting work in the Army and Royal Navy is appropriately
+      mentioned in connexion with our Home and Foreign Missions, both intimately
+      concerned in its maintenance and management. It is right to mention that
+      the Soldiers' and Sailors' Homes described are free to all members of
+      H.M.'s sea and land forces, irrespective of religious denomination. <br />
+      <br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      Part II
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One great event in Methodist history since 1837 now calls for notice&mdash;the
+      assembling of the first Oecumenical Conference in Wesley's Chapel, City
+      Road, London, in 1861. This idea was in strict keeping with the spirit
+      Wesley discovered when, five weeks before his death, he wrote to his
+      children in America: "See that you never give place to one thought of
+      separating from your brethren in Europe. Lose no opportunity of declaring
+      to all men that the Methodists are one people in all the world, and that
+      it is their full determination so to continue,
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <blockquote>
+        <p>
+          "'Though mountains rise, and oceans roll,<br /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+          To sever us in vain.'"<br />
+        </p>
+      </blockquote>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      The growing affection among Methodists of all branches made the idea of an
+      Oecumenical Conference practicable. <br /> <a name="ILL097" id="ILL097"></a>
+      <br /> <a href="images/097 Sir Charles Lycett.jpg"> <img
+      src="images/097 Sir Charles Lycett.jpg" alt="Sir Francis Lycett"
+      width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Sir Francis Lycett
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The suggestion took form at the Joint Conference of the Methodist
+      Episcopal Church of America in 1876. The American Methodists sent a
+      delegate to the British Conference, proposing a United Conference which
+      should demonstrate to the world the essential oneness in doctrine, spirit,
+      and principle of all the Churches which historically trace their origin to
+      John Wesley; such a manifestation, it was hoped, would strengthen and
+      perpetuate that unity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Further, the Conference was to discover how to adjust our mission work so
+      as to prevent waste and friction; suggesting also modes and agencies for
+      the most successful work of evangelisation. Nor was this all; its
+      promoters trusted to gain light on the relation of universal Methodism to
+      education, civil government, other Christian bodies, and missionary
+      enterprise at large, and looked for a vast increase in spiritual power and
+      intelligent, enthusiastic activity among the various branches of
+      Methodism, whose gathering together might well draw "the attention of
+      scholars and reformers and thinkers to the whole Methodist history, work,
+      and mission," while a new impulse should be given to every good work, and
+      a more daring purpose of evangelisation kindled. The British Conference
+      pointed out the need of frankly recognising the not unimportant
+      differences amongst the various Methodist bodies, so as to rule out of
+      discussion any points which had a suggestion of past controversies. The
+      American Conference accepted this. <br /> <a name="ILL098" id="ILL098"></a>
+      <br /> <img
+      src="images/098 The Methodist Settlement, Bermondsey, London, SE.jpg"
+      alt="The Methodist Settlement, Bermondsey, London, S.E." />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      The Methodist Settlement, Bermondsey, London, S.E.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The smaller Methodist bodies being invited to join, the four hundred
+      delegates were sent up by the various branches of the Methodist Church as
+      nearly as possible in proportion to their numerical strength; seven
+      sections of British Methodism and thirteen from the United States and the
+      Mission fields, numbering probably twenty millions, were represented. It
+      was fitting that the first Oecumenical Conference should meet in City
+      Road, the cathedral of Methodism. Bishop Simpson preached the opening
+      sermon; the delegates then partook of the sacrament together, and Dr.
+      Osborn, President of the Conference, gave the opening address. The
+      Oecumenical Conference did not aim at determining any debated condition of
+      Church membership, or at defining any controverted doctrine, or settling
+      any question of ritual; it met for consultative, not legislative purposes.
+      As such, the gathering brought about the thing which is written: "Thy
+      watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they
+      sing... Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall
+      fear, and be enlarged."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By a happy coincidence, that largehearted son of Methodism, the late Sir
+      William M'Arthur, was then Lord Mayor of London, and he gave a
+      congratulatory welcome to the delegates at a magnificent reception in the
+      Mansion House.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next important event in Methodist history during the Queen's reign is
+      the rise and progress of the great Wesleyan Missions in the towns&mdash;a
+      vast beneficent movement, in which some at least of the aspirations
+      cherished by the promoters of the first Oecumenical Conference appeared to
+      have been realised.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tendency of our day is towards a steady flow of population from the
+      villages to the towns, especially to London. In 1837, there was only one
+      London district, covering a very wide area, and including six circuits,
+      whose total membership was only 11,460, after a hundred years of
+      Methodism. The various branches of the recently established London Mission
+      report more than a third of this number after less than ten years' labour.
+      <br /> <a name="ILL099" id="ILL099"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/099 Theological Institution, Richmond.jpg"
+      alt="Theological Institution, Richmond" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Theological Institution, Richmond
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The success of London Methodism in late years is largely due to the
+      establishment of the Metropolitan Chapel Building fund in 1862. The late
+      Sir Francis Lycett gave &pound;50,000, on condition that an equal amount
+      should be raised throughout the country, and that ten chapels, each
+      seating at least a thousand persons, should in ten years be built in the
+      metropolitan area. The noble challenge called forth a fit response. In his
+      will he left a large sum to the same fund, so the committee could offer an
+      additional &pound;500 pounds to every chapel commenced before the end of
+      1898, with a proportionate grant to smaller chapels; aid will also be
+      given by the committee in securing additional ministerial supply. Such
+      offers should stimulate chapel building for the two years. Already, since
+      the establishment of the fund, more than ninety chapels have been built in
+      London at a cost of &pound;630,000, towards which the fund contributed in
+      grants and loans &pound;213,000. Before 1862, there were only three
+      important chapels south of the Thames, and now there are thirty-seven.
+      During the last ten or twelve years unprecedented prosperity has been
+      shown, not only in chapel building, but in chapel filling, and the
+      establishment of successful missions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1885 the earnest attention of the Churches was directed to "outcast
+      London." The deepest interest was aroused, especially in Methodist
+      circles; and that year great meetings were held in City Road, to initiate
+      a movement that should benefit London's outcasts. A large sum of money was
+      raised, and the London Mission formed. The West London Mission at St.
+      James's Hall, the East End branch, and the almost deserted chapel in
+      Clerkenwell became notable centres. Thus at one time efforts were put
+      forth to reach the rich, the artisans, and the outcasts. The success has
+      abundantly justified the enterprise. In addition to evangelistic work, the
+      missions make strenuous efforts to improve the social condition of the
+      people, for Methodism realises that she is called to minister not only to
+      the souls, but also to the bodies of men. Already, as a result of the
+      London Mission, a new, fully organised circuit has grown up; the West
+      London Mission alone reporting a membership which is one-tenth of the
+      whole membership of London in 1837.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The latest and most novel branch of the work is the "Bermondsey
+      Settlement," established six years ago in the poorest district of
+      south-east London. In this hall of residence live devoted workers who have
+      been trained in our universities or in our high-class schools, and who
+      spend their leisure in benefiting their poor neighbours by religious,
+      educational, and social effort. A home for women, in which about ten
+      ladies reside, is connected with the settlement, which is in special
+      connexion with Wesleyan schools throughout the country. The programme of
+      work is extensive, and in addition the settlement takes an increasing part
+      in local administration and philanthropy, many non-resident workers
+      assisting. <br /> <a name="ILL101" id="ILL101"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/101 Theological Institution, Didsbury.jpg"
+      alt="Theological Institution, Didsbury" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Theological Institution, Didsbury
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      To support the London Mission, appeal is made to Methodists throughout the
+      country and the world. The meetings held on its behalf in the provinces
+      have greatly blessed the people, stimulating them to fresh efforts in
+      their own localities. Similar agencies had previously been established in
+      various great trading centres, where the tendency is for the people who
+      can afford it to leave the towns and to live in the suburbs. Thus many
+      chapels have become almost deserted. The Conference decided that the best
+      method of filling these chapels would be to utilise them as Mission halls,
+      for aggressive evangelistic and social effort; which has been done with
+      surprising success in Manchester, Leeds, Hull, Birmingham, and many other
+      large towns. In Manchester there are from ten to twelve thousand people
+      reached by the Mission agencies, and already a new circuit has been
+      formed, the members of its Society having been gathered in from the army
+      of distress and destitution. It would be impossible here to enumerate the
+      thousand ways in which the Mission workers toil for the redemption of the
+      downfallen, or to tell half the tale of their success. But all this work
+      could not be so well carried on without the assistance of another
+      important department. The Wesleyan Chapel Building Committee, instituted
+      in 1818, was reconstituted in 1854; it meets monthly in Manchester to
+      dispose of grants and loans, to consider cases of erections, alterations,
+      purchases, and sales of Wesleyan trust property, and to afford advice in
+      difficult cases. It has also to see that all our trust property is duly
+      secured to the Connexion. The erection of the Central Hall in Manchester,
+      to be at once the headquarters of our Chapel Committee and of the great
+      Mission, marked a most important era in Methodist aggressive enterprise.
+      The income of the Chapel Fund from all sources last year was &pound;9,115.
+      It was reported that the entire debt discharged or provided for during the
+      last forty-one years was &pound;2,389,073, and the total debt remaining on
+      trust property is not more than &pound;800,000; while &pound;9,000,000 had
+      been expended on chapel buildings during the thirty years preceding 1893.
+      <br /> <a name="ILL102" id="ILL102"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/102 Theological Institution, Headingly.jpg"
+      alt="Theological Institution, Headingley" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Theological Institution, Headingley
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The Extension of Methodism Fund was established in 1874, to supplement the
+      ordinary funds of the Connexion and the local resources of the people, by
+      aiding in the increase of chapel accommodation throughout the country, and
+      in the extension of Methodism by Home Mission and similar agencies. At
+      first the building of a thousand chapels was contemplated; but already
+      1,796 cases have been helped, with grants and loans amounting to &pound;122,999.
+      In 1867 a fund was started for the relief and extension of Methodism in
+      Scotland; a Chapel Fund for the North Wales District was instituted in
+      1867, and for South Wales in 1873. There are now in Great Britain 10,000
+      Wesleyan chapels, which will accommodate 2,156,209 hearers, more than four
+      times the number of members returned; for there is something misleading,
+      as far as the general public is concerned, in the published statistics of
+      Methodism, which take account of class-meeting membership only. Estimating
+      the other Methodist bodies at the same rate, Methodist chapels provide
+      accommodation for 3,000,000 people; so that the united Methodist Church in
+      this country is second only to the Established Church of England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Wesleyan Methodist Trust Assurance Company was established in 1872,
+      for the insurance of Methodist Trust property only. The Board of Trustees
+      for Chapel Purposes was formed in 1866, which undertakes to invest money
+      intended for the chapel trust and for Methodist objects. Seeing that there
+      are so many funds in Methodism, and that while some have a balance, others
+      might be obliged to borrow at a high rate of interest, it was suggested
+      that a Common Cash Fund should be established, making it possible for the
+      committees to borrow from and lend to one another, the borrowers paying
+      the ordinary bank rate of interest, and the profits being equally divided
+      among the funds. <br /> <a name="ILL103" id="ILL103"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/103 Theological Institution, Handsworth.jpg"
+      alt="Theological Institution, Handsworth" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Theological Institution, Handsworth
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      A passing reference must be made to another committee, instituted in 1803&mdash;the
+      Committee of Privileges and Exigency: and in 1845 an acting special
+      committee for cases of great emergency was formed. Between the sessions of
+      the Conference this committee often renders great service, safeguarding
+      Methodist interests when they would be endangered by proposed government
+      measures, or in any other way. At present it is engaged in trying to get
+      through Parliament several measures in the interests of Nonconformity
+      generally.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The subject of education drew the anxious attention of Wesley; his
+      followers were less alive to its importance, until just before the Queen
+      came to the throne. The training of the ministry was neglected, and the
+      young ministers had to educate themselves. Though Wesley approved the idea
+      of a seminary for his preachers, it was only three years before the
+      Queen's accession that the first Theological Institution was opened at
+      Hoxton. The Centenary Fund provided for one such institution at Richmond,
+      and another at Didsbury. The Headingley branch was opened in 1868, and the
+      Birmingham branch, built with part of the Thanksgiving Fund, in 1881. Our
+      ministers are now far better trained than were the old Methodist
+      preachers, and, taking them as a whole, they do not come short of their
+      predecessors in any necessary qualification for their work. <br /> <a
+      name="ILL104" id="ILL104"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/104 Kingswood School, Bath.jpg" alt="Kingswood School, Bath" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Kingswood School, Bath
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      Their culture must not be judged by the scantiness of their literary
+      production. The empress Catherine once said to a French <i>savant</i>, "My
+      dear philosopher, it is not so easy to write on human flesh as on paper."
+      Much more difficult is the task of our ministers, whose religious, social,
+      and financial work leaves them little of that learned leisure enjoyed by
+      Anglican divines, who by their masterly works have made the entire
+      Christian Church their debtor. But in the period we are reviewing, despite
+      the demands made on the time of the ministers, many have written that
+      which will not easily be forgotten. The Church that nurtured Dr. Moulton,
+      whose edition of Winer's "Greek Grammar" is a standard work, used by all
+      the greatest Greek New Testament scholars, need not be ashamed of her
+      learning. Dr. Moulton and Dr. Geden were on the revision committee which
+      undertook the fresh translation of the Old and New Testaments. Other
+      Wesleyan ministers have made their mark as commentators, apologists,
+      scholars, and scientists in the last few decades. The <i>Fernley Lectures</i>
+      have proved the ability of many Methodist preachers; we lack space to
+      refer to the many able writers who have ceased from their labours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The <i>London Quarterly Review</i> has kept up the literary reputation of
+      Methodism: nor are we behind any Nonconformist Church in journalistic
+      matters. Two newspapers represent the varying shades of opinion in
+      Methodism, and give full scope to its expression. A high level of
+      excellence is seen in the publications of the Book Room, and our people
+      when supporting it are also helping important Connexional funds, to which
+      the profits are given. <br /> <a name="ILL105" id="ILL105"></a> <br />
+      <img src="images/105 The North House, Leys School, Cambridge.jpg"
+      alt="The North House, Leys School, Cambridge" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      The North House, Leys School, Cambridge
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      While increasing care has been taken with the training of the ministry,
+      lay education has not been neglected. Kingswood School, founded by Wesley,
+      continues, as in his day, to give excellent instruction to ministers'
+      sons. In 1837 a Methodist school, Wesley College, was opened at Sheffield,
+      and a few years later one at Taunton, well known as Queen's College. The
+      Leys School at Cambridge, under the head-mastership of Dr. Moulton, was
+      opened in 1874, and has shown "the possibility of reconciling Methodist
+      training with the breadth and freedom of English public school life."
+      There are in Ireland excellent colleges at Belfast and Dublin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1875, a scheme for establishing middle-class schools was adopted,
+      resulting in the opening of such schools at Truro, Jersey, Bury St.
+      Edmunds, Woodhouse Grove, Congleton, Canterbury, Folkestone, Trowbridge,
+      Penzance, Camborne, and Queenswood; all report satisfactorily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elementary education, which has made such great progress during the
+      Queen's reign, engaged the anxious attention of our authorities long
+      before the initiation of the School Board system, under which the average
+      attendance in twenty-five years increased almost fourfold. Methodism has
+      been in the forefront of the long battle with ignorance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The establishment of "week-day schools" in connexion with this great
+      Church owed its origin to the declaration of the Conference in 1833. that
+      "such institutions, placed under an efficient spiritual control, cannot
+      fail to promote those high and holy ends for which we exist as a religious
+      community." The object was to give the scholars "an education which might
+      begin in the infant school and end in heaven," thus subserving the lofty
+      aim of Methodism, "to fill the world with saints, and Paradise with
+      glorified spirits"; a more ambitious idea than that expressed by Huxley
+      when he said, "We want a great highway, along which the child of the
+      peasant as well as of the peer can climb to the highest seats of
+      learning." <br /> <a name="ILL106" id="ILL106"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/106 Queen's College, Taunton.jpg"
+      alt="Queen's College, Taunton" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Queen's College, Taunton
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      In 1836 the attention of the Conference was directed to education in
+      general, and especially to Wesleyan day schools; the Pastoral Address of
+      1837, regretting that children had to be trained outside the Church or be
+      left untaught, expressed the hope that soon, in the larger circuits,
+      schools might be established which would give a scriptural and Wesleyan
+      education. Already some schools had been commenced; and the plan was
+      devised which has been the basis of all subsequent Methodist day-school
+      work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1840 it was decided to spend the interest of the &pound;5,000 given
+      from the Centenary Fund for the training of teachers, work which was at
+      first carried on at Glasgow. The determination of Conference to perfect
+      its plan of Wesleyan education was quickened when an unfair Education
+      Bill, not the last of its kind, was introduced into Parliament in 1843,
+      proposing to hand over the children in factory districts to the Church of
+      England. An Education Fund was established. Government, in 1847, offered
+      grants for the training of elementary school teachers; and in 1851 the
+      Westminster Training College was opened, with room for 130 men students.
+      In 1872, in response to an increased demand for Wesleyan teachers, a
+      separate college for mistresses was opened at Southlands, Battersea.
+      Already four thousand have been trained in these institutions. Many hold
+      positions in Board schools. In 1896 the number in Wesleyan and Board
+      schools was 2,400.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The system thus inaugurated met a great and real need, and under it
+      excellent work has been done on the lines laid down by the Department at
+      Whitehall; for, receiving State aid, the training colleges and all the
+      schools, like other similar denominational institutions on the same
+      footing, are inspected and in a measure controlled by the national
+      educational authority. In 1837 there were only 31 Wesleyan day schools;
+      to-day there are 753 school departments, and on their books 162,609
+      scholars. But the introduction of free education has made it difficult for
+      the Methodist Church to maintain her schools, efficient though they be.
+      Since 1870, when school boards were introduced, the number of Wesleyan day
+      schools has only increased by 10, while 9,752 Board schools have arisen,
+      and the Church of England schools have increased from 9,331 to 16,517; the
+      Roman Catholic schools actually trebling in number and attendance. <br />
+      <a name="ILL107" id="ILL107"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/107 Wesley College, Sheffield.jpg"
+      alt="Wesley College, Sheffield" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Wesley College, Sheffield
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      In view of these changed conditions, Conference has expressed itself
+      anxious for such a complete national system of education as might place a
+      Christian unsectarian school within reasonable distance of every family,
+      especially in rural districts, with "adequate representative public
+      management"; it has most earnestly deprecated the exclusion of the Bible,
+      and suitable religious instruction therefrom by the teachers, from the day
+      schools; but, so long as denominational schools form part of the national
+      system, it is resolved to maintain our schools and Training Colleges, in
+      full vigour. Difficulties, undreamed of sixty years ago, surround this
+      great question; but assuredly Methodism will be true to its trust and its
+      traditions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cost of Wesleyan schools last year was &pound;215,634, and was met by
+      school fees, subscriptions, and a government grant of &pound;185,780. The
+      Education Fund of 1896, amounting to &pound;7,115, was spent on the
+      Training Colleges, grants to necessitous schools, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wesley approved of Sunday schools as means of giving religious instruction
+      to the children of the poor, and Hannah Ball at High Wycombe, a good
+      Methodist, and Silas Told, teaching at the Foundery, both anticipated the
+      work of Raikes by several years. In 1837 there were already 3,339 Sunday
+      schools, with 341,442 scholars. Today the schools number 7,147, the
+      officers and teachers 131,145, and there are in the schools 965,201
+      children and young people. The formation in 1869 of the Circuit
+      Sunday-school Union, and in 1874 of the Connexional Sunday-school Union,
+      has done much for the schools, in providing suitable literature for
+      teachers and scholars, and in organising their work. An additional motive
+      to Scripture study is furnished by the "Religious Knowledge Examinations"
+      instituted by Conference; certificates, signed by the President, being
+      granted to teachers and scholars who succeed in passing the examinations.
+      In recognition of the value of so important a department of the Church,
+      adequate representation at the quarterly meetings is now accorded to the
+      Sunday schools.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not in our day only that the pastoral oversight of the young has
+      been deemed worthy of attention; the duty has always been enforced on
+      ministers; but in 1878 there were first formed junior Society classes, to
+      prepare children for full membership. There are now seventy-two thousand
+      in such classes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In 1896 we note a new effort to bring young people into the kingdom, in
+      the foundation of the "Wesley Guild," of which the President of Conference
+      is the head, with four vice-presidents, two being laymen. The guild is "a
+      union of the young people of a congregation. Its keynote is comradeship,
+      and its aim is to encourage the young people of our Church in the highest
+      aims of life." The story of its origin may be briefly told.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Rev. Charles H. Kelly introduced the subject in the London Methodist
+      Council, and then brought the matter before the Plymouth Conference of
+      1895, dwelling on the desire existing to form a Wesley Guild that should
+      do for Britain what the Epworth League does for American Methodism, and
+      secure the best advantages not only of that league, but of the Boys'
+      Brigade, Bands of Hope, Christian Endeavour and Mutual Improvement
+      Societies, which it should federate. The Liverpool Conference of 1896
+      therefore sanctioned the formation of the "Wesley Guild." Its three grades
+      of members include young people already attached to the Church, with
+      others not yet ripe for such identification, and "older people young in
+      heart," who all join in guild friendship, and aid in forming this
+      federation of the existing societies interesting to young people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By periodical meetings, weekly if possible, for devotional, social, and
+      literary purposes, a healthy common life and beneficent activity are
+      stimulated, and the rising generation is happily and usefully drawn into
+      relation with the older Church workers, whom it aids by seeking out the
+      young, lonely, and unattached, and bringing them into the warm circle of
+      youthful fellowship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such in brief is the programme of the Guild, which may yet greatly enrich
+      the Church with which it is connected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We turn now to one of the most notable changes in Methodism during the
+      Queen's reign&mdash;the wonderful advance in the temperance movement.
+      Wesley himself was an ardent temperance reformer, but his preachers were
+      slow to follow him. A few prominent men strove long to induce Conference
+      to institute a temperance branch of our work, and finally succeeded, their
+      efforts having effected a great change in opinion. For many years our
+      theological students, though not compelled thereto, have almost all been
+      pledged abstainers. 1873 saw Conference appoint a temperance committee "to
+      promote legislation for the more effectual control of the liquor traffic&mdash;and
+      in general for the suppression of intemperance." In 1879 a scheme was
+      sanctioned for the formation of Methodist Bands of Hope and Circuit
+      Temperance Unions; and a special Sunday, the last in November, is devoted
+      to considering "the appalling extent and dire result" of our national sin,
+      one of the greatest obstacles to that "spread of scriptural holiness"
+      which is the aim of the true Wesleyan Methodist, whose chosen Church, with
+      its manifold organisation, has unequalled facilities for temperance work.
+      In 1896 the report showed 1,374 temperance societies, with 80,000 members&mdash;figures
+      that do not include all the abstainers in Methodism; some societies have
+      no temperance association, and some Methodists are connected with other
+      than our own temperance work. The 4,393 Bands of Hope count 433,027
+      members. <br /> <a name="ILL108" id="ILL108"></a> <br /> <img
+      src="images/108 Children's Home, Bolton.jpg" alt="Children's Home, Bolton" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Children's Home, Bolton
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      We have already spoken of the growth and development of social
+      philanthropic work in connexion with the great Methodist missions in
+      towns; there remains one most important movement in this direction to
+      notice&mdash;the establishment of the "Children's Home," which, begun in
+      1869 by Dr. Stephenson, received Conference recognition in 1871. It has
+      now branches in London, Lancashire, Gravesend, Birmingham, and the Isle of
+      Man, and an emigration depot in Canada. Over 900 girls and boys are in
+      residence, while more than 2,900 have been sent forth well equipped for
+      the battle of life; some of them becoming ministers, local preachers,
+      Sunday-school workers, and in many ways most useful citizens. The
+      committee of management has the sanction of Conference. This "powerful arm
+      of Christian work" not only rescues helpless little ones from degradation
+      and misery; it undertakes the special training of the workers amongst the
+      children in industrial homes and orphanages; and hence has arisen the
+      institution in 1895 of the order of Methodist deaconesses, which is
+      recommended by Conference to Connexional sympathy and confidence, the
+      deaconesses rendering to our Church such services as the Sisters of Mercy
+      give to the Church of Rome. One example may suffice. A London
+      superintendent minister describes the work of one of the Sisters during
+      the past twelvemonth as "simply invaluable. She has visited the poor,
+      nursed the sick, held services in lodging-houses, met Society classes and
+      Bible-classes, gathered round her a godly band of mission-workers, and in
+      a hundred ways has promoted the interests of God's work."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Two events made 1891 memorable for Methodists, the centenary of Wesley's
+      death and its commemoration being the first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Conference decided that suitable memorial services should be held, and
+      an appeal made to Methodists everywhere for funds to improve Wesley's
+      Chapel and the graveyard containing his tomb. Universal interest was
+      aroused; all branches of Methodism were represented; the leading ministers
+      of Nonconformist Churches also shared in the services. Crowded and
+      enthusiastic congregations assembled in City Road when on Sunday, March 1,
+      the Rev. Charles H. Kelly, Ex-President, preached on "The Man, his
+      Teaching, and his Work," and when the Rev. Dr. Moulton delivered the
+      centenary sermon. On March 2, a statue of Wesley was unveiled&mdash;exactly
+      one hundred years after his death&mdash;Dean Farrar and Sir Henry H.
+      Fowler addressing the meeting. <br /> <a name="ILL109" id="ILL109"></a>
+      <br /> <img src="images/109 Westminster Training College.jpg"
+      alt="Westminster Training College" />
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Westminster Training College
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      The Allan Library, the gift of the late Thomas R. Allan, containing more
+      than 30,000 books and dissertations, was opened by the President; it has
+      since been enriched by gifts of modern books from the Fernley Trustees and
+      others, and a circulating library is now connected with it. Accessible on
+      easy terms to ministers and local preachers, and within the reach of many
+      others, this library should be a useful stimulus to the taste for study
+      among ministers and people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other event of the year was the meeting of the second Oecumenical
+      Conference in October, at Washington, in the country where Methodism
+      obtained great triumphs. The Conference lasted twelve days, like its
+      predecessor; the opening sermon, prepared by the Rev. William Arthur, was
+      read for him, Mr. Arthur's voice being too weak to be heard; and the
+      President of the United States gave a reception at the Executive Mansion,
+      and also visited the Conference. Many topics of deep interest were
+      discussed on this occasion, and not the least attractive subject was the
+      statistical report presented. The difficulty of estimating the actual
+      strength and influence of Methodism is very great.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the present year the membership of the Wesleyan Methodists, for Great
+      Britain and Ireland, is estimated at 494,287; of other Methodist bodies in
+      the United Kingdom at 373,700; the affiliated Conferences of Wesleyan
+      Methodists in France, South Africa, the West Indies, and Australasia at
+      212,849, being 1,942 for France, 62,812 for South Africa, 50,365 for the
+      two West Indian, and 97,730 for the Australasian Conferences. American
+      Methodism in all its branches, white and coloured, returns a membership of
+      5,573,118, while the united Methodism of Canada shows 272,392, and the
+      foreign missions of British Wesleyan Methodism 52,058 members. These
+      figures, giving a total of 6,978,404 members, exclusive of the ministers,
+      estimated at 43,368, are sufficiently gratifying; yet they do not
+      represent the real strength of the Church at large, and give only a faint
+      idea of its influence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Oecumenical Report gave the number of Methodist "adherents" as
+      24,899,421, intending, by the term <i>adherents</i>, those whose religious
+      home is the Methodist chapel, though their visits to it be irregular. For
+      the British Wesleyans the two millions of sittings were supposed to
+      represent the number of adherents (yet should all the occasional
+      worshippers wish to attend at once, it may be doubted if they could be
+      accommodated); for the other branches of Methodism in the United Kingdom,
+      four additional persons were reckoned to each member reported. The
+      statistics for Ireland and Canada were checked by the census returns.
+      Probably in the case of missions the adherents would be more than four
+      times the membership. Varying principles were adopted for the United
+      States, and the adherents reckoned at less than four times the members
+      reported. Should we to-day treat the returns of membership on the same
+      principle (Sunday scholars being now as then included in the term
+      "adherents "), we should find nearly thirty millions of persons in
+      immediate touch with Methodism and strongly bound to it. Compare these
+      figures with those of 1837, and we must exclaim, "What hath God wrought!"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Estimating the increase of British Methodism, we have to remember that the
+      population has almost doubled in the sixty years, while British Wesleyan
+      Methodism has not doubled; but the great losses occasioned by the
+      agitations must be taken into account, and also the curious fact that the
+      ratio of increase for Methodism at large, in the ten years between the two
+      Oecumenical Conferences, was thirty per cent&mdash;twice as great as the
+      increase of population in the countries represented; the Methodist Church
+      in Ireland actually increasing thirteen per cent, while the population of
+      the country was diminishing and the other Protestant Churches reported
+      loss.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the increase in Great Britain be proportionally smaller, this need not
+      cause surprise, in view of that vast development of energy in the
+      Established Church which is really due to the reflex action of Methodism
+      itself; that Church, with all the old advantages of wealth and prestige
+      and connexion with the universities and grammar schools which she
+      possessed in the days of her comparative supine-ness, with her clergy roll
+      of 23,000, and her many voluntary workers, having in twenty-seven years
+      almost doubled the number of her elementary schools, largely attended by
+      Methodist children. But the indirect influence of Methodism is such as
+      cannot be represented in our returns; figures cannot show us the true
+      spiritual status of a Church. The total cost of the maintenance of our
+      work in all its branches can be estimated; and so able an authority as the
+      Rev. Dr. H. J. Pope stated it at from &pound;1,500,000 to &pound;1,750,000
+      pounds annually, a sum more than equal to a dividend on fifty millions of
+      consols; but it is impossible to compute the profit to the human race from
+      that expenditure and the work it maintains. This may be said with
+      certainty, that other Churches have been greatly enriched thereby. We may
+      just refer to that remarkable religious movement, the Salvation Army, of
+      Methodist origin, though working on new lines; doing such work, social and
+      evangelistic, as Methodism has chosen for its own, and absorbing into its
+      ranks many of our own trained workers. "The Salvationists, taught by
+      Wesley," said the late Bishop of Durham, "have learned and taught to the
+      Church again the lost secret of the compulsion of human souls to the
+      Saviour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The Methodists themselves," says John Richard Green, "are the least
+      result of the Methodist revival"; the creation of "a large and powerful
+      and active sect," numbering many millions, extending over both
+      hemispheres, was, says Lecky, but one consequence of that revival, which
+      exercised "a large influence upon the Established Church, upon the amount
+      and distribution of the moral forces of the nation, and even upon its
+      political history"; an influence which continues, the sons of Methodism
+      taking their due part in local and imperial government. Eloquent tributes
+      to the work of Wesley are frequent to-day, the <i>Times</i>, in an article
+      on the centenary of his death, saying: "The Evangelical movement in the
+      Church of England was the direct result of his influence and example, and
+      since the movements and ideas which have moulded the Church of England
+      to-day could have found no fitting soil for their development if they had
+      not been preceded by the Evangelical movement, it is no paradox to say
+      that the Church of England to-day is what it is because John Wesley lived
+      and taught in the last century.... He remains the greatest, the most
+      potent, the most far-reaching spiritual influence which Anglo-Saxon
+      Christianity has felt since the days of the Reformation." So far the <i>Times</i>,
+      of him whom it styles "the restorer of the Church of England." Many
+      impartial writers, some being ardent friends of the English Church, have
+      also recognised a gracious overflow from Methodism which has blessed that
+      Church, the Nonconformist bodies, and the nation at large. If a man would
+      understand "the religious history of the last hundred years," that "most
+      important ecclesiastical fact of modern times," the rise and progress of
+      Methodism, must be studied in relation to the Anglican and the older
+      Nonconformist Churches, and the general "missionary interests of
+      Christianity": so we are taught by Dr. Stoughton, who has traced the
+      influence of Methodism in the general moral condition of the country and
+      the voluntary institutions of our age. The doctrines once almost peculiar
+      to Wesley and his followers&mdash;such as entire sanctification&mdash;are
+      now accepted and taught by many Churches, and the religious usages of
+      Methodism are imitated, watchnight services being held, and revival
+      mission services and prayer-meetings being conducted, in Anglican
+      churches; while the hymns of Charles Wesley, sung by all English-speaking
+      Protestants, and translated into many languages, enrich the devotional
+      life of the Christian world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a fit tribute to the benefits which the English Church has derived
+      from the Methodist movement, when the memorial tablet to the brothers John
+      and Charles Wesley was unveiled in Westminster Abbey by the late Dean
+      Stanley, in 1872.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The bracing breezes," said Dr. Stoughton, "came sweeping down from the
+      hills of Methodism on Baptist meadows as well as upon Independent fields."
+      We may give some few instances that will show what blessings have come to
+      Nonconformist Churches by the agency of Methodism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A remarkable incident that occurred in 1872 was recorded in the <i>Wesleyan
+      Methodist Magazine</i>. Dr. Jobson had invited five eminent ministers to
+      meet the President of Conference at his house. After breakfast their
+      conversation quite naturally took the form of a lovefeast, all being
+      familiar with Methodist custom; when Dr. Allon, Dr. Raleigh, and Dr.
+      Stoughton all said they were converted in Methodist chapels, and began
+      Christian work as Methodists. Thomas Binney said that "the direct
+      instrumentality in his conversion was Wesleyan," and Dr. Fraser was
+      induced to enter the ministry by a Wesleyan lady. Charles H. Spurgeon was
+      converted through the instrumentality of a Primitive Methodist local
+      preacher; William Jay of Bath was converted at a Methodist service; John
+      Angell James caught fire among the Methodists; and Thomas Raffles was a
+      member of the Wesleyan Society; Dr. Parker began his ministrations as a
+      Methodist local preacher; while Dr. Dale has shown the indebtedness of
+      Nonconformity to Methodism. In France and Germany Methodist agency has
+      been one of the strongest forces in re-awakening the old Protestant
+      Churches; the services held by our Connexional evangelists send many
+      converts to swell the fellowship of Churches not our own. And the same
+      effects followed the great Methodist revival in America; out of 1,300
+      converts, 800 joined the Presbyterian and other denominations. But while
+      calling attention to the spiritual wealth and the beneficent overflow of
+      Methodism, we would not be unmindful of the debt which Methodism owes to
+      other Churches, and in special of its obligations to those Anglican
+      divines of our day who have enriched the whole Church of Christ by their
+      scholarly contributions to sacred literature; and we would ascribe all the
+      praise of Methodist achievement to the almighty Author of good, whom the
+      spirit of ostentation and vain glorifying must displease, while it would
+      surely hinder His work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great desire of Methodism to-day&mdash;its great need, as Dr. Handles
+      expressed it in his presidential address&mdash;is "fulness of spiritual
+      life." If this be attained, the actual resources of the Church will amply
+      suffice to carry on its glorious future mission; it will not fail in its
+      primary duties of giving prominence to the spirituality of religion, of
+      maintaining strict fidelity to scriptural doctrine, of giving persevering
+      illustration of the fellowship of believers, nor in upholding the
+      expansion of home and foreign missions, nor in ceaseless efforts to
+      promote social advancement. "There is no rigid system of Church mechanism,
+      nor restraining dogma," to hinder missions. <br /> <a name="ILL110"
+      id="ILL110"></a> <br /> <a href="images/110 Group of Presidents 3.jpg">
+      <img src="images/110 Group of Presidents 3.jpg"
+      alt="Group of Presidents Number Three" width="40%" /></a>
+    </p>
+    <h4>
+      Group of Presidents Number Three
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      At present four-sevenths of the human race are in heathen darkness. To win
+      the world for Christ demands that Methodists should unite with all His
+      true soldiers. Wesley said: "We have strong reason to hope that the work
+      He hath begun He will carry on until the day of the Lord Jesus; that He
+      will never intermit this blessed work of His Spirit until He has fulfilled
+      all His promises, until He hath put a period to sin and misery, infirmity
+      and death, re-established universal holiness and happiness, and caused all
+      the inhabitants of the earth to sing, 'Alleluia: for the Lord God
+      omnipotent reigneth.'" If Methodism be faithful to her mission, this
+      prophecy may be fulfilled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the second temple was built, Haggai exhorted Zerubbabel and Joshua to
+      be strong, and all the people to be strong, and to work, for the Lord was
+      with them. Let Methodists be strong in God's strength, and work with the
+      consciousness that the Lord of hosts is with them, and they will insure
+      success to the great mission of their Church.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We will conclude with the last paragraph of the Rev. Charles H. Kelly's
+      sermon at the celebration of the centenary of Wesley's death in 1891.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Surely the lesson to the Methodists of to-day is clear enough. Let us
+      cherish the memory of our forefathers, let us emulate their spirit, let us
+      cling to their God-given doctrines, let us cultivate, as they did,
+      communion with the Master and fellowship with each other. Let us aim to be
+      one, to do our duty. Let us strive to make our Church a greater power for
+      evangelism among the people of the earth than ever, let us look to the
+      Holy Spirit for the richer baptism of grace, and Methodism, so blest of
+      the Lord in the past, will yet be blest. Her mission is not accomplished,
+      her work is not done; long may she live and prosper. Peace be within her
+      walls, and prosperity within her palaces. For my brethren and companions'
+      sake, the faithful living and the sainted dead, I will now say, Peace be
+      within her; peace be within her." <br /> <br /> <br /> <a name="12"></a>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h3>
+      CONCLUSION
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The last days of the half-century are fleeting fast as we write, and we
+      are yet at peace with Europe, as when Victoria's reign began. How long
+      that peace shall last, who shall say? who can say how long it may be ere
+      the elements of internal discord that have threatened to wreck the
+      prosperity of the empire, shall be composed to a lasting peace, and leave
+      the nation free to follow its better destiny? But foes within and foes
+      without have many times assailed us in vain in past years; many times has
+      the political horizon been shadowed with clouds portending war and strife
+      no less gloomily than those which now darken it, and as yet the Crimean
+      war is the only war on which we have entered that can be called European;
+      many times have grave discontents broken our domestic peace, but wise
+      statesmanship has found a timely remedy. We need not, if we learn the
+      lessons of the past aright, fear greatly to confront the future. Not to us
+      the glory or the praise, but to a merciful overruling Providence, ever
+      raising up amongst us noble hearts in time, that we are found to-day
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <blockquote>
+        <p>
+          "A nation yet, the rulers and the ruled,"
+        </p>
+      </blockquote>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      not quite bankrupt in heart or hope or faith, but possessing
+    </p>
+    <blockquote>
+      <blockquote>
+        <p>
+          "Some sense of duty, something of a faith,<br /> Some reverence for the
+          laws ourselves have made,<br /> Some patient force to change them when
+          we will;"<br />
+        </p>
+      </blockquote>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      and we may justly acknowledge, in thankfulness not vainglorious, the
+      happier fate that has been ours above many another land, that may still be
+      ours, "if England to itself do rest but true."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have seen during these sixty years the map of Europe remodelled to an
+      undreamed of extent. Fair Italy, though still possessing her fatal gift of
+      beauty, though still suffering many things, is no longer the prey of
+      foreign unloved rulers, but has become a nation, a mere "geographical
+      expression" no longer; Germany, whose many little princedoms were once a
+      favourite theme of British mockery, is now one great and formidable
+      empire; the power of Russia has, despite the Crimean check, continued to
+      expand, while desperate internal struggles have shaken that half-developed
+      people, proving fatal to the gentle successor of Nicholas, the emancipator
+      of the Russian serfs, and often threatening the life of <i>his</i>
+      successors; and the once formidable American slave-system has been swept
+      away, with appalling loss of human life; a second President of the United
+      States has fallen by the hand of an assassin; and new difficulties, scarce
+      inferior to those connected with slavery, have followed on its abolition.
+      Our record shows no calamity comparable to the greatest of these, if we
+      set aside the Indian horrors so terribly avenged at the moment, but by
+      their teaching resulting ultimately in good rather than evil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides the furious strife and convulsion that have rent other lands, how
+      inconsiderable seem the disturbances that disfigure our home annals, how
+      peaceful the changes in our constitutional system, brought about orderly
+      in due form of law, how purely domestic the saddest events of our internal
+      history! We wept with our Sovereign in her early widowhood, a bereavement
+      to the people as well as to the Queen; we trembled with her when the
+      shadow of death hung over her eldest son, rejoicing with her when it
+      passed away; we shared her grief for two other of her children, inheritors
+      of the noble qualities of their father, and for the doom which took from
+      us one whom we had loved to call "our future king"; we deplored the other
+      bereavements which darkened her advancing years; we have lamented great
+      men taken from us, some, like the conqueror of Waterloo, "the great
+      world-victor's victor," in the fulness of age and honour, others with
+      their glorious work seemingly half done, their career of usefulness
+      mysteriously cut short; we have shuddered when the hateful terrorism,
+      traditional pest of Ireland through centuries of wrong and outrage, has
+      once and again lifted its head among ourselves; we have suffered&mdash;though
+      far less severely than other lands, even than some under our own rule&mdash;from
+      plague, pestilence, and famine, from dearth of work and food. But what are
+      these woes compared to those that other peoples have endured, when it has
+      been said to the sword, "Sword, go through the land," and the dread word
+      has been obeyed; when war has slain its thousands, and want its tens of
+      thousands; or when terrible convulsions of nature have shaken down cities,
+      and turned the fruitful land into a wilderness?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Events have moved fast since the already distant day when the Colonial and
+      Industrial Exhibition was ministering exultation to many a British heart
+      by its wonderful display of the various wealth of our distant domains and
+      their great industrial resources. We were even then tempted&mdash;as have
+      been nations that are no more&mdash;to pride ourselves on having reached
+      an unassailable height of grandeur. Since then our territory has expanded
+      and our wealth increased; but with them have increased the evils and the
+      dangers inseparable from great possessions, and the responsibilities
+      involved in them. We can only "rejoice with trembling" in this our second
+      year of Jubilee. Remembering with all gratitude how we have been spared
+      hitherto, and mindful of the perils that wait on power and prosperity, let
+      it be ours to offer such sacrifices of thanksgiving as can be pleasing to
+      the almighty Ruler of the ways of men, whom too often in pride of power,
+      in selfish satisfaction with our own achievements, we forget.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many are the works of mercy, well pleasing in His sight, with which we can
+      associate ourselves, even in this favoured land, whose ever increasing
+      wealth is balanced by terrible poverty, and its affluence of intellectual
+      and spiritual light by grossest heathen darkness. Day by day, as our brief
+      account has shown, are increasing efforts put forth by our Christian men
+      and women to overcome these evils; and through such agencies our country
+      may yet be saved, and may not perish like other mighty empires, dragged
+      down by its own over-swollen greatness, and by neglect of the eternal
+      truth that "righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any
+      people." <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr class="narrow" />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Footnotes
+    </h2>
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+      <p>
+        <a id="footnote1" name="footnote1"></a> <b>Footnote 1</b>:
+      </p>
+      <p class="footnote">
+        <i>Life of Norman Macleod, D.D. vol. ii.</i> <br /><a href="#footnotetag1">(return)</a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+      <p>
+        <a id="footnote2" name="footnote2"></a> <b>Footnote 2</b>:
+      </p>
+      <p class="footnote">
+        C. C. F. Greville: <i>A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria</i> <br /><a
+        href="#footnotetag2">(return)</a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+      <p>
+        <a id="footnote3" name="footnote3"></a> <b>Footnote 3</b>:
+      </p>
+      <p class="footnote">
+        <i>Greville Memoirs</i>, Third Part, vol. i. <br /><a href="#footnotetag3">(return)</a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+      <p>
+        <a id="footnote4" name="footnote4"></a> <b>Footnote 4</b>:
+      </p>
+      <p class="footnote">
+        Inscription on the cairn on Craig Lorigan <br /><a href="#footnotetag4">(return)</a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+      <p>
+        <a id="footnote5" name="footnote5"></a> <b>Footnote 5</b>:
+      </p>
+      <p class="footnote">
+        <i>Anne Gilchrist: her Life and Writings</i>. London: 1887 <br /><a
+        href="#footnotetag5">(return)</a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+      <p>
+        <a id="footnote6" name="footnote6"></a> <b>Footnote 6</b>:
+      </p>
+      <p class="footnote">
+        The writer desires to acknowledge special obligation to the Rev. J.
+        Wesley Davies for invaluable aid rendered by him in collecting and
+        arranging the material embodied in this chapter. <br /><a
+        href="#footnotetag6">(return)</a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <blockquote class="footnote">
+      <p>
+        <a id="footnote7" name="footnote7"></a> <b>Footnote 7</b>:
+      </p>
+      <p class="footnote">
+        "Methodism in all its branches" must be understood of <i>all</i> bodies
+        bearing the name of Methodist, including the New Connexion and the
+        Primitive Methodists. The membership of Wesleyan Methodism alone
+        throughout the world, according to the <i>Minutes of Conference</i> for
+        1839, was 1,112,519; and the total ministry, including 335 missionaries,
+        4,957. <br /><a href="#footnotetag7">(return)</a>
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      ***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT BRITAIN AND HER QUEEN***
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      ******* This file should be named 13103-h.txt or 13103-h.zip *******
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> <a
+      href="https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/0/13103">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/0/13103</a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be
+      renamed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one
+      owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and
+      you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission
+      and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the
+      General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and
+      distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT
+      GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered
+      trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you
+      receive specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of
+      this eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook
+      for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,
+      performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given
+      away--you may do practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.
+      Redistribution is subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+      redistribution.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+<a href="https://gutenberg.org/license">https://gutenberg.org/license)</a>.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">https://www.gutenberg.org</a>
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+<a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext06">http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext06</a>
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL">https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL</a>
+
+*** END: FULL LICENSE ***
+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/001 Queen Victoria.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/001 Queen Victoria.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eeec855
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/001 Queen Victoria.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/002 Claremont.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/002 Claremont.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8ff4a8e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/002 Claremont.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/003 The Coronation of Queen Victoria.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/003 The Coronation of Queen Victoria.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1dc4b83
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/003 The Coronation of Queen Victoria.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/004 Kensington Palace.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/004 Kensington Palace.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..485a116
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/004 Kensington Palace.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/005 Duchess of Kent.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/005 Duchess of Kent.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a004f84
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/005 Duchess of Kent.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/006 Elizabeth Fry.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/006 Elizabeth Fry.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2a7d420
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/006 Elizabeth Fry.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/007 Rowland Hill.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/007 Rowland Hill.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..778ec4a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/007 Rowland Hill.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/008 Father Mathew.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/008 Father Mathew.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4dd7dc4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/008 Father Mathew.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/009 George Stephenson.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/009 George Stephenson.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b93a12e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/009 George Stephenson.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/010 Wheatstone.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/010 Wheatstone.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..550a33e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/010 Wheatstone.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/011 St James's Palace.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/011 St James's Palace.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f76da75
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/011 St James's Palace.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/012 Prince Albert.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/012 Prince Albert.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..332819f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/012 Prince Albert.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/013 The Queen in her Wedding Dress.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/013 The Queen in her Wedding Dress.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e258866
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/013 The Queen in her Wedding Dress.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/014 Sir Robert Peel.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/014 Sir Robert Peel.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5aa8491
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/014 Sir Robert Peel.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/015 Daniel O'Connell.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/015 Daniel O'Connell.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..90b3b9f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/015 Daniel O'Connell.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/016 Richard Cobden.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/016 Richard Cobden.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3ee8663
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/016 Richard Cobden.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/017 John Bright.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/017 John Bright.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4c604f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/017 John Bright.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/018 Lord John Russell.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/018 Lord John Russell.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..30b235f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/018 Lord John Russell.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/019 Thomas Chalmers.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/019 Thomas Chalmers.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d0597c9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/019 Thomas Chalmers.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/020 John Henry Newman.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/020 John Henry Newman.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cb16cf0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/020 John Henry Newman.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/021 Balmoral.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/021 Balmoral.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..041a4cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/021 Balmoral.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/022 Buckingham Palace.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/022 Buckingham Palace.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..47a4a2c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/022 Buckingham Palace.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/023 Napoleon III.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/023 Napoleon III.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..794472b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/023 Napoleon III.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/024 The Crystal Palace 1851.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/024 The Crystal Palace 1851.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a2c09bb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/024 The Crystal Palace 1851.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/025 Lord Ashley.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/025 Lord Ashley.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..51a2212
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/025 Lord Ashley.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/026 Earl of Derby.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/026 Earl of Derby.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5f8133d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/026 Earl of Derby.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/027 Duke of Wellington.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/027 Duke of Wellington.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..739f241
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/027 Duke of Wellington.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/028 Florence Nightingale.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/028 Florence Nightingale.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5462e88
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/028 Florence Nightingale.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/029 Lord Canning.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/029 Lord Canning.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..23692cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/029 Lord Canning.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/030 Sir Colin Campbell.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/030 Sir Colin Campbell.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5dac69b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/030 Sir Colin Campbell.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/031 Henry Havelock.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/031 Henry Havelock.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2fca512
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/031 Henry Havelock.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/032 Sir John Lawrence.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/032 Sir John Lawrence.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..965544a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/032 Sir John Lawrence.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/033 Windsor Castle.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/033 Windsor Castle.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3f394a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/033 Windsor Castle.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/034 Prince Frederick William.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/034 Prince Frederick William.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3e2fe29
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/034 Prince Frederick William.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/035 Princess Royal.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/035 Princess Royal.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b0cabdc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/035 Princess Royal.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/036 Charles Kingsley.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/036 Charles Kingsley.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e939bd1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/036 Charles Kingsley.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/037 Lord Palmerston.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/037 Lord Palmerston.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..acfef5b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/037 Lord Palmerston.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/038 Abraham Lincoln and his Son.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/038 Abraham Lincoln and his Son.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f4452fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/038 Abraham Lincoln and his Son.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/039 Princess Alice.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/039 Princess Alice.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e3886ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/039 Princess Alice.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/040 The Mausoleum.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/040 The Mausoleum.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..297033c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/040 The Mausoleum.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/041 Dr Norman Macleod.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/041 Dr Norman Macleod.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4901f68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/041 Dr Norman Macleod.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/042 Prince of Wales.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/042 Prince of Wales.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..47254fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/042 Prince of Wales.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/043 Princess of Wales.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/043 Princess of Wales.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b91b508
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/043 Princess of Wales.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/044 Osborne House.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/044 Osborne House.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0d3f93a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/044 Osborne House.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/045 Sir Robert Napier.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/045 Sir Robert Napier.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f7617c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/045 Sir Robert Napier.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/046 Mr Gladstone.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/046 Mr Gladstone.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9bcf5b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/046 Mr Gladstone.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/047 Lord Beaconsfield.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/047 Lord Beaconsfield.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a75d0cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/047 Lord Beaconsfield.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/048 Lord Salisbury.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/048 Lord Salisbury.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..86186ba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/048 Lord Salisbury.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/049 General Gordon.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/049 General Gordon.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b83ed68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/049 General Gordon.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/050 Duke of Albany.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/050 Duke of Albany.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dae1e35
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/050 Duke of Albany.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/051 Duchess of Albany.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/051 Duchess of Albany.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..52fe165
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/051 Duchess of Albany.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/052 Sydney Heads.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/052 Sydney Heads.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0ab98bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/052 Sydney Heads.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/053 Robert Southey.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/053 Robert Southey.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ed00080
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/053 Robert Southey.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/054 William Wordsworth.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/054 William Wordsworth.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d170f37
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/054 William Wordsworth.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/055 Alfred Tennyson.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/055 Alfred Tennyson.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dea4892
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/055 Alfred Tennyson.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/056 Robert Browning.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/056 Robert Browning.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f8b18be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/056 Robert Browning.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/057 Charles Dickens.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/057 Charles Dickens.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4f71e7e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/057 Charles Dickens.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/058 W M Thackeray.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/058 W M Thackeray.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eb0bea6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/058 W M Thackeray.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/059 Charlotte Bronte.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/059 Charlotte Bronte.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..591834c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/059 Charlotte Bronte.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/060 Lord Macaulay.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/060 Lord Macaulay.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7831d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/060 Lord Macaulay.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/061 Thomas Carlyle.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/061 Thomas Carlyle.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fd5ee61
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/061 Thomas Carlyle.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/062 William Whewell, DD.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/062 William Whewell, DD.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..160e134
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/062 William Whewell, DD.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/063 Sir David Brewster.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/063 Sir David Brewster.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aa46565
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/063 Sir David Brewster.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/064 Sir James Y Simpson.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/064 Sir James Y Simpson.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dd92161
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/064 Sir James Y Simpson.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/065 Michael Faraday.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/065 Michael Faraday.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1854a49
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/065 Michael Faraday.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/066 David Livingstone.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/066 David Livingstone.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..583f858
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/066 David Livingstone.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/067 Sir John Franklin.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/067 Sir John Franklin.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..31a50c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/067 Sir John Franklin.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/068 John Ruskin.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/068 John Ruskin.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..25bcfc6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/068 John Ruskin.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/069 Dean Stanley.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/069 Dean Stanley.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ab3ef3b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/069 Dean Stanley.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/070 I was sick, and ye visited me.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/070 I was sick, and ye visited me.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0208923
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/070 I was sick, and ye visited me.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/071 Duke of Connaught.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/071 Duke of Connaught.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dbbb619
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/071 Duke of Connaught.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/072 The Imperial Institute.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/072 The Imperial Institute.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fd1299d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/072 The Imperial Institute.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/073 Duke of Clarence.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/073 Duke of Clarence.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..41cacf0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/073 Duke of Clarence.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/074 Duke of York.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/074 Duke of York.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5adb94a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/074 Duke of York.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/075 Duchess of York.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/075 Duchess of York.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ab0a61c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/075 Duchess of York.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/076 Princess Henry of Battenberg.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/076 Princess Henry of Battenberg.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..db10734
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/076 Princess Henry of Battenberg.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/077 Prince Henry of Battenberg.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/077 Prince Henry of Battenberg.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..697466e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/077 Prince Henry of Battenberg.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/078 The Czarina of Russia.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/078 The Czarina of Russia.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c77b704
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/078 The Czarina of Russia.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/079 H M Stanley.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/079 H M Stanley.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..488a9b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/079 H M Stanley.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/080 Dr Fridtjof Nansen.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/080 Dr Fridtjof Nansen.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..10f68cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/080 Dr Fridtjof Nansen.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/081 Miss Kingsley.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/081 Miss Kingsley.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6307258
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/081 Miss Kingsley.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/082 J M Barrie.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/082 J M Barrie.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2ab4ed1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/082 J M Barrie.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/083 Richard Jefferies.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/083 Richard Jefferies.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9f48292
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/083 Richard Jefferies.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/084 Rev J G Wood.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/084 Rev J G Wood.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4df27bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/084 Rev J G Wood.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/085 Dean Church.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/085 Dean Church.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ef572a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/085 Dean Church.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/086 Professor Huxley.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/086 Professor Huxley.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7fe792
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/086 Professor Huxley.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/087 Professor Tyndall.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/087 Professor Tyndall.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..204a053
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/087 Professor Tyndall.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/088 C H Spurgeon.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/088 C H Spurgeon.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e3fd2c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/088 C H Spurgeon.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/089 Dr Horatius Bonar.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/089 Dr Horatius Bonar.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2fcc52e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/089 Dr Horatius Bonar.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/090 Sir J E Millais, PRA.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/090 Sir J E Millais, PRA.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..48dbf4e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/090 Sir J E Millais, PRA.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/091 Sir Frederick Leighton, PRA.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/091 Sir Frederick Leighton, PRA.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..12896df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/091 Sir Frederick Leighton, PRA.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/092 Wesley preaching on his father's tomb.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/092 Wesley preaching on his father's tomb.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8da25f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/092 Wesley preaching on his father's tomb.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/093 Group of Presidents 1.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/093 Group of Presidents 1.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..00cad59
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/093 Group of Presidents 1.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/094 Centenary Meeting at Manchester.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/094 Centenary Meeting at Manchester.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..df402ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/094 Centenary Meeting at Manchester.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/095 Wesleyan Centenary Hall.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/095 Wesleyan Centenary Hall.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..60bc93d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/095 Wesleyan Centenary Hall.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/096 Group of Presidents 2.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/096 Group of Presidents 2.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ebd7c78
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/096 Group of Presidents 2.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/097 Sir Charles Lycett.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/097 Sir Charles Lycett.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4787c29
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/097 Sir Charles Lycett.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/098 The Methodist Settlement, Bermondsey, London, SE.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/098 The Methodist Settlement, Bermondsey, London, SE.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3855084
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/098 The Methodist Settlement, Bermondsey, London, SE.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/099 Theological Institution, Richmond.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/099 Theological Institution, Richmond.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f9f0336
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/099 Theological Institution, Richmond.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/101 Theological Institution, Didsbury.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/101 Theological Institution, Didsbury.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..595d9ab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/101 Theological Institution, Didsbury.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/102 Theological Institution, Headingly.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/102 Theological Institution, Headingly.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6c565ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/102 Theological Institution, Headingly.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/103 Theological Institution, Handsworth.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/103 Theological Institution, Handsworth.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0339f14
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/103 Theological Institution, Handsworth.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/104 Kingswood School, Bath.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/104 Kingswood School, Bath.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ccafaee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/104 Kingswood School, Bath.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/105 The North House, Leys School, Cambridge.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/105 The North House, Leys School, Cambridge.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..88e49f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/105 The North House, Leys School, Cambridge.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/106 Queen's College, Taunton.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/106 Queen's College, Taunton.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..adcdc64
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/106 Queen's College, Taunton.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/107 Wesley College, Sheffield.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/107 Wesley College, Sheffield.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b53179a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/107 Wesley College, Sheffield.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/108 Children's Home, Bolton.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/108 Children's Home, Bolton.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7bb1c41
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/108 Children's Home, Bolton.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/109 Westminster Training College.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/109 Westminster Training College.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1464c60
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/109 Westminster Training College.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103-h/images/110 Group of Presidents 3.jpg b/old/13103-h/images/110 Group of Presidents 3.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bb3e475
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103-h/images/110 Group of Presidents 3.jpg
diff --git a/old/13103.txt b/old/13103.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b6d310e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,6069 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Great Britain and Her Queen, by Anne E.
+Keeling
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Great Britain and Her Queen
+
+Author: Anne E. Keeling
+
+Release Date: August 3, 2004  [eBook #13103]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT BRITAIN AND HER QUEEN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Roy Brown
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 13103-h.htm or 13103-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/0/13103/13103-h/13103-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/0/13103/13103-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+GREAT BRITAIN AND HER QUEEN
+
+by
+
+ANNE E. KEELING
+
+Author of "General Gordon: Hero and Saint," "The Oakhurst
+Chronicles," "Andrew Golding," etc.
+
+Second Edition. Revised and Enlarged, 1897
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Queen Victoria]
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Claremont]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER I.
+THE GIRL QUEEN AND HER KINGDOM
+
+CHAPTER II.
+STORM AND SUNSHINE
+
+CHAPTER III.
+FRANCE AND ENGLAND
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+THE CRIMEAN WAR
+
+CHAPTER V.
+INDIA
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+THE BEGINNINGS OF SORROWS
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+CHANGES GOOD AND EVIL
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+OUR COLONIES
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL PROGRESS
+
+CHAPTER X.
+PROGRESS OF THE EMPIRE FROM 1887 TO 1897
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+PROGRESS OF WESLEYAN METHODISM UNDER QUEEN VICTORIA, 1837-1897
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+Queen Victoria
+Claremont
+The Coronation of Queen Victoria
+Kensington Palace
+Duchess of Kent
+Elizabeth Fry
+Rowland Hill
+Father Mathew
+George Stephenson
+Wheatstone
+St. James's Palace
+Prince Albert
+The Queen in Her Wedding-Dress
+Sir Robert Peel
+Daniel O'Connell
+Richard Cobden
+John Bright
+Lord John Russell
+Thomas Chalmers
+John Henry Newmann
+Balmoral
+Buckingham Palace
+Napoleon III
+The Crystal Palace, 1851
+Lord Ashley
+Earl of Derby
+Duke of Wellington
+Florence Nightingale
+Lord Canning
+Sir Colin Campbell
+Henry Havelock
+Sir John Lawrence
+Windsor Castle
+Prince Frederick William
+Princess Royal
+Charles Kingsley
+Lord Palmerston
+Abraham Lincoln and his son
+Princess Alice
+The Mausoleum
+Dr. Norman Macleod
+Prince of Wales
+Princess of Wales
+Osborne House
+Sir Robert Napier
+Mr. Gladstone
+Lord Beaconsfield
+Lord Salisbury
+General Gordon
+Duke of Albany
+Duchess of Albany
+Sydney Heads
+Robert Southey
+William Wordsworth
+Alfred Tennyson
+Robert Browning
+Charles Dickens
+W. M. Thackeray
+Charlotte Bronte
+Lord Macaulay
+Thomas Carlyle
+William Whewell, D.D.
+Sir David Brewster
+Sir James Y. Simpson
+Michael Faraday
+David Livingstone
+Sir John Franklin
+John Ruskin
+Dean Stanley
+"I was sick, and ye visited me"
+Duke of Connaught
+The Imperial Institute
+Duke of Clarence
+Duke of York
+Duchess of York
+Princess Henry of Battenberg
+Prince Henry of Battenberg
+The Czarina of Russia
+H. M. Stanley
+Dr. Fridtjof Nansen
+Miss Kingsley
+J. M. Barrie
+Richard Jefferies
+Rev. J. G. Wood
+Dean Church
+Professor Huxley
+Professor Tyndall
+C. H. Spurgeon
+Dr. Horatius Bonar
+Sir J. E. Millais, P.R.A.
+Sir Frederick Leighton, P.R.A.
+Wesley preaching on his father's tomb
+Group of Presidents:--No. 1
+Centenary Meeting at Manchester
+Key to Centenary Meeting
+Wesleyan Centenary Hall
+Group of Presidents:--No. 2
+Sir Francis Lycett
+The Methodist Settlement, Bermondsey. London, S.E.
+Theological Institution, Richmond
+Theological Institution, Didsbury
+Theological Institution, Headingley
+Theological Institution, Handsworth
+Kingswood School, Bath
+The North House, Leys School, Cambridge
+Queen's College, Taunton
+Wesley College, Sheffield
+Children's Home, Bolton
+Westminster Training College and Schools
+Group of Presidents:--No. 3
+
+[Illustration: The Coronation of Queen Victoria]
+
+
+
+GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  HER  QUEEN.
+
+[Illustration: Kensington Palace]
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE GIRL-QUEEN AND HER KINGDOM.
+
+Rather more than one mortal lifetime, as we average life in these
+later days, has elapsed since that June morning of 1837, when
+Victoria of England, then a fair young princess of eighteen, was
+roused from her tranquil sleep in the old palace at Kensington, and
+bidden to rise and meet the Primate, and his dignified associates the
+Lord Chamberlain and the royal physician, who "were come on business
+of state to the Queen"--words of startling import, for they meant
+that, while the royal maiden lay sleeping, the aged King, whose
+heiress she was, had passed into the deeper sleep of death. It is
+already an often-told story how promptly, on receiving that summons,
+the young Queen rose and came to meet her first homagers, standing
+before them in hastily assumed wrappings, her hair hanging loosely,
+her feet in slippers, but in all her hearing such royally firm
+composure as deeply impressed those heralds of her greatness, who
+noticed at the same moment that her eyes were full of tears. This
+little scene is not only charming and touching, it is very
+significant, suggesting a combination of such qualities as are not
+always found united: sovereign good sense and readiness, blending
+with quick, artless feeling that sought no disguise--such feeling as
+again betrayed itself when on her ensuing proclamation the new
+Sovereign had to meet her people face to face, and stood before them
+at her palace window, composed but sad, the tears running unchecked
+down her fair pale face.
+
+That rare spectacle of simple human emotion, at a time when a selfish
+or thoughtless spirit would have leaped in exultation, touched the
+heart of England deeply, and was rightly held of happy omen. The
+nation's feeling is aptly expressed in the glowing verse of Mrs.
+Browning, praying Heaven's blessing on the "weeping Queen," and
+prophesying for her the love, happiness, and honour which have been
+hers in no stinted measure. "Thou shalt be well beloved," said the
+poetess; there are very few sovereigns of whom it could be so truly
+said that they _have_ been well beloved, for not many have so well
+deserved it. The faith of the singer has been amply justified, as
+time has made manifest the rarer qualities joyfully divined in those
+early days in the royal child, the single darling hope of the nation.
+
+Once before in the recent annals of our land had expectations and
+desires equally ardent centred themselves on one young head. Much of
+the loyal devotion which had been alienated from the immediate family
+of George III. had transferred itself to his grandchild, the Princess
+Charlotte, sole offspring of the unhappy marriage between George,
+Prince of Wales, and Caroline of Brunswick. The people had watched
+with vivid interest the young romance of Princess Charlotte's happy
+marriage, and had bitterly lamented her too early death--an event
+which had overshadowed all English hearts with forebodings of
+disaster. Since that dark day a little of the old attachment of
+England to its sovereigns had revived for the frank-mannered sailor
+and "patriot king," William IV; but the hopes crushed by the death
+of the much-regretted Charlotte had renewed themselves with even
+better warrant for Victoria. She was the child of no ill-omened,
+miserable marriage, but of a fitting union; her parents had been
+sundered only by death, not by wretched domestic dissensions. People
+heard that the mortal malady which deprived her of a father had been
+brought about by the Duke of Kent's simple delight in his baby
+princess, which kept him playing with the child when he should have
+been changing his wet outdoor garb; and they found something touching
+and tender in the tragic little circumstance. And everything that
+could be noticed of the manner in which the bereaved duchess was
+training up her precious charge spoke well for the mother's wisdom
+and affection, and for the future of the daughter.
+
+It was indeed a happy day for England when Edward, Duke of Kent, the
+fourth son of George III, was wedded to Victoria of Saxe-Coburg, the
+widowed Princess of Leiningen--happy, not only because of the
+admirable skill with which that lady conducted her illustrious
+child's education, and because of the pure, upright principles, the
+frank, noble character, which she transmitted to that child, but
+because the family connection established through that marriage was
+to be yet further serviceable to the interests of our realm. Prince
+Albert of Saxe-Coburg was second son of the Duchess of Kent's eldest
+brother, and thus first cousin of the Princess Victoria--"the
+Mayflower," as, in fond allusion to the month of her birth, her
+mother's kinsfolk loved to call her: and it has been made plain that
+dreams of a possible union between the two young cousins, very nearly
+of an age, were early cherished by the elders who loved and admired
+both.
+
+[Illustration: Duchess of Kent. From an Engraving by Messrs. P. & D.
+Colnaghi & Co., Pall Mall East.]
+
+The Princess's life, however, was sedulously guarded from all
+disturbing influences. She grew up in healthy simplicity and
+seclusion; she was not apprised of her nearness to the throne till
+she was twelve years old; she had been little at Court, little in
+sight, but had been made familiar with her own land and its history,
+having received the higher education so essential to her great
+position; while simple truth and rigid honesty were the very
+atmosphere of her existence. From such a training much might be
+hoped; but even those who knew most and hoped most were not quite
+prepared for the strong individual character and power of
+self-determination that revealed themselves in the girlish being so
+suddenly transferred "from the nursery to the throne." It was quickly
+noticed that the part of Queen and mistress seemed native to her, and
+that she filled it with not more grace than propriety. "She always
+strikes me as possessed of singular penetration, firmness, and
+independence," wrote Dr. Norman Macleod in 1860; acute observers in
+1837 took note of the same traits, rarer far in youth than in full
+maturity, and closely connected with the "reasoning, searching"
+quality of her mind, "anxious to get at the root and reality of
+things, and abhorring all shams, whether in word or deed." [Footnote]
+
+[Footnote: "Life of Norman Macleod, D.D." vol. ii.]
+
+It was well for England that its young Sovereign could exemplify
+virile strength as well as womanly sweetness; for it was indeed a
+cloudy and dark day when she was called to her post of lonely
+grandeur and hard responsibility; and to fill that post rightly would
+have overtasked and overwhelmed a feebler nature. It is true that the
+peace of Europe, won at Waterloo, was still unbroken. But already,
+within our borders and without them, there were the signs of coming
+storm. The condition of Ireland was chronically bad; the condition of
+England was full of danger; on the Continent a new period of
+earth-shaking revolution announced itself not doubtfully.
+
+It would be hardly possible to exaggerate the wretched state of the
+sister isle, where fires of recent hate were still smouldering, and
+where the poor inhabitants, guilty and guiltless, were daily living
+on the verge of famine, over which they were soon to be driven. Their
+ill condition much aggravated by the intemperate habits to which
+despairing men so easily fall a prey. The expenditure of Ireland on
+proof spirits alone had in the year 1829 attained the sum of
+L6,000,000.
+
+In England many agricultural labourers were earning starvation wages,
+were living on bad and scanty food, and were housed so wretchedly
+that they might envy the hounds their dry and clean kennels. A dark
+symptom of their hungry discontent had shown itself in the strange
+crime of rick-burning, which went on under cloud of night season
+after season, despite the utmost precautions which the luckless
+farmers could adopt. The perpetrators were not dimly guessed to be
+half-famished creatures, taking a mad revenge for their wretchedness
+by destroying the tantalising stores of grain, too costly for their
+consumption; the price of wheat in the early years of Her Majesty's
+reign and for some time previously being very high, and reaching at
+one moment (1847) the extraordinary figure of a hundred and two
+shillings per quarter.
+
+There was threatening distress, too, in some parts of the
+manufacturing districts; in others a tolerably high level of wages
+indicated prosperity. But even in the more favoured districts there
+was needless suffering. The hours of work, unrestricted by law, were
+cruelly long; nor did there exist any restriction as to the
+employment of operatives of very tender years. "The cry of the
+children" was rising up to heaven, not from the factory only, but
+from the underground darkness of the mine, where a system of pitiless
+infant slavery prevailed, side by side with the employment of women
+as beasts of burden, "in an atmosphere of filth and profligacy." The
+condition of too many toilers was rendered more hopeless by the
+thriftless follies born of ignorance. The educational provision made
+by the piety of former ages was no longer adequate to the needs of
+the ever-growing nation; and all the voluntary efforts made by clergy
+and laity, by Churchmen and Dissenters, did not fill up the
+deficiency--a fact which had only just begun to meet with State
+recognition. It was in 1834 that Government first obtained from
+Parliament the grant of a small sum in aid of education. Under a
+defective system of poor-relief, recently reformed, an immense mass
+of idle pauperism had come into being; it still remained to be seen
+if a new Poor Law could do away with the mischief created by the old
+one.
+
+Looking at the earliest years of Her Majesty's rule, the first
+impulse is to exclaim:
+
+"And all this trouble did not pass, but grew."
+
+It seemed as if poverty became ever more direful, and dissatisfaction
+more importunate. A succession of unfavourable seasons and failing
+crops produced extraordinary distress; and the distress in its turn
+was fruitful first of deepened discontent, and then of political
+disturbances. The working classes had looked for immediate relief
+from their burdens when the Reform Bill should be carried, and had
+striven hard to insure its success: it had been carried triumphantly
+in 1832, but no perceptible improvement in their lot had yet
+resulted; and a resentful feeling of disappointment and of being
+victims of deception now added bitterness to their blind sense of
+misery and injury, and greatly exasperated the political agitation of
+the ten stormy years that followed.
+
+No position could well be more trying than that of the inexperienced
+girl who, in the first bloom of youth, was called to rule the land in
+this wild transitional period. Her royal courage and gracious tact,
+her transparent truthfulness, her high sense of duty, and her
+precocious discretion served her well; but these young excellences
+could not have produced their full effect had she not found in her
+first Prime Minister a faithful friend and servant, whose loyal and
+chivalrous devotion at once conciliated her regard, and who only used
+the influence thus won to impress on his Sovereign's mind "sound
+maxims of constitutional government, and truths of every description
+which it behoved her to learn." The records of the time show plainly
+that Lord Melbourne, the eccentric head of William IV's last Whig
+Administration, was not generally credited with either the will or
+the ability to play so lofty a part. His affectation of a lazy,
+trifling, indifferent manner, his often-quoted remonstrance to
+impetuous would-be reformers, "Can't you let it alone?" had earned
+for him some angry disapproval, and caused him to be regarded as the
+embodiment of the detested _laissez-faire_ principle. But under his
+mask of nonchalance he hid some noble qualities, which at this
+juncture served Queen and country well.
+
+Considered as a frivolous, selfish courtier by too many of the
+suffering poor and of their friends, he was in truth "acting in all
+things an affectionate, conscientious, and patriotic part" towards
+his Sovereign, "endeavouring to make her happy as a woman and popular
+as a Queen," [Footnote] telling her uncourtly truths with a blunt
+honesty that did not displease her, and watching over her with a
+paternal tenderness which she repaid with frank, noble confidence. He
+was faithful in a great and difficult trust; let his memory have due
+honour.
+
+[Footnote: C. C. F. Greville: "A Journal of the Reign of Queen
+Victoria."]
+
+Under Melbourne's pilotage the first months of the new reign went by
+with some serenity, though the political horizon remained threatening
+enough, and the temper of the nation appeared sullen. "The people of
+England seem inclined to hurrah no more," wrote Greville of one of
+the Queen's earliest public appearances, when "not a hat was raised
+nor a voice heard" among the coldly curious crowd of spectators. But
+the splendid show of her coronation a half-year later awakened great
+enthusiasm--enthusiasm most natural and inevitable. It was youth and
+grace and goodness, all the freshness and the infinite promise of
+spring, that wore the crimson and the ermine and the gold, that sat
+enthroned amid the ancient glories of the Abbey to receive the homage
+of all that was venerable and all that was great in a mighty kingdom,
+and that bowed in meek devotion to receive the solemn consecrating
+blessing of the Primate, according to the holy custom followed in
+England for a thousand years, with little or no variation since the
+time when Dunstan framed the Order of Coronation, closely following
+the model of the Communion Service. Some other features special to
+_this_ coronation heightened the national delight in it. Its
+arrangements evidently had for their chief aim to interest and to
+gratify the people. Instead of the banquet in Westminster Hall,
+which could have been seen only by the privileged and the wealthy, a
+grand procession through London was arranged, including all the
+foreign ambassadors, and proceeding from Buckingham Palace to
+Westminster Abbey by a route two or three miles in length, so that
+the largest possible number of spectators might enjoy the magnificent
+pageant. And the overflowing multitudes whose dense masses lined the
+whole long way, and in whose tumultuous cheering pealing bells and
+sounding trumpets and thundering cannon were almost unheard as the
+young Queen passed through the shouting ranks, formed themselves the
+most impressive spectacle to the half-hostile foreign witnesses, who
+owned that the sight of these rejoicing thousands of freemen was
+grand indeed, and impossible save in that England which, then as now,
+was not greatly loved by its rivals. An element which appealed
+powerfully to the national pride and the national generosity was
+supplied by the presence of the Duke of Wellington and of Marshal
+Soult, his old antagonist, who appeared as French ambassador. Soult,
+as he advanced with the air of a veteran warrior, was followed by
+murmurs of admiring applause, which swelled into more than murmurs
+for the hero of Waterloo bending in homage to his Sovereign. A touch
+of sweet humanity was added to the imposing scene within the Abbey
+through what might have been a painful accident. Lord Rolle, a peer
+between seventy and eighty years of age, stumbling and falling as he
+climbed the steps of the throne, the Queen impulsively moved as if to
+aid him; and when the old man, undismayed, persisted in carrying out
+his act of homage, she asked quickly, "May I not get up and meet
+him?" and descended one or two steps to save him the ascent. The
+ready natural kindliness of the royal action awoke ecstatic applause,
+which could hardly have been heartier had the applauders known how
+true a type that act supplied of Her Majesty's future conduct. She
+has never feared to peril her dignity by descending a step or two
+from her throne, when "sweet mercy, nobility's true badge," has
+seemed to require such a descent. And her queenly dignity has never
+been thereby lessened. "She never ceases to be a Queen," says
+Greville _a propos_ of this scene, "and is always the most charming,
+cheerful, obliging, unaffected Queen in the world."
+
+[Illustration: Elizabeth Fry]
+
+That "the people" were more considered in the arrangements for this
+coronation than they had been on any previous occasion of the sort
+was a circumstance quite in harmony with certain other signs of the
+times. "The night is darkest before the dawn," and amid all the gloom
+which enshrouded the land there could be discerned the stir and
+movement that herald the coming of the day. Men's minds were turning
+more and more to the healing of the world's wounds. Already one great
+humane enterprise had been carried through in the emancipation of the
+slaves in British Colonies; already the vast work of prison reform
+had been well begun, through the saintly Elizabeth Fry, whose life of
+faithful service ended ere the Queen had reigned eight years. The
+very year of Her Majesty's accession was signalised by two noteworthy
+endeavours to put away wrong. We will turn first to that which
+_seems_ the least immediately philanthropic, although the injustice
+which it remedied was trivial in appearance only, since in its
+everyday triviality it weighed most heavily on the most numerous
+class--that of the humble and the poor.
+
+[Illustration: Rowland Hill]
+
+How would the Englishman of to-day endure the former exactions of the
+Post Office? The family letters of sixty years ago, written on the
+largest sheets purchasable, crossed and crammed to the point of
+illegibility, filled with the news of many and many a week, still
+witness of the time when "a letter from London to Brighton cost
+eightpence, to Aberdeen one and threepence-halfpenny, to Belfast one
+and fourpence"; when, "if the letter were written on more than one
+sheet, it came under the operation of a higher scale of charges," and
+when the privilege of franking letters, enjoyed and very largely
+exercised by members of Parliament and members of the Government, had
+the peculiar effect of throwing the cost of the mail service exactly
+on that part of the community which was least able to bear it. The
+result of the injustice was as demoralising as might have been
+expected. The poorer people who desired to have tidings of distant
+friend or relative were driven by the prohibitory rates of postage
+into all sorts of curious, not quite honest devices, to gratify their
+natural desire without being too heavily taxed for it. A brother and
+sister, for instance, unable to afford themselves the costly luxury
+of regular correspondence, would obtain assurance of each other's
+well-being by transmission through the post at stated intervals of
+blank papers duly sealed and addressed: the arrival of the postman
+with a missive of this kind announced to the recipient that all was
+well with the sender, so the unpaid "letter" was cheerfully left on
+the messenger's hands. Such an incident, coming under the notice of
+Mr. Rowland Hill, impressed him with a sense of hardship and wrong in
+the system that bore these fruits; and he set himself with strenuous
+patience to remedy the wrong and the hardship. His scheme of reform
+was worked out and laid before the public early in 1837; in the third
+year of Her Majesty's reign it was first adopted in its entirety,
+with what immense profit to the Government we may partly see when we
+contrast the seventy-six or seventy-seven millions of _paid_ letters
+delivered in the United Kingdom during the last year of the heavy
+postage with the number exceeding a thousand millions, and still
+increasing--delivered yearly during the last decade; while the
+population has not doubled. That the Queen's own letters carried
+postage under the new regime was a fact almost us highly appreciated
+as Her Majesty's voluntary offer at a later date to bear her due
+share of the income tax.
+
+It is well to notice how later Postmasters General, successors of
+Rowland Hill in that important office, have striven further to
+benefit their countrymen. In particular, Henry Fawcett's earnest
+efforts to encourage and aid habits of thrift are worthy of
+remembrance.
+
+Again, it is during the first year of Her Majesty's reign that we
+find Father Mathew, the Irish Capuchin friar, initiating his vast
+crusade against intemperance, and by the charm of his persuasive
+eloquence and unselfish enthusiasm inducing thousands upon thousands
+to forswear the drink-poison that was destroying them. In two years
+he succeeded in enrolling two million five hundred thousand persons
+on the side of sobriety. The permanence of the good Father's
+immediate work was impaired by the superstitions which his poor
+followers associated with it, much against his desire. Not only were
+the medals which he gave as badges to his vowed abstainers regarded
+as infallible talismans from the hand of a saint, but the giver was
+credited with miraculous powers such as only a Divine Being could
+exercise, and which he disclaimed in vain--extravagances too likely
+to discredit his enterprise with more soberly judging persons than
+the imaginative Celts who were his earliest converts. But,
+notwithstanding every drawback, his action was most important, and
+deserves grateful memory. We may see in it the inception of that
+great movement whose indirect influence in reforming social habits
+and restraining excess had at least equalled its direct power for
+good on its pledged adherents. Though it is still unhappily true that
+drunkenness slays its tens of thousands among us, and largely helps
+to people our workhouses, our madhouses, and our gaols, yet the fiend
+walks not now, as it used to do, in unfettered freedom. It is no
+longer a fashionable vice, excused and half approved as the natural
+expression of joviality and good-fellowship; peers and commoners of
+every degree no longer join daily in the "heavy-headed revel" whose
+deep-dyed stain seems to have soaked through every page of our
+last-century annals. And it would appear as though the vice were not
+only held from increasing, but were actually on the decrease. The
+statistics of the last decade show that the consumption of alcohol is
+diminishing, and that of true food-stuffs proportionally rising.
+
+[Illustration: Father Mathew]
+
+There were other enterprises now set on foot, by no means directly
+philanthropic in their aim, which contemplated utility more than
+virtue or justice--enterprises whose vast effects are yet
+unexhausted, and which have so modified the conditions of human
+existence as to make the new reign virtually a new epoch. As to the
+real benefit of these immense changes, opinion is somewhat divided;
+but the majority would doubtless vote in their favour. The first
+railway in England, that between Liverpool and Manchester, had been
+opened in 1830, the day of its opening being made darkly memorable by
+the accident fatal to Mr. Huskisson, as though the new era must be
+inaugurated by a sacrifice. Three years later there was but this one
+railway in England, and one, seven miles long, in Scotland. But in
+1837 the Liverpool and Birmingham line was opened; in 1838 the London
+and Birmingham and the Liverpool and Preston lines, and an Act was
+passed for transmitting the mails by rail; in 1839 there was the
+opening of the London and Croydon line. The ball was set fairly
+rolling, and the supersession of ancient modes of communication was a
+question of time merely. The advance of the new system was much
+accelerated at the outset by the fact that railway enterprise became
+the favourite field for speculation, men being attracted by the
+novelty and tempted by exaggerated prospects of profit; and the mania
+was followed, like other manias, with results largely disastrous to
+the speculators and to commerce. But through years of good fortune
+and of bad fortune the iron network has continued to spread itself,
+until all the land lies embraced in its ramifications; and it is
+spreading still, like some strange organism the one condition of
+whose life is reproduction, knitting the greatest centres of commerce
+with the loneliest and remotest villages that were wont to lie far
+out of the travelled ways of men, and bringing _Ultima Thule_ into
+touch with London.
+
+[Illustration: George Stephenson]
+
+Meanwhile the steam service by sea has advanced almost with that by
+land. In 1838 three steamships crossed the Atlantic between this
+country and New York, the _Great Western_, sailing from Bristol, and
+_Sirius_, from Cork, distinguished themselves by the short passages
+they made,--of fifteen days in the first case, and seventeen days in
+the second,--and by their using steam power _alone_ to effect the
+transit, an experiment that had not been risked before. It was now
+proved feasible, and in a year or two there was set on foot that
+regular steam communication between the New World and the Old, which
+ever since has continued to draw them into always closer connection,
+as the steamers, like swift-darting shuttles, weave their multiplying
+magic lines across the liquid plain between.
+
+The telegraph wires that run beside road and rail, doing the office
+of nerves in transmitting intelligence with thrilling quickness from
+the extremities to the head and from the head to the extremities of
+our State, are now so familiar an object, and their operations, such
+mere matters of every day, that we do not often recall how utterly
+unfamiliar they were sixty years ago, when Wheatstone and Cooke on
+this side the Atlantic, and Morse on the other, were devising their
+methods for giving signals and sounding alarms in distant places by
+means of electric currents transmitted through metallic circuits.
+Submarine telegraphy lay undreamed of in the future, land telegraphy
+was but just gaining hearing as a practicable improvement, when the
+crown was set on Her Majesty's head amid all that pomp and ceremony
+at Westminster. A modern English imagination is quite unequal to the
+task of realising the manifold hindrances that beset human
+intercourse at that day, when a journey by coach between places as
+important and as little remote from each other as Leeds and Newcastle
+occupied sixteen mortal hours, with changes of horses and stoppages
+for meals on the road, and when letters, unless forwarded by an
+"express" messenger at heavy cost, tarried longer on the way than
+even did passengers; while some prudent dwellers in the country
+deemed it well to set their affairs in order and make their wills
+before embarking on the untried perils of a journey up to town. These
+days are well within the memory of many yet living; but if the newer
+generations that have arisen during the present reign would
+understand what it is to be hampered in their movements and their
+correspondence as were their fathers, they must seek the remoter and
+more savage quarters of Europe, the less travelled portions of
+America or of half-explored Australia; they must plunge into Asian or
+African wilds, untouched by civilisation, where as yet there runs not
+the iron horse, worker of greater marvels than the wizard steeds of
+fairy fable, that could, transport a single favoured rider over wide
+distances in little time. The subjugated, serviceable nature-power
+Steam, with its fellow-servant the tamed and tutored Lightning, has
+wonderfully contracted distance during these fifty years, making the
+earth, once so vast to human imagination, appear as a globe shrunken
+to a tenth of its ancient size, and bringing nations divided by half
+the surface of that globe almost within sound of each other's speech.
+
+[Illustration: Wheatstone.]
+
+That there is damage as well as profit in all these increased
+facilities of intercourse must be apparent, since there is evil as
+well as good in the human world, and increased freedom of
+communication implies freer communication of the evil as of the good.
+But we may well hope that the cause of true upward progress will be
+most served by the vast inevitable changes which, as they draw all
+peoples nearer together, must deepen and strengthen the sense of
+human brotherhood, and, as they bring the deeds of all within the
+knowledge of all, must consume by an intolerable blaze of light the
+once secret iniquities and oppressions abhorrent to the universal
+conscience of mankind. The public conscience in these realms at least
+is better informed and more sensitive than it was in the year of
+William IV's death and of Victoria's accession.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+STORM AND SUNSHINE.
+
+[Illustration: St. James's Palace.]
+
+The beneficent changes we have briefly described were but just
+inaugurated, and their possible power for good was as yet hardly
+divined, when the young Queen entered into that marriage which we may
+well deem the happiest action of her life, and the most fruitful of
+good to her people, looking to the extraordinary character of the
+husband of her choice, and to the unobtrusive but always advantageous
+influence which his great and wise spirit exercised on our national
+life.
+
+The marriage had been anxiously desired, and the way for it
+judiciously prepared, but it was in no sense forced on either of the
+contracting parties by their elders who so desired it. Prince Albert
+of Saxe-Coburg, second son of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, the
+Queen's maternal uncle, was nearly of an age with his royal cousin;
+he had already, young as he was, given evidence of a rare superiority
+of nature; he had been excellently trained; and there is no doubt
+that Leopold, king of the Belgians, his uncle, and the Queen's, did
+most earnestly desire to see the young heiress of the British throne,
+for whom he had a peculiar tenderness, united to the one person whose
+position and whose character combined to point him out as the fit
+partner for her high and difficult destinies. What tact, what
+patience, and what power of self-suppression the Queen of England's
+husband would need to exercise, no one could better judge than
+Leopold, the widowed husband of Princess Charlotte; no one could more
+fully have exemplified these qualities than the prince in whom
+Leopold's penetration divined them.
+
+The cousins had already met, in 1836, when their mutual attraction
+had been sufficiently strong; and in 1839, when Prince Albert, with
+his elder brother Ernest, was again visiting England, the impression
+already produced became ineffaceably deep. The Queen, whom her great
+rank compelled to take the initiative, was not very long in making up
+her mind when and how to act. Her favoured suitor himself, writing to
+a dear relative, relates how she performed the trying task, inviting
+him to render her intensely happy by making "the _sacrifice_ of
+sharing her life with her, for she said she looked on it as a
+sacrifice. The joyous openness with which she told me this enchanted
+me, and I was quite carried away by it." This was on October 15th;
+nearly six weeks after, on November 23rd, she made to her assembled
+Privy Council the formal declaration of her intended marriage. There
+is something particularly touching in even the driest description of
+this scene; the betrothed bride wearing a simple morning dress,
+having on her arm a bracelet containing Prince Albert's portrait,
+which helped to give her courage; her voice, as she read the
+declaration clear, sweet, and penetrating as ever, but her hands
+trembling so excessively that it was surprising she could read the
+paper she held. It was a trying task, but not so difficult as that
+which had devolved on her a short time before, when, in virtue of her
+sovereign rank, she had first to speak the words of fate that bound
+her to her suitor.
+
+[Illustration: Prince Albert.]
+
+Endowed with every charm of person, mind, and manner that can win and
+keep affection, Prince Albert was able, in marrying the Queen, who
+loved him and whom he loved, to secure for her a happiness rare in
+any rank, rarest of all on the cold heights of royalty. This was not
+all; he was the worthy partner of her greatness. Himself highly
+cultivated in every sense, he watched with keenest interest over the
+advance of all cultivation in the land of his adoption, and
+identified himself with every movement to improve its condition. His
+was the soul of a statesman--wide, lofty, far-seeing, patient;
+surveying all great things, disdaining no small things, but with
+tireless industry pursuing after all necessary knowledge. Add to
+these intellectual excellences the moral graces of ideal purity of
+life, chivalrous faithfulness of heart, magnanimous self-suppression,
+and fervent piety, and we have a slight outline of a character which,
+in the order of Providence, acted very strongly and with a still
+living force on the destinies of nineteenth-century England. The
+Queen had good reasons for the feeling of "confidence and comfort"
+that shone in the glance she turned on her bridegroom as they walked
+away, man and wife at last, from the altar of the Chapel Royal, on
+February 10th, 1840. The union she then entered into immeasurably
+enhanced her popularity, and strengthened her position as surely as
+it expanded her nature. Not many years elapsed before Sir Robert Peel
+could tell her that, in spite of the inroads of democracy, the
+monarchy had never been safer, nor had any sovereign been so beloved,
+because "the Queen's domestic life was so happy, and its example so
+good." Only the Searcher of hearts knoweth how great has been the
+holy power of a pure, fair, and noble example constantly shining in
+the high places of the land.
+
+[Illustration: The Queen in her Wedding-Dress. _After the Picture by_
+Drummond.]
+
+It was hinted by the would-be wise, in the early days of Her
+Majesty's married life, that it would be idle to look for the royally
+maternal feeling of an Elizabeth towards her people in a wedded
+constitutional sovereign. The judgment was a mistake. The formal
+limitations of our Queen's prerogative, sedulously as she has
+respected them, have never destroyed her sense of responsibility;
+wifehood and motherhood have not contracted her sympathies, but have
+deepened and widened them. The very sorrows of her domestic life have
+knit her in fellowship with other mourners. No great calamity can
+befall her humblest subjects, and she hear of it, but there comes the
+answering flash of tender pity. She is more truly the mother of her
+people, having walked on a level with them, and with "Love, who is of
+the valley," than if she had chosen to dwell alone and aloof.
+
+[Illustration: Sir Robert Peel.]
+
+For some years after her marriage the Queen's private life shows like
+a little isle of brightness in the midst of a stormy sea. Within and
+without our borders there was small prospect of settled peace at the
+very time of that marriage. We have said that Lord Melbourne was
+still Premier; but he and his Ministry had resigned office in the
+previous May, and had only come back to it in consequence of a
+curious misunderstanding known as "the Bedchamber difficulty." Sir
+Robert Peel, who was summoned to form a Ministry on Melbourne's
+defeat and resignation, had asked from Her Majesty the dismissal of
+two ladies of her household, the wives of prominent members of the
+departing Whig Government; but his request conveyed to her mind the
+sense that he designed to deprive her of all her actual attendants,
+and against this imagined proposal she set herself energetically.
+"She could not consent to a course which she conceived to be contrary
+to usage, and which was repugnant to her feelings." Peel on his part
+remained firm in his opinion as to the real necessity for the change
+which he had advocated. From the deadlock produced by mere
+misunderstanding there seemed at the time only one way of escaping;
+the defeated Whig Government returned to office. But Ministers who
+resumed power only because, "as gentlemen," they felt bound to do so,
+had little chance of retaining it. In September 1841, Lord Melbourne
+was superseded in the premiership by Sir Robert Peel, and then gave a
+final proof how single-minded was his loyal devotion by advising the
+new Prime Minister as to the tone and style likely to commend him to
+their royal mistress--a tone of clear straightforwardness. "The
+Queen," said Melbourne--who knew of what he was speaking, if any
+statesman then did--"is not conceited; she is aware there are many
+things she cannot understand, and likes them explained to her
+elementarily, not at length and in detail, but shortly and clearly."
+The counsel was given and was accepted with equal good feeling, such
+as was honourable to all concerned; and the Sovereign learned, as
+years went on, to repose a singular confidence in the Minister with
+whom her first relations had been so unpropitious, but whose real
+honesty, ability, and loyalty soon approved themselves to her clear
+perceptions, which no prejudice has long been able to obscure.
+
+We are told that in later years Her Majesty referred to the
+disagreeable incident we have just related as one that could not have
+occurred, if she had had beside her Prince Albert "to talk to and
+employ in explaining matters," while she refused the suggestion that
+her impulsive resistance had been advised by any one about her. "It
+was entirely my own foolishness," [Footnote] she is said to have
+added--words breathing that perfect simplicity of candour which has
+always been one of her most strongly marked characteristics.
+
+[Footnote: "Greville Memoirs," Third Part, vol. i.]
+
+Though the matter caused a great sensation at the time, and gave rise
+to some dismal prophesyings, it was of no permanent importance, and
+is chiefly noted here because it throws a strong light on Her
+Majesty's need of such an ever-present aid as she had now secured in
+the husband wise beyond his years, who well understood his
+constitutional position, and was resolute to keep within it, avoiding
+entanglement with any party, and fulfilling with equal impartiality
+and ability the duties of private secretary to his Sovereign-wife.
+
+The Melbourne Ministry had had to contend with difficulties
+sufficiently serious, and of these the grimmest and greatest remained
+still unsettled. At the outset of the reign a rebellion in Canada had
+required strong repression; and we had taken the first step on a bad
+road by entering into those disputes as to our right to force the
+opium traffic on China, which soon involved us in a disastrously
+successful war with that country. On the other hand, our Indian
+Government had begun an un-called-for interference with the affairs
+of Afghanistan, which, successful at first, resulted in a series of
+humiliating reverses to our arms, culminating in one of the most
+terrible disasters that have ever befallen a British force--the
+wholesale massacre of General Elphinstone's defeated and retreating
+army on its passage through the terrible mountain gorge known as the
+Pass of Koord Cabul. It was on January 13th, 1842, that the single
+survivor of this massacre appeared, a half-fainting man, drooping
+over the neck of his wearied pony, before the fort of Jellalabad,
+which General Sale still held for the English. He only was "escaped
+alone" to tell the hideous tale. The ill-advised and ill-managed
+enterprise which thus terminated had extended over more than three
+years, had cost us many noble lives, in particular that of the
+much-lamented Alexander Burnes, had condemned many English women and
+children to a long and cruel captivity among the savage foe, and had
+absolutely failed as to the object for which it was undertaken--the
+instalment of Shah Soojah, a mere British tool, as ruler of
+Afghanistan, in place of the chief desired by the Afghan people, Dost
+Mahomed. When the disasters to our arms had been retrieved, as
+retrieved they were with exemplary promptness, and when the surviving
+prisoners were redeemed from their hard captivity, it was deemed
+sound policy for us to attempt no longer to "force a sovereign on a
+reluctant people," and to remain content with that limit which
+"nature appears to have assigned" to our Indian empire on its
+north-western border. Later adventures in the same field have not
+resulted so happily as to prove that these views were incorrect. Our
+prestige was seriously damaged in Hindostan by this first Afghan war,
+and was only partially re-established in the campaign against the
+Sikhs several years later, despite the dramatic grandeur of that
+"piece of Indian history" which resulted in our annexation of the
+Punjaub in 1846--a solid advantage balanced by the unpleasant fact
+that English soldiers had been proved not invincible by natives.
+
+It will thus appear that there was not too much that was glorious or
+encouraging in our external affairs in these early years; but the
+internal condition of the country was never less reassuring. The
+general discontent of the English lower orders was taking shape as
+Chartism--a movement which could not have arisen but for the fierce
+suspicion with which the working classes had learnt to regard those
+who seemed their superiors in wealth, in rank, or in political power,
+and which the higher orders retaliated in dislike and distrust of the
+labouring population, whom they considered as seditious enemies of
+order and property. The demon of class hatred was never more alive
+and busy than in the decade which terminated in 1848.
+
+"The Charter," which was the watchword of hope to so many, and the
+very war-note of discord to many more, comprised six points, of which
+some at least were sufficiently absurd, while others have virtually
+passed into law, quietly and naturally, in due course of time; and if
+the universal Age of Gold which ignorant Chartists looked for has not
+ensued, at least the anarchy and ruin which their opponents
+associated with the dreaded scheme are equally non-existent. So fast
+has the time moved that there is now a little difficulty in
+understanding the passionate hopes with which the Charter was
+associated on the one side, and the panic which it inspired on the
+other; and there is much to move wondering compassion in the profound
+ignorance which those hopes betrayed, and the not inferior misery
+amid which they were cherished. Few persons are now so credulous as
+to expect that annual Parliaments or stipendiary members would insure
+the universal reign of peace and justice; the people have already
+found that vote by ballot and suffrage all but universal have neither
+equalised wealth nor abrogated greed and iniquity; and though there
+be some dreamers in our midst to-day who look for wonderful
+transformations of society to follow on possible reforms, there is
+not even in these dreamy schemes the same amazing disproportion of
+means to be employed and end to be attained as characterised the
+Chartist delusion.
+
+[Illustration: Daniel O'Connell.]
+
+In Ireland men were reposing unbounded faith in another sort of
+political panacea for every personal and social evil--the Repeal of
+the Union with England, advocated by Daniel O'Connell, with all the
+power of his passionate Celtic eloquence, and supported by all his
+extraordinary personal influence. Apparently he hoped to carry this
+agitation to the same triumphant issue as that for Catholic
+emancipation, in which he had taken a conspicuous part; but the new
+movement did not, like the old one, appeal immediately and plausibly
+to the English sense of fair play and natural justice. A competent
+and not unfriendly observer has remarked that O'Connell's "theory and
+policy were that Ireland was to be saved by a dictatorship entrusted
+to himself." Whether any salvation for the unhappy land did lie in
+such a dictatorship was a point on which opinion might well be
+divided. English opinion was massively hostile to it; but for years
+all the political enthusiasm of Ireland centred in O'Connell and the
+cause he upheld. The country might be on the brink of ruin and
+starvation, but the peril seemed forgotten while the dream lasted.
+The agitator was wont to refer to the Queen in terms of extravagant
+loyalty, and it would seem that the feeling was largely shared by his
+followers. However futile and vainglorious his scheme and methods may
+appear, we must not deny to him a distinction, rare indeed among
+Irish agitators, of having steadily disclaimed violence and advocated
+orderly and peaceable proceedings. He thought his cause would be
+injured, and not advanced, by such outrages as before and since his
+day have too often disgraced party warfare in Ireland. His favourite
+maxim was that "the man who commits a crime gives strength to the
+enemy." This opinion was not heartily endorsed by all his followers.
+When it became clear that his dislike of physical force was real,
+when he did not defy the Government, at last stirred into hostile
+action by the demonstrations he organised, there was an end of his
+power over the fiercer spirits whom he had roused against the rule of
+"the Saxon"--luckless phrase with which he had enriched the
+Anglo-Irish controversy, and misleading as luckless. O'Connell died,
+a broken and disappointed man, on his way to Rome in 1847; but the
+spirit he had raised and could not rule did not die with him, and the
+younger, more turbulent leaders, who had outbid him for popular
+approval, continued their anti-English warfare with growing zeal
+until the year of fate 1848.
+
+Even the Principality of Wales had its own peculiar form of
+agitation, sometimes accompanied by outrage, during these wild
+opening years. The farmers and labourers in Wales were unprosperous
+and poor, and in the season of their adversity they found turnpikes
+and tolls multiplying on their public roads. They resented what
+appeared a cruel imposition with wrathful impatience, and ere long
+gave expression to their anger in wild deeds. A text of Scripture
+suggested to them a fantastic form of riot. They found that it was
+said of old to Rebecca, "Let thy seed possess the gate of those which
+hate them," and ere long "Rebecca and her children," men masking in
+women's clothes, made fierce war by night on the "gates" they
+detested, destroying the turnpikes and driving out their keepers.
+These raids were not always bloodless. The Government succeeded in
+repressing the rioting, and then, finding that a real grievance had
+caused it, did away with the oppressive tolls, and dealt not too
+hardly with the captured offenders; leniency which soon restored
+Wales to tranquillity.
+
+[Illustration: Richard Cobden.]
+
+[Illustration: John Bright.]
+
+A peaceful, strictly constitutional, and finally successful agitation
+ran its steady course in England for several years contemporaneously
+with those we have already enumerated. The Anti-Corn-Law League, with
+which the names of Cobden and Bright are united as closely as those
+two distinguished men were united in friendship, had in 1838 found a
+centre eminently favourable to its operations in Manchester. Its
+leaders were able, well-informed, and upright men, profoundly
+convinced that their cause was just, and that the welfare of the
+people was involved in their success or failure. They were men of the
+middle class, acquainted intimately with the needs and doings of the
+trading community to which they belonged, and therefore at once
+better qualified to argue on questions affecting commerce, and less
+directly interested in the prosperity of agriculture, than the more
+aristocratic leaders of the nation. Both persuasive and successful
+speakers, one of them supremely eloquent, they were able to interest
+even the lowest populace in questions of political economy, and to
+make Free Trade in Corn the idol of popular passion. Their mode of
+agitation was eminently reasonable and wise; but it _was_ an
+agitation, exciting wild enthusiasm and fierce opposition, and must
+be reckoned not among the forces tending to quiet, but among those
+that aroused anxious care in the first nine years of the reign. And
+it was a terrible calamity that at last placed victory within their
+grasp. The blight on the potato first showed itself in 1845--a new,
+undreamed-of disaster, probably owing to the long succession of
+unfavourable seasons. And the potato blight meant almost certainly
+famine in Ireland, where perhaps three-fourths of the population had
+no food but this root. The food supply of a whole nation seemed on
+the point of being cut off. A loud demand was made for "the opening
+of the ports." By existing laws the ports admitted foreign grain
+tinder import duties varying in severity inversely with the
+fluctuating price of home-grown grain; thus a certain high level in
+the cost of corn was artificially maintained. These regulations,
+though framed for the protection of the native producer, did not bear
+so heavily on the consumer as the law of 1815 which they replaced;
+and the principle represented by them had a large following in the
+country. But now the argument from famine proved potent to decide the
+wavering convictions of some who had long been identified with the
+cause of Protection. The champions of Free Trade were sure of triumph
+when Sir Robert Peel became one of their converts; and the Corn Bill
+which he carried in the June of 1846, granting with some little
+reserve and delay the reforms which the Anti-Corn-Law League had been
+formed to secure, brought that powerful association to a quiet end.
+But the threatening Irish famine and the growing Irish disturbances
+remained, to embarrass the Ministry of Lord John Russell, which came
+into power within less than a week of that great success of the Tory
+Minister, defeated on a question of Irish polity on the very day when
+his Corn Bill received the assent of the House of Lords.
+
+[Illustration: Lord John Russell.]
+
+We must not omit, as in passing we chronicle this singular fortune of
+a great Minister, to notice the grief with which Her Majesty viewed
+this turn of events. Amid all the anxiety of the period, amid her
+distress at the cruel sufferings of her servants in India, in
+Britain, in Ireland, and her care for their relief, she had had two
+sources of consolation: the pure and simple bliss of her home-life,
+and the assistance of two most valued counsellors--her husband and
+her Prime Minister. One was inseparably at her side, but one must now
+leave it; and she and the Prince met their inevitable loss with the
+dignified outward acquiescence that was fitting, but with sorrow not
+less real. The Queen would have bestowed on Peel as distinguished an
+honour as she could confer--the Order of the Garter; Peel deemed it
+best to decline it gratefully. "He was from the people and of the
+people," and wished so to remain, content if his Queen could say,
+"You have been a faithful servant, and have done your duty to the
+country and to myself."
+
+In hapless Ireland, torn by agitation and scourged by pestilence and
+famine, the general misery had reached a point where no fiscal
+measures, however wise, could at once alleviate it. The potato famine
+held on its dreadful way, and the darkest moment of Irish history
+seemed reached in the year when one hundred and seventy thousand
+persons perished in that island by hunger or hunger-bred fever. The
+new plague affected Great Britain also; but its suffering was
+completely overshadowed by the enormous bulk of Irish woe, which the
+utmost lavishness of charity seemed scarcely to lessen. That there
+should be turbulence and even violence accompanying all this
+wretchedness was no way surprising; but in most men's minds the
+wretchedness held the larger place, and deservedly so, for the
+sedition, when ripe enough, was dealt with sharply, though not
+mercilessly, in such a way that ere long all reasonable dread of a
+civil war being added to the other horrors, had passed away; and the
+country had leisure for such recovery as was possible to a land so
+desolate.
+
+[Illustration: Thomas Chalmers.]
+
+There was contemporaneous distress enough and to spare in Great
+Britain: failures in Lancashire alone to the amount of L16,000,000;
+failures equally heavy in Birmingham, Glasgow, and other great towns;
+capital was absorbed by the mad speculations in railway shares; and
+even Heaven's gift of an abundant harvest, by at once lowering the
+price of corn, helped to depress commerce. Many banks stopped
+payment, and even the Bank of England seemed imperilled, saving
+itself only by adopting a bold line of policy advised by Government.
+At the same time, the Chartist movement was gathering the strength
+which was to expend itself in the futile demonstrations of 1848.
+
+[Illustration: John Henry Newman. _From a photograph by_ Mr. H. J.
+Whitlock, _Birmingham_.]
+
+But as if it were not enough for every department of political or
+commercial life to be so seriously affected, there was now arising
+within the English National Church itself a singular movement,
+destined to affect the religious history of the land as powerfully,
+if not as beneficially, as did the Evangelical revival of the last
+century; and the National Kirk of Scotland, after long and stern
+contention on the crucial point of civil control in things spiritual,
+was ready for that rending in twain from which arose the Free Kirk;
+while other religious bodies were torn by the same keen spirit of
+strife, the same revolt against ancient order, as that which was
+distracting the world of politics. The bitterness of the disruption
+in Scotland is well-nigh exhausted, though the controversy enlisted
+at the time all the fervid power of a Chalmers; men honour the memory
+of the champions, while hoping to see the once sharp differences
+composed for ever. But the "Catholic Revival," initiated under the
+leadership of Newman, Pusey, and Keble, has proved to be no transient
+disturbance: and no figure has in relation to the Church history of
+the half-century the same portentous importance as that of John Henry
+Newman, whose powerful magnetism, as it attracted or repelled, drew
+men towards Romanism or drove them towards Rationalism, his logical
+art, made more impressive by the noble eloquence with which he
+sometimes adorned it, seeming to leave those who came under his spell
+no choice between the two extremes. When he finally decided on
+withdrawing himself from the Anglican and giving in his adhesion to
+the Roman communion, he set an example that has not yet ceased to be
+imitated, to the incalculable damage of the English Establishment.
+Happily the massive Nonconformity of the country was hardly touched
+either by his influence or his example.
+
+It is pleasant to turn from scenes of doubt and discord, of strife
+and sorrow, to that bright domestic life which was now vouchsafed to
+the Sovereign, as if in direct compensation for the storms that raved
+and beat outside her home--a home now brightened by the presence of
+five joyous, healthy children. It is a charming picture of the royal
+pair and of the manner of life in the palace--styled by one foreigner
+"the one really pleasant, comfortable English house, in which one
+feels at one's ease "--that is given us by the finely discerning
+Mendelssohn, invited by the Prince to "come and try his organ" before
+leaving England in 1842, on which occasion the Queen joined her
+husband and his guest at the instrument, enjoying and aiding in their
+musical performance, and singing, "quite faultlessly and with
+charming feeling and expression," a song written by the great master
+who was now paying a farewell visit, with nothing of ceremony in it,
+to English royalty. With a few touches Mendelssohn makes us see the
+delightful ease and comfort of this royal interior, the Queen
+gathering up the sheets of music strewn by the wind over the
+floor--the Prince cleverly managing the organ-stops so as to suit the
+master while he played--the mighty rocking-horse and the two
+birdcages beside the music-laden piano in the Queen's own
+sitting-room, beautiful with pictures and richly-bound books--the
+pretty difficulty about her finding some of Mendelssohn's own songs
+to sing to him, since her music was packed up and taken away to
+Claremont--her naive confession that she had been "so frightened" at
+singing before the master,--all are chronicled with not less zest and
+affection than the graceful gift of a valuable ring "as a
+remembrance" to the artist from the Queen, through Prince Albert. It
+is a much more pleasing impression that we thus obtain than can be
+given by details of State ceremonial and visits from other
+sovereigns. Of these last there was no lack, and the princely
+visitors were entertained with all due pomp and splendour; but
+neither on account of these costly entertainments nor on behalf of
+the royal children did the Sovereign ask the nation for so much as a
+shilling, the Civil List sufficing for every unlooked-for outlay, now
+that Prince Albert, by dint of persevering effort, had succeeded in
+putting the arrangements of the royal household on a satisfactory
+footing, sweeping away a vast number of time-honoured, thriftless
+expenses, and rendering a wise and generous economy possible.
+
+[Illustration: Balmoral.]
+
+Formerly the great officers of the Crown were charged with the
+oversight of the commonest domestic business of the palace. Being
+non-resident, these overseers did no overseeing, and the actual
+servants were practically masterless. Hence arose numberless
+vexations and extravagant hindrances. In 1843 this objectionable form
+of the division of labour was brought to an end, and one Master of
+the household who did his work replaced the many officials who, by a
+fiction of etiquette, had been formerly supposed to do everything
+while they did and could do nothing. The long-needed reform could not
+but be pleasing to the Queen, being quite in harmony with the upright
+principles that had always ruled her conduct, she having begun her
+reign by paying off the debts of her dead father--debts contracted
+not in her lifetime nor on her account, and which a spirit less
+purely honourable might therefore have declined to recognise.
+
+[Illustration: Osborne House.]
+
+Thanks to the Prince's able management, the royal pair found it in
+their power to purchase for themselves the estate of Osborne, in the
+Isle of Wight--a charming retreat all their own, which they could
+adorn for their delight with no thought of the thronging public;
+where the Prince could farm and build and garden to his heart's
+content, and all could escape from the stately restraints of their
+burdensome rank, and from "the bitterness people create for
+themselves in London." Before very long they found for themselves
+that Highland holiday home of Balmoral which was to be so peculiarly
+dear, and in which Her Majesty--whose first visit to the _then_
+discontented Scotland was deemed quite a risky experiment--was so
+completely to win for herself the admiring love of her Scottish
+subjects.
+
+At Balmoral Mr. Greville saw them some little time after their
+acquisition of the place, and witnesses to the "simplicity and ease"
+with which they lived, to the gay good humour that pervaded their
+circle--"the Queen running in and out of the house all day long,
+often going out alone, walking into the cottages, sitting down and
+chatting with the old women," the Prince free from trammels of
+etiquette, showing what native charm of manner and what high,
+cultivated intelligence were really his. The impression is identical
+with that conveyed by Her Majesty's published Journal of that
+Highland life; and, though lacking the many graceful details of that
+record, the testimony has its own value. Happy indeed was the
+Sovereign for whom the black cloud of those years showed such a
+silver lining! Other potentates were less happy, both as regarded
+their private blessings and their public fortunes.
+
+It would be agreeable to English feelings, but not altogether
+consonant with historic truth, if we could leave unnoticed the
+scandalous attempts on the Queen's life which marked the earliest
+period of her reign and have been renewed in later days. The first
+attacks were by far of the most alarming character, but Her Majesty,
+whose escape on one occasion seemed due only to her husband's prompt
+action, never betrayed any agitation or alarm; and her dauntless
+bearing, and the care for others which she manifested by dispensing
+with the presence of her usual lady attendants when she anticipated
+one of these assaults, immensely increased the already high esteem in
+which her people held her. The first assailant, a half-crazy lad of
+low station named Oxford, was shut up in a lunatic asylum. For the
+second, a man named Francis, the same plea could not be urged; but
+the death-sentence he had incurred was commuted to transportation for
+life. Almost immediately a deformed lad called Bean followed the
+example of Francis. Her Majesty, who had been very earnest to save
+the life of the miserable beings attacking her, desired an alteration
+in the law as to such assaults; and their penalty was fixed at seven
+years' transportation, or imprisonment not exceeding three years, to
+which the court was empowered to add a moderate number of
+whippings--punishments having no heroic fascination about them, like
+that which for heated and shallow brains invested the hideous doom of
+"traitors." The expedient proved in a measure successful, none of the
+later assaults, discreditable as they are, betraying a really
+murderous intention. It has been remarked as a noteworthy
+circumstance that popular English monarchs have been more exposed to
+such dangers than others who were cordially disliked. It is not
+hatred that has prompted these assassins so much as imbecile vanity
+and the passion for notoriety, misleading an obscure coxcomb to think
+
+                        "His glory would be great
+   According to _her_ greatness whom he quenched."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+FRANCE AND ENGLAND.
+
+[Illustration: Buckingham Palace.]
+
+It is  necessary now to look at the relations of our Government with
+other nations, and in particular with France, whose fortunes just at
+this time had a clearly traceable effect on our own.
+
+For several years the Court of England had been on terms of
+unprecedented cordiality with the French Court. The Queen had
+personally visited King Louis Philippe at the Chateau d'Eu--an event
+which we must go back as far as the days of Henry VIII to
+parallel--and had contracted a warm friendship for certain members of
+his family, in particular for the Queen, Marie Amelie, for the
+widowed Duchess of Orleans, a maternal cousin of Prince Albert, and
+for the perfect Louise, the truthful, unselfish second wife of
+Leopold, King of the Belgians, and daughter of the King of the
+French. It was a rude shock to all the warm feelings which our Queen,
+herself transparently honest, had learnt to cherish for her royal
+friends when the French King and his Minister, Guizot, entered into
+that fatal intrigue of theirs, "the Spanish marriages." Isabella, the
+young Queen of Spain, and her sister and heiress presumptive, Louisa,
+were yet unmarried at the time of the visit to the Chateau d'Eu; and
+about that time an undertaking was given by the French to the English
+Government that the Infanta Louisa should not marry a French prince
+until her sister, the actual Queen, "should be married and have
+children." The possible union of the crowns of France and Spain was
+known for a dream of French ambition, and was equally well known to
+be an object of dislike and dread to other European Powers. The
+engagement which the French King had now given seemed therefore well
+calculated to disarm suspicion and promote peace; but the one was
+reawakened and the other endangered when it became known that he had
+so used his power over the Spanish court as to procure that the royal
+sisters of Spain should be married on one day--Isabella, the Queen,
+to the most unfit and uncongenial of all the possible candidates for
+her hand; Louisa to King Louis Philippe's son, the Duke of
+Montpensier. The transaction on the face of it was far from
+respectable, since the credit and happiness of the young Spanish
+Queen seemed to have hardly entered into the consideration of those
+who arranged for her the _mariage de convenance_ into which she was
+led blindfold; but when regarded as a violation of good faith it was
+additionally displeasing. Queen Victoria, to whom the scheme was
+imparted only when it was ripe for execution, through her personal
+friend Louise, Queen of the Belgians, replied to the communication in
+a tone of earnest, dignified remonstrance; but apparently the King
+was now too thoroughly committed to his scheme to be deterred by any
+reasoning or reproaches, and the tragical farce was played out. It
+had no good results for France; England was chilled and alienated,
+but the Spanish crown never devolved on the Duchess of Montpensier.
+Within two little years from her marriage that princess and all the
+French royal family fled from France, so hastily that they had
+scarcely money enough to provide for their journey, and appeared in
+England as fugitives, to be aided and protected by the Queen, who
+forgot all political resentment, and remembered only her personal
+regard for these fallen princes.
+
+The overthrow of the Orleans dynasty in 1848 was a complete surprise,
+and men have never ceased to see something disgraceful in its amazing
+suddenness. Here was a great king, respected for wisdom and daring,
+and supposed to understand at every point the character of the land
+he ruled, his power appearing unshaken, while it was known to be
+backed with an army one hundred thousand strong. And almost without
+warning a whirlwind of insurrection against this solid power and this
+able ruler broke out, and in a few wild hours swept the whole fabric
+into chaos. Nothing caused more surprise at the moment than the
+extreme bitterness of animosity which the insurgents manifested
+towards the king's person, unless it were the tameness with which he
+submitted to his fate and the precipitancy of his flight. There was
+something rotten in the state of things, men said, which could thus
+dissolve, crushed like a swollen fungus by a casual foot. And indeed,
+whether with perfect justice or not, Louis Philippe's Administration
+had come to be deemed corrupt some time ere his fall. The free-spoken
+Parisians had openly flouted it as such: witness a mock advertisement
+placarded in the streets: "_A nettoyer, deux Chambres et une Cour_":
+"Two _Chambers_ and a _Court_ to clean." A French Government that had
+been crafty, but not crafty enough to conceal the fact, that was
+rather contemned for plotting than dreaded for unscrupulous energy,
+was already in peril. The still unsubdued revolutionary spirit,
+working under the smooth surface of French society, was the element
+which accomplished the destruction of this discredited Government.
+
+The outbreak in France acted like a spark in a powder magazine; ere
+long great part of Europe was shaken by the second great
+revolutionary upheaval, when potentates seemed falling and ancient
+dynasties crumbling on all sides--a period of eager hope to many,
+followed by despair when the reaction set in, accompanied in too many
+places by repressive measures of pitiless severity. The contemptuous
+feeling with which many Englishmen were wont to view such Continental
+troubles is well embodied in the lines which Tennyson put into the
+mouth of one of his characters, speaking of France:
+
+   "Yonder, whiff! there comes a sudden heat,
+   The gravest citizen seems to lose his head,
+   The king is scared, the soldier will not fight.
+   The little boys begin to shoot and stab,
+   A kingdom topples over with a shriek
+   Like an old woman, and down rolls the world
+   In mock-heroics--
+   Revolts, republics, revolutions, most
+   No graver than a schoolboy's barring out;
+   Too comic for the solemn things they are,
+   Too solemn for the comic touches in them."
+
+In this wild year 1848, which saw Revolution running riot on the
+Continent, England too had its share of troubles not less painfully
+ridiculous; the insurrection headed by Smith O'Brien, a chief of the
+"Young Ireland" party, coming to an inglorious end in the affray
+that took place at "the widow McCormick's cabbage-garden,
+Ballingarry," in the month of July; the greatly dreaded Chartist
+demonstration at Kennington Common on April 10th by its conspicuous
+failure having done much to damp the hopes and spirits of the party
+of disorder generally.
+
+It would be easy now to laugh at the frustrated designs of the
+Chartist leaders and at the sort of panic they aroused in London: the
+vast procession, which was to have marched in military order to
+overawe Parliament, resolving itself into a confused rabble easily
+dispersed by the police, and the monster petition, that should  have
+numbered six million signatures, transported piecemeal to the House,
+and there found to have but two million names appended, many
+fictitious; the Chartist leader, completely cowed, thanking the Home
+Office for its lenient treatment; or, on the other hand, London and
+its peaceful inhabitants, distracted with wild rumours of combat and
+bloodshed, apprehending a repetition of Parisian madnesses, and
+unaware how thoroughly the Duke of Wellington, entrusted with the
+defence of the capital and its important buildings, had carried out
+all needful arrangements. The two hundred thousand special constables
+sworn in to aid in maintaining law and order on that day were visible
+enough, and had their utility in conveying a certain impression of
+safety; the troops whom the veteran commander held in readiness were
+kept out of sight till wanted. These rebellious spirits imagining
+themselves formidable and free, when caught in an invisible iron
+network--these terrified citizens, protected all unconsciously to
+themselves against the impotent foe whom they dreaded--might furnish
+food for mirth if we did not remember the real, deep, and widespread
+misery which found inarticulate but piteous expression in the
+movement now coming to confusion under the firm assertion of
+necessary authority. The disturbances must needs be quieted; but
+hitherto it has been the glory of our Victorian statesmen to have
+understood that the grievances which caused them must also be dealt
+with. Now that all which could be deemed wise and good in Chartist
+demands has been conceded, orderly and quietly, the name "Chartism"
+has utterly lost its dread significance.
+
+[Illustration: Napoleon III.]
+
+No cruelly vindictive measures of reprisal followed the collapse of
+the agitation; none indeed were needed. The revolutionary epidemic,
+which had spread hitherward from France, found our body politic in
+too sound a condition, and could not fasten on it; and the subsequent
+convulsions which shook our great neighbour hardly called forth an
+answering thrill in England. The strange transactions of December
+1851, by means of which Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Prince-President of
+the new French republic, succeeded in overthrowing that republic and
+replacing it by an empire of which he was the head, did indeed excite
+displeasure and distrust in many minds; and though it was believed
+that his high-handed proceedings had averted much disorder, the
+English Government was not prepared at once to accept all the
+proffered explanations of French diplomacy; but the then foreign
+Secretary, Lord Palmerston, by the rash proclamation of his
+individual approval, committed the Ministry of which he was one to a
+recognition of the _de facto_ Monarch of France. This step was but
+the last of many instances in which Palmerston had acted without due
+reference to the premier's or the Sovereign's opinion--a course of
+conduct which had justly displeased the Queen, and had drawn from her
+grave and pointed remonstrances. The final transgression led to his
+resignation; but its effects on our relations with France remained.
+
+Meanwhile the Emperor's consistent and probably sincere display of
+goodwill towards England, the apparent complacency with which the
+French nation acquiesced in his rule, and the outward prosperity
+accompanying it, did their natural work in conciliating approval, and
+in making men willing to forget the obscure and tortuous steps by
+which he had climbed to power. One day he and France were to pay for
+these things; but meanwhile he was a popular ruler, accepted and
+approved by the nation he governed, anxious for its prosperity, and
+earnest in keeping it friendly with Great Britain, which he had found
+a hospitable home in the days of his obscurity, which was again to
+offer an asylum to him in a day of utter disaster and overthrow, and
+where his life, chequered by vicissitudes stranger than any known to
+romance, was to come to a quiet close. It has been the singular
+fortune of Her Majesty to receive into the sacred shelter of her
+realm two dethroned monarchs, two fallen fortunes, two dynasties cast
+out from sovereign power, while her own throne, "broad-based upon her
+people's will, and compassed by the inviolate sea," has stood firm
+and unshaken, even by a breath. And it has been her special honour to
+cherish with affection, even warmer in their adversity, the friends
+who had gained her regard when their prosperity seemed as bright and
+their great position as assured as her own. Visiting the Emperor
+Napoleon in his splendid capital, feted and welcomed by him and his
+Empress with every flattering form of honour that his ingenuity could
+devise or his power enable him to show, she did not forget the
+Orleans family and their calamities, but frankly urged on her host
+the injustice of the confiscations with which he had requited the
+supposed hostility of those princes, and endeavoured to persuade him
+to milder measures. She visited in his company the tomb of the
+lamented Duke of Orleans; and her first care on returning to England
+was to show some kindly attention to the discrowned royalties who
+were now her guests. In the same spirit, in after years, she extended
+a friendly hand to the exiled Empress Eugenie, escaping from new
+revolutionary perils to English safety, and altogether declined to
+consider her personal regard for the lady, whose attractions had
+deservedly gained it in brighter days, as being in any sense
+complicated with matters political. The resolute loyalty with which
+she at once maintained her private friendships and kept them entirely
+apart from her public action compelled toleration from the persons
+most inclined to take umbrage at it.
+
+An instance of successful and courageous enterprise on Her Majesty's
+part may well close this brief notice of the internal and external
+convulsions which for a time shook, though they did not shatter, the
+peace of our realm. In the late summer of 1849 a royal visit to
+Ireland, now just reviving from its misery, was planned and carried
+out with complete success; the wild Irish enthusiasm blazed up into
+raptures of a loyal welcome, and the Sovereign, who played her part
+with all the graceful perfection that her compassionate heart and
+quick intelligence suggested, was delighted with the little tour,
+from which those who shared in it prophesied "permanent good" for
+Ireland. At least it had a healing, beneficial effect at the moment;
+and perhaps more could not have been reasonably hoped. Later royal
+visits to the sister isle have been less conspicuous, but all fairly
+successful.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE CRIMEAN WAR.
+
+[Illustration: The Crystal Palace, 1851.]
+
+The "Exhibition year," 1851, appears to our backward gaze almost like
+a short day of splendid summer interposed between two stormy seasons;
+but at the time men were more inclined to regard it as the first of a
+long series of halcyon days. Indeed, the unexampled number and
+success of the various efforts to redress injury and reform abuses,
+which had signalised the new reign, might almost justify those
+sanguine spirits, who now wrote and spoke as though wars and
+oppression were well on their way to the limbo of ancient barbarisms,
+and who looked to unfettered commerce as the peace-making civiliser,
+under whose influence the golden age--in more senses than one might
+revisit the earth.
+
+[Illustration: Lord Ashley.]
+
+We have already referred to certain of the new transforming forces
+whose action tended to heighten such hopes; there are two reforms as
+yet unnamed by us, distinguishing these early years, which are
+particularly significant; though one at least was stoutly opposed by
+a special class of reformers. We refer to the legislation dealing
+with mines and factories and those employed therein, with which is
+inseparably connected the venerable name of the late Lord
+Shaftesbury; and to the abolition of duelling in the army, secured by
+the untiring efforts of Prince Albert, who had enlisted on his side
+the immense influence of the Duke of Wellington.
+
+That peculiar modern survival of the ancient trial by combat, the
+duel, was still blocking the way of English civilisation when Her
+Majesty assumed the sceptre. A palpable anachronism, it yet seemed
+impossible to make men act on their knowledge of its antiquated and
+barbarous character; legislation was fruitless of good against a
+practice consecrated by false sentiment and false ideas of honour;
+but when dislodged from its chief stronghold, the army, it became
+quickly discredited everywhere, with the happy result noted by a
+contemporary historian, that _now_ "a duel in England would seem as
+absurd and barbarous as an ordeal by touch or a witch-burning."
+Militarism, that mischievous counterfeit of true soldierly spirit,
+could not thrive where the duel was discountenanced; and the friends
+of peace might rejoice with reason.
+
+But those peaceful agitators, the sagacious, energetic Cobden and his
+allies, resented rather sharply the interference of the Lord Ashley
+of that day with the "natural laws" of the labour market--laws to
+whose operation some of the party attributed the cruelly excessive
+hours of work in factories, and the indiscriminate employment of all
+kinds of labour, even that of the merest infants. Undeterred by
+these objections, convinced that no law which sanctioned and promoted
+cruelty did so with true authority, Lord Ashley persisted in the
+struggle on which he had entered 1833; in 1842 he scored his first
+great success in the passing of an Act that put an end to the
+employment of women and children in mines and collieries; in 1844 the
+Government carried their Factories Act, which lessened and limited
+the hours of children's factory labour, and made other provisions for
+their benefit. It was not all that he had striven for, but it was
+much; he accepted the compromise, but did not slacken in his efforts
+still further to improve the condition of the children. His career of
+steady benevolence far outstretched this early period of battle and
+endurance; but already his example and achievement were fruitful of
+good, and his fellow-labourers were numerous. Nothing succeeds like
+success: people had sneered at the mania for futile legislation that
+possessed the "humanity-monger" who so embarrassed party leaders with
+his crusade on behalf of mere mercy and justice; they now approved
+the practical philanthropist who had taken away a great reproach from
+his nation, and glorified the age in which they lived because of its
+special humaneness, while they exulted not less in the brightening
+prospects of the country. Sedition overcome, law and order
+triumphant, the throne standing firm, prosperity returning--all
+ministered to pride and hope.
+
+In 1850 there had been some painful incidents; the death by an
+unhappy accident of Sir Robert Peel, and the turbulent excitement of
+what are known as the "No Popery" disturbances, being the most
+notable: and of these again incomparably the most important was the
+untimely loss to the country of the great and honest statesman who
+might otherwise have rendered still more conspicuous services to the
+Sovereign and the empire. The sudden violent outburst of popular
+feeling, provoked by a piece of rash assumption on the part of the
+reigning Pope, was significant, indeed, as evidencing how little
+alteration the "Catholic revival" had worked in the temper of the
+nation at large; otherwise its historic importance is small. At the
+time, however, the current of agitation ran strongly, and swept into
+immediate oblivion an event which three years before would have had a
+European importance--the 'death of Louis Philippe, whose strangely
+chequered life came to an end in the old palace of Claremont, just
+before the "papal aggressions"--rash, impolitic, and mischievous, as
+competent observers pronounced it, but powerless to injure English
+Protestantism--had thrown all the country into a ferment, which took
+some months to subside. We are told that Her Majesty, though
+naturally interested by this affair, was more alive to the quarter
+where the real peril lay than were some of her subjects; but in the
+universal distress caused by the death of Peel none joined more
+truly, none deplored that loss more deeply, than the Sovereign, who
+would willingly have shown her value for the true servant she had
+lost by conferring a peerage on his widow--an honour which Lady Peel,
+faithful to the wishes and sharing the feeling of her husband, felt
+it necessary to decline.
+
+[Illustration: Earl of Derby.]
+
+Amid these agitations, inferior far to many that had preceded them,
+the year 1850 ran out, and 1851 opened--the year in which Prince
+Albert's long-pursued project of a great International Exhibition of
+Arts and Industries was at last successfully carried out. The idea,
+as expounded by himself at a banquet given by the Lord Mayor, was
+large and noble. "It was to give the world a true test, a living
+picture, of the point of industrial development at which the whole of
+mankind had arrived, and a new starting-point from which all nations
+would be able to direct their further exertions." The magnificent
+success, unflawed by any vexatious or dangerous incident, with which
+the idea was carried out, had made it almost impossible for us to
+understand the opposition with which the plan was greeted, the
+ridicule that was heaped upon it, the foolish fears which it
+inspired; while the many similar Exhibitions in this and other
+countries that have followed and emulated, but never altogether
+equalled, the first, have made us somewhat oblivious of the fact that
+the scheme when first propounded was an absolute novelty. It was a
+fascination, a wonder, a delight; it aroused enthusiasm that will
+never be rekindled on a like occasion.
+
+Paxton's fairy palace of glass and iron, erected in Hyde Park, and
+canopying in its glittering spaces the untouched, majestic elms of
+that national pleasure-ground as well as the varied treasures of
+industrial and artistic achievement brought from every quarter of the
+globe, divided the charmed astonishment of foreign spectators with
+the absolute orderliness of the myriads who thronged it and crowded
+all its approaches on the great opening day. Perhaps on that day the
+Queen touched the summit of her rare happiness. It was the 1st of
+May--her own month--and the birthday of her youngest son, the
+godchild and namesake of the great Duke. She stood, the most justly
+popular and beloved of living monarchy, amid thousands of her
+rejoicing subjects, encompassed with loving friends and happy
+children, at the side of the beloved husband whose plan was now
+triumphantly realised; and she spoke the words which inaugurated that
+triumph and invited the world to gaze on it.
+
+"The sight was magical," she says, "so vast, so glorious, so
+touching...God bless my dearest Albert! God bless my dearest country,
+which has shown itself so great to-day! One felt so grateful to the
+great God, Who seemed to pervade all and to bless all. The only event
+it in the slightest degree reminded me of was the coronation, but
+this day's festival was a thousand times superior. In fact, it is
+unique, and can bear no comparison, from its peculiar beauty and
+combination of such striking and different objects. I mean the slight
+resemblance only as to its solemnity; the enthusiasm and cheering,
+too, were much more touching, for in a church naturally all is
+silent."
+
+The Exhibition remained open from the 1st of May to the 11th of
+October, continuing during all those months to attract many thousands
+of visitors. It had charmed the world by the splendid embodiment of
+peace and peaceful industries which it presented, and men willingly
+took this festival as a sign bespeaking a yet longer reign of
+world-tranquillity. It proved to be only a sort of rainbow, shining
+in the black front of approaching tempest. When 1854 opened, the
+third year from the Exhibition year, we were already committed to war
+with Russia; and the forty years' peace with Europe, finally won at
+Waterloo, was over and gone.
+
+[Illustration: Duke of Wellington.]
+
+In the interval another great spirit had passed away. The Duke of
+Wellington died, very quietly and with little warning, at Walmer
+Castle, on the 14th of September, 1852, "full of years and honours."
+He was in his eighty-fourth year, and during the whole reign of Queen
+Victoria he had occupied such a position as no English subject had
+ever held before. At one time, before that reign began, his political
+action had made him extraordinarily unpopular, in despite of the
+splendid military services which no one could deny; now he was the
+very idol of the nation, and at the same time was treated with the
+utmost respect and reverent affection by the Sovereign--two
+distinctions how seldom either attained or merited by one person! But
+in Wellington's case there is no doubt that the popular adoration and
+the royal regard were worthily bestowed and well earned. He had never
+seemed stirred by the popular odium, he never seemed to prize the
+popular praise, which he received; it was not for praise that he had
+worked, but for simple duty; and his experience of the fickleness of
+public favour might make him something scornful of it. To the honours
+which his Sovereign delighted to shower on him--honours perhaps never
+before bestowed on a subject by a monarch--he _was_ sensitive. The
+Queen to him was the noblest personification of the country whose
+good had ever been, not only the first, but the only object of his
+public action: and with this patriotic loyalty there mingled
+something of a personal feeling, more akin to romance in its paternal
+tenderness than seemed consistent with the granite-hewn strength and
+sternness of his general character. A thorough soldier, with a
+soldier's contempt for fine-spun diplomacy, he had been led into many
+a blunder when acting as a chief of party and of State; but his
+absolute single-minded honesty had more than redeemed such errors;
+"integrity and uprightness had preserved him," and through him the
+land and its rulers, amid difficulties where the finest statecraft
+might have made shipwreck of all.
+
+He had his human failings; yet the moral grandeur of his whole career
+cast such faults into the shade, and justified entirely the universal
+grief at his not untimely death. The Queen deplored him as "our
+immortal hero"--a servant of the Crown "devoted, loyal, and faithful"
+beyond all example; the nation endeavoured by a funeral of
+unprecedented sumptuousness to show its sense of loss; the poet
+laureate devoted to his memory a majestic Ode, hardly surpassed by
+any in the language for its stately, mournful music, and finely
+faithful in its characterisation of the dead hero--
+
+           "The man of long-enduring blood,
+     The statesman-warrior, moderate, resolute,
+     Whole in himself, a common good;...
+     ...The man of amplest influence,
+     Yet clearest of ambitious crime,
+     Our greatest yet with least pretence,
+     Great in council and great in war,
+     Foremost captain of his time,
+     Rich in saving common-sense.
+     And, as the greatest only are.
+     In his simplicity sublime;...
+     Who never sold the truth to serve the hour,
+     Nor paltered with Eternal God for power;
+     Who let the turbid streams of rumour flow
+     Through either babbling world of high and low;
+     Whose life was work, whose language rife
+     With rugged maxims hewn from life;
+     Who never spoke against a foe;
+     Whose eighty winters freeze with one rebuke
+     All great self-seekers trampling on the right:
+     Truth-teller was our England's Alfred named;
+     Truth-lover was our English Duke;
+     Whatever record leap to light
+     He never shall be shamed."
+
+When, within so short a period after Wellington's death, the nation
+once more found itself drawn into a European war, there were many
+whose regret for his removal was quickened into greater keenness.
+"Had we but the Duke to lead our armies!" was the common cry; but
+even _his_ military genius might have found itself disastrously
+fettered, had he occupied the position which his ancient subordinate
+and comrade, Lord Raglan, was made to assume. It may be doubted if
+Wellington could have been induced to assume it.
+
+Whether there ever would have been a Crimean war if no special
+friendliness had existed between France and England may be fair
+matter for speculation. The quarrel issuing in that war was indeed
+begun by France; but it would have been difficult for England to take
+no part in it. The apple of discord was supplied by a long-standing
+dispute between the Greek and Latin Churches as to the Holy Places
+situated in Palestine--a dispute in which France posed as the champion
+of the Latin and Russia of the Greek right to the guardianship of the
+various shrines. The claim of France was based on a treaty between
+Francis I and the then Sultan, and related to the Holy Places
+merely; the Russian claim, founded on a treaty between Turkey and
+Catherine II, was far wider, and embraced a protectorate over all
+Christians of the Greek Church in Turkey, and therefore over a great
+majority of the Sultan's European subjects. Such a construction of
+the treaty in question, however, had always been refused by England
+whenever Russia had stated it; and its assertion at this moment bore
+an ominous aspect in conjunction with the views which the reigning
+Czar Nicholas had made very plain to English statesmen, both when he
+visited England in 1844 and subsequently to that visit. To use his
+own well-known phrase, he regarded Turkey as "a sick man"--a
+death-doomed man, indeed--and hoped to be the sick man's principal
+heir. He had confidently reckoned on English co-operation when the
+Turkish empire should at last be dismembered; he was now to find, not
+only that co-operation would be withheld, but that strong opposition
+would be offered to the execution of the plan, for which it had
+seemed that a favourable moment was presenting itself. The delusion
+under which he had acted was one that should have been dispelled by
+plain English speech long before; but now that he found it to be a
+delusion, he did not recede from his demands upon the Porte: he
+rather multiplied them. The upshot of all this was war, in spite of
+protracted diplomatic endeavours to the contrary; and into that war
+French and English went side by side. Once before they had done so,
+when Philip Augustus and Richard Coeur de Lion united their forces to
+wrest the Holy Places from the Saracens; that enterprise had been
+disgraced by particularly ugly scandals from which this was free; but
+in respect to glory of generalship, or permanent results secured, the
+Crimean campaign has little pre-eminence over the Fourth Crusade.
+
+Recent disclosures, which have shown that Lord Aberdeen's Ministry
+was not rightly reproached with "drifting" idly and recklessly into
+this disastrous contest, have also helped to clear the English
+commander's memory from the slur of inefficiency so liberally flung
+on him at the time, while it has been shown that his action was
+seriously hampered by the French generals with whom he had to
+co-operate. From whatever cause, such glory as was gained in the
+Crimea belongs more to the rank and file of the allied armies than to
+those highest in command. The first success won on the heights of the
+Alma was not followed up; the Charge of the Six Hundred, which has
+made memorable for ever the Russian repulse at Balaklava, was a
+splendid mistake, valuable chiefly for the spirit-stirring example it
+has bequeathed to future generations of English soldiers, for its
+illustration of death-defying, disciplined courage; the great fight
+at Inkerman was only converted from a calamitous surprise into a
+victory by sheer obstinate valour, not by able strategy; and the
+operations that after Lord Raglan's death brought the unreasonably
+protracted siege of Sebastopol to a close did but evince afresh how
+grand were the soldierly qualities of both French and English, and
+how indifferently they were generalled.
+
+If the allies came out of the conflict with no great glory, they had
+such satisfaction as could be derived from the severer losses and the
+discomfiture at all points of the foe. The disasters of the war had
+been fatal to the Czar Nicholas, who died on March 2nd, 1855, from
+pulmonary apoplexy--an attack to which he had laid himself open, it
+was said, in melancholy recklessness of his health. His was a
+striking personality, which had much more impressed English
+imaginations than that of Czar or Czarina since the time of Peter the
+Great; and the Queen herself had regarded the autocrat, whose great
+power made him so lonely, with an interest not untouched with
+compassion at the remote period when he had visited her Court and had
+talked with her statesmen about the imminent decay of Turkey. At that
+time the austere majesty of his aspect, seen amid the finer and
+softer lineaments of British courtiers, had been likened to the
+half-savage grandeur of an emperor of old Rome who should have been
+born a Thracian peasant. It proved that the contrast had gone much
+deeper than outward appearance, and that his views and principles had
+been as opposed to those of the English leaders, and as impossible of
+participation by such men as though he had been an imperfectly
+civilised contemporary of Constantine the Great. Since then he had
+succeeded in making himself more heartily hated, by the bulk of the
+English nation, than any sovereign since Napoleon I; for the war,
+into which the Government had entered reluctantly, was regarded by
+the people with great enthusiasm, and the foe was proportionately
+detested.
+
+Many anticipated that the death of the Czar would herald in a
+triumphant peace; but in point of fact, peace was not signed until
+the March of 1856. Its terms satisfied the diplomatists both of
+France and England; they would probably have been less complacent
+could they have foreseen the day when this hard-won treaty would be
+torn up by the Power they seemed to be binding hand and foot with
+sworn obligations of perdurable toughness; least of all would that
+foresight have been agreeable to Lord Palmerston, Premier of England
+when the peace was signed, and quite at one with the mass of the
+people of England in their deep dislike and distrust of Russia and
+its rulers.
+
+The political advantages which can be clearly traced to this war are
+not many. Privateers are no longer allowed to prey on the commerce of
+belligerent nations, and neutral commerce in all articles not
+contraband of war must be respected, while no blockade must be
+regarded unless efficiently and thoroughly maintained. Such were the
+principles with which the plenipotentiaries who signed the Treaty of
+Paris in 1856 enriched the code of international law; and these
+principles, which are in force still, alone remain of the advantages
+supposed to have been secured by all the misery and all the
+expenditure of the Crimean enterprise.
+
+[Illustration: Florence Nightingale.]
+
+But other benefits, not of a political nature, arose out of the
+hideous mismanagement which had disgraced the earlier stages of the
+war. It is a very lamentable fact that of the 24,000 good Englishmen
+who left their bones in the Crimea, scarce 5,000 had fallen in fair
+fight or died of wounds received therein. Bad and deficient food,
+insufficient shelter and clothing, utter disorganisation and
+confusion in the hospital department, accounted for the rest. These
+evils, when exposed in the English newspapers, called forth a cry of
+shame and wrath from all the nation, and stirred noble men and women
+into the endeavour to mitigate at least the sufferings of the unhappy
+wounded. Miss Florence Nightingale, the daughter of a wealthy English
+gentleman, was known to take a deep and well-informed interest in
+hospital management; and this lady was induced to superintend
+personally the nursing of the wounded in our military hospitals in
+the East. Entrusted with plenary powers over the nurses, and
+accompanied by a trained staff of lady assistants, she went out to
+wrestle with and overcome the crying evils which too truly existed,
+and which were the despair of the army doctors. Her success in this
+noble work, magnificently complete as it was, did indeed "multiply
+the good," as Sidney Herbert had foretold: we may hope it will
+continue so to multiply it "to all time." The horrors of war have
+been mitigated to an incalculable extent by the exertions of the
+noble men and women who, following in the path first trodden by the
+Crimean heroines, formed the Geneva Convention, and have borne the
+Red Cross, its most sacred badge, on many a bloody field, in many a
+scene of terrible suffering--suffering touched with gleams of human
+pity and human gratitude; for the courageous tenderness of many a
+soft-handed and lion-hearted nursing sister, since the days of
+Florence Nightingale, has aroused the same half-adoring thankfulness
+which made helpless soldiers turn to kiss that lady's shadow, thrown
+by her lamp on the hospital wall.
+
+The horrors thus mitigated have become more than ever repugnant to
+the educated perception of Christendom, because of the merciful
+devotion which, ever toiling to lessen them, keeps them before the
+world's eye. In every great war that has shaken the civilised world
+since the strife in the Crimea broke out, the ambulance, its
+patients, its attendants, have always been in the foreground of the
+picture. Never have the inseparable miseries of warfare been so well
+understood and so widely realised, thanks in part to that new
+literary force of the Victorian  age, the _war correspondent_, and
+chiefly, perhaps, to the new position henceforth assumed by the
+military medical and hospital service. To the same source we may
+fairly attribute the  great improvements wrought in the whole conduct
+of that distinctively Christian charity, unknown to heathenism, the
+hospital system: the opening of a new field of usefulness to educated
+and devoted women of good position, as nurses in hospitals and out;
+and the vast increase of public interest in and public support of
+such agencies. Even the Female Medical Mission, now rising into such
+importance in the jealous lands of the East, may be traced not very
+indirectly to the same cause.
+
+The Queen, whose enthusiasm for her beloved army and navy was very
+earnest, and frankly shown, who had suffered with their sufferings
+and exulted in their exploits, followed with a keen, personal,
+unfaltering interest the efforts made for their relief. "Tell these
+poor, noble wounded and sick men that _no one_ takes a warmer
+interest, or feels more for their sufferings, or admires their
+courage and heroism more than their Queen. So does the Prince," was
+the impulsive, heart-warm message which Her Majesty sent for
+transmission through Miss Nightingale to her soldier-patients. Her
+deeds proved that these words were words of truth. Not content with
+subscribing largely to the fund raised on behalf of those left
+orphaned and widowed by the war, she took part in the work of
+providing fitting clothing for the men exposed to all the terrors of
+a Russian winter; and her daughters, enlisted to aid in this pious
+work, began that career of beneficence which two of them were to
+pursue afterwards to such good purpose, amid the ravages of wars
+whose colossal awfulness dwarfed the Crimean campaign in the memories
+of men.
+
+Many of the injured being invalided home while the war was in
+progress, Her Majesty embraced the opportunity to testify her
+sympathy and admiration, giving to them in public with her own hands
+the medals for service rendered at Alma, at Balaklava, and at
+Inkerman. It would not be easy to say whether the Sovereign or the
+soldiers were more deeply moved on this occasion. Conspicuous among
+the maimed and feeble heroes was the gallant young Sir Thomas
+Troubridge, who, lamed in both feet by a Russian shot at Inkerman,
+had remained at his post, giving his orders, while the fight endured,
+since there was none to fill his place. He appeared now, crippled for
+life, but declared himself "amply repaid for everything," while the
+Queen decorated him, and told him he should be one of her
+aides-de-camp. Her own high courage and resolute sense of duty moved
+her with special sympathy for heroism like this; and she obeyed the
+natural dictates of her heart in conspicuously rewarding it. With a
+similar impulse, on the return of the army, she made a welcoming
+visit to the sick and wounded at Chatham, and testified the liveliest
+appreciation of the humane services of Miss Nightingale, to whom a
+jewel specially designed by the Prince was presented, in grateful
+recognition of her inestimable work. The new decoration of the
+Victoria Cross, given "for valour" conspicuously shown in deeds of
+self-devotion in war time, further proved how keenly the Queen and
+her consort appreciated soldierly virtue. It was the Prince who first
+proposed that such a badge of merit should be introduced, the Queen
+who warmly accepted the idea, and in person bestowed the Cross on its
+first wearers, thereby giving it an unpurchasable value.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+INDIA.
+
+Lord Aberdeen, who did not hope very great things from the war which
+had initiated during his Ministry, had yet deemed it possible that
+Eastern Europe might reap from it the benefit of a quarter of a
+century's peace. He was curiously near the mark in this estimate; but
+neither he nor any other English statesman was unwary enough to risk
+such a prophecy as to the general tranquillity of the Continent. In
+fact, the peace of Europe, broken in 1853, has been unstable enough
+ever since, and from time to time tremendous wars have shaken it.
+Into none of these, however, has Great Britain been again entrapped,
+though the sympathies of its people have often been warmly enlisted
+on this side and that. A war with China, which began in 1857, and
+cannot be said to have ended till 1860, though in the interim a
+treaty was signed which secured just a year's cessation of
+hostilities, was the most important undertaking in which the allied
+forces of France and England took part after the Crimea. In this war
+the allies were victorious, as at that date any European Power was
+tolerably certain to be in a serious contest with China. The closing
+act of the conflict--the destruction of the Summer Palace at Pekin,
+in retaliation for the treacherous murder of several French and
+English prisoners of distinction--was severely blamed at the time,
+but defended on the ground that only in this way could any effectual
+punishment of the offence be obtained. That act of vengeance and the
+war which it closed have an interest of their own in connection with
+the late General Gordon, who now entered on that course of
+extraordinary achievement which lacks a parallel in this century, and
+which began, in the interests of Chinese civilisation, shortly after
+he had taken a subordinate officer's part in the work of destruction
+at Pekin.
+
+From this date England did not commit itself to any of the singular
+series of enterprises which our good ally, the French Emperor, set on
+foot. A feeling of distrust towards that potentate was invading the
+minds of the very Englishmen who had most cordially hailed his
+successes and met his advances. "The Emperor's mind is as full of
+schemes as a warren is full of rabbits, and, like rabbits, his
+schemes go to ground for the moment to avoid notice or antagonism,"
+were the strong words of Lord Palmerston in a confidential letter of
+1860; and when he could thus think and write, small wonder if calmer
+and more unprejudiced minds saw need for standing on their guard.
+Amid all the flattering demonstrations of friendship of which the
+French court had been lavish, and which had been gracefully
+reciprocated by English royality, the Prince Consort had retained an
+undisturbed perception of much that was not quite satisfactory in the
+qualifications of the despotic chief of the French State for his
+difficult post. Thus it is without surprise that we find the Queen
+writing in 1859, as to a plan suggested by the Emperor: "The whole
+scheme is the often-attempted one, that England should take the
+chestnuts from the fire, and assume the responsibility of making
+proposals which, if they lead to war, we should be in honour bound to
+support by arms." The Emperor had once said of Louis Philippe, that
+he had fallen "because he was not sincere with England"; it looked
+now as though he were steering full on the same rock, for his own
+sincerity was flawed by dangerous reservations.
+
+England remained an interested spectator, but a spectator only, while
+the French ruler played that curiously calculated game of his, which
+did so much towards insuring the independence of Italy and its
+consolidation into one free monarchy. It was no disinterested game,
+as the cession of Nice and Savoy to France by Piedmont would alone
+have proved. It was daring to the point of rashness; for as a French
+general of high rank said, there needed but the slightest check to
+the French arms, and "it was all up with the dynasty!" Yet the "idea"
+which furnished the professed motive for the Emperor's warlike action
+was one dear to English sympathies, and many an English heart
+rejoiced in the solid good secured for Italy, though without our
+national co-operation. There was a proud compensating satisfaction in
+the knowledge that, when a crisis of unexampled and terrible
+importance had come in our own affairs, England had perforce dealt
+with it single-handed and with supreme success.
+
+Those who can remember the fearful summer of 1857 can hardly recall
+its wild events without some recurrence of the thrill of horror that
+ran through the land, as week after week the Indian news of mutiny
+and massacre reached us. It was a surprise to the country at large,
+more than to the authorities, who were informed already that a spirit
+of disaffection had been at work among our native troops in Bengal,
+and that there was good reason to believe in the existence of a
+conspiracy for sapping the allegiance of these troops. Later events
+have left little doubt that such a conspiracy did exist, and that its
+aim was the total subversion of British power. Our advance in
+Hindostan had been rapid, the changes following on it many, and not
+always such as the Oriental mind could understand or approve. Early
+in the reign, in 1847, an energetic Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie,
+went out to India, who introduced railways, telegraphs, and cheap
+postage, set on foot a system of native education, and vigorously
+fought the ancient iniquities of suttee, thuggee, and child-murder.
+Perhaps his aggressive energy worked too fast, too fierily; perhaps
+his peremptory reforms, not less than his high-handed annexations of
+the Punjaub, Oude, and other native States, awakened suspicion in the
+mind of the Hindoo, bound as he was by the immemorial fetters of
+caste, and dreading with a shuddering horror innovations that might
+interfere with its distinctions; for to lose caste was to be outlawed
+among men and accursed in the sight of God.
+
+[Illustration: Lord Canning.]
+
+Lord Canning, the successor of Lord Dalhousie, entered on his
+governor-generalship at a moment full of "unsuspected peril"; for the
+disaffected in Hindostan had so misread the signs of the times as to
+believe that England's sun was stooping towards its setting, and that
+the hour had come in which a successful blow could be struck, against
+the foreign domination of a people alien in faith as in blood from
+Mohammedan and Buddhist and Brahmin, and apt to treat all alike with
+the scorn of superiority. A trivial incident, which was held no
+trifle by the distrustful Sepoys, proved to be the spark that kindled
+a vast explosion. The cartridges supplied for use with the Enfield
+rifle, introduced into India in 1856, were greased; and the end would
+have to be bitten off when the cartridge was used. A report was
+busily circulated among the troops that the grease used was cow's fat
+and hog's lard, and that these substances were employed in pursuance
+of a deep-laid design to deprive every soldier of his caste by
+compelling him to taste these defiling things. Such compulsion would
+hardly have been less odious to a Mussulman than to a Hindoo; for
+swineflesh is abominable to the one, and the cow a sacred animal to
+the other. Whoever devised this falsehood intended to imply a subtle
+intention on the part of England to overthrow the native religions,
+which it was hoped the maddened soldiery would rise to resist. The
+mischief worked as was desired. In vain the obnoxious cartridges were
+withdrawn from use; in vain the Governor-General issued a
+proclamation warning the army of Bengal against the falsehoods that
+were being circulated. Mysterious signals, little cakes of unleavened
+bread called _chupatties_, were being distributed, as the spring of
+1857 went on, throughout the native villages under British rule,
+doing the office of the _Fiery Cross_ among the Scotch Highlanders of
+an earlier day; and in May the great Mutiny broke out.
+
+Some of the Bengal cavalry at Meerut had been imprisoned for refusing
+to use their cartridges; their comrades rose in rebellion, fired on
+their officers, released the prisoners, and murdered some Europeans.
+The British troops rallied and repulsed the mutineers, who fled to
+Delhi, unhappily reached it in safety, and required and obtained the
+protection of the feeble old King, the last of the Moguls, there
+residing. Him they proclaimed their Emperor, and avowed the intention
+of restoring his dynasty to its ancient supremacy. The native troops
+in the city and its environs at once prepared to join them; and thus
+from a mere mutiny, such as had occurred once and again before, the
+rising assumed the character of a vast revolutionary war. For a
+moment it seemed that our hard-won supremacy in the East was
+disappearing in a sea of blood. The foe were numerous, fanatical, and
+ruthless; we ourselves had trained and disciplined them for war; the
+sympathies of their countrymen were very largely with them. Yet, with
+incredible effort and heroism more than mortal, the small and
+scattered forces of England again snatched the mastery from the hands
+of the overwhelming numbers arrayed against them.
+
+[Illustration: Sir Colin Campbell.]
+
+One name has obtained an immortality of infamy in connection with
+this struggle--that of the Nana Sahib, who by his hideous treachery
+at Cawnpore took revenge on confiding Englishmen and women for
+certain wrongs inflicted on him in regard to the inheritance of his
+adopted father by the last Governor-General. But many other names
+have been crowned with deathless honour, the just reward of
+unsurpassed achievement, of supreme fidelity and valour, at a crisis
+under which feeble natures would have fainted and fallen. Of these
+are Lord Canning himself, the noble brothers John and Henry Lawrence,
+the Generals Havelock, Outram, and Campbell, and others whom space
+forbids us even to name.
+
+The Governor-General remained calm, resolute, and intrepid amidst the
+panic and the rage which shook Calcutta when the first appalling news
+of the Mutiny broke upon it. He disdained the cruel counsels of fear,
+and steadily refused to confound the innocent with the guilty among
+the natives; but he knew where to strike, and when, and how. On his
+own responsibility he stayed the British troops on their way to the
+scene of war in China, and made them serve the graver, more immediate
+need of India, doing it with the concurrence of Lord Elgin, the envoy
+responsible for the Chinese business; and he poured his forces on
+Delhi, the heart of the insurrection, resolving to make an end of it
+there before ever reinforcement direct from England could come. After
+a difficult and terrible siege, the place was carried by storm on
+September 20th, 1857--an achievement that cost many noble lives, and
+chief among them that of the gallant Nicholson, a soldier whose mind
+and character seem to have made on all who knew him an impression as
+of supernatural grandeur.
+
+Five days later General Havelock and his little band of heroes--some
+one thousand Englishmen who had marched with him from Allahabad,
+recaptured by Neill for England, and on to ghastly Cawnpore--arrived
+at Lucknow, and relieved the slender British force which since May
+had been holding the Residency against the fierce and ever-renewed
+assaults of the thousands of rebels who poured themselves upon it. He
+came in time to save many a brave life that should yet do good
+service; but the noblest Englishman of them all, the gentle,
+dauntless, chivalrous Sir Henry Lawrence, Governor of Oude, had died
+from wounds inflicted by a rebel shell many weeks before, and lay
+buried in the stronghold for whose safe keeping he had continued to
+provide in the hour and article of death. His spirit, however, seemed
+yet to actuate the survivors. Havelock's march had been one
+succession of victories won against enormous odds, and half
+miraculous; but even he could work no miracle, and his troops might
+merely have shared a tragic fate with the long-tried defenders of
+Lucknow, but for the timely arrival of Sir Colin Campbell with five
+thousand men more, to relieve in his turn the relieving force and
+place all the Europeans in Lucknow in real safety. The news was
+received in England with a delight that was mingled with mourning for
+the heroic and saintly Havelock, who sank and died on November 24th.
+A soldier whose military genius had passed unrecognised and almost
+unemployed while men far his inferiors were high in command, he had
+so more than profited by the opportunity for doing good service when
+it came, that in a few months his name had become one of the dearest
+in every English home, a glory and a joy for ever. It is rarely that
+a career so obscured by adverse fortune through all its course blazes
+into such sunset splendour just at the last hour of life's day.
+
+[Illustration: Henry Havelock.]
+
+Those months which made the fame of Havelock had been filled with
+crime and horror. The first reports of Sepoy outrages which
+circulated in England were undoubtedly exaggerated, but enough
+remains of sickening truth as to the cruelties endured by English
+women and children at the hand of the mutineers to account for the
+fury which filled the breasts of their avenging countrymen, and
+seemed to lend them supernatural strength and courage, and, alas! in
+some instances, to merge that courage in ferocity. Delhi had been
+deeply guilty, when the mutineers seized it, in respect of inhuman
+outrage on the helpless non-combatants; but the story of Cawnpore is
+darker yet, and is still after all these years fresh in our memories.
+A peculiar blackness of iniquity clings about it. That show of amity
+with which the Nana Sahib responded to the summons of Sir Hugh
+Wheeler, the hard-pressed commanding officer in the city, only that
+he might act against him; those false promises by which the little
+garrison, unconquerable by any force, was beguiled to give itself up
+to mere butchery; the long captivity of the few scores of women and
+children who survived the general slaughter, only, after many dreary
+days of painful suspense, to be murdered in their prison-house as
+Havelock drew near the gates of Cawnpore: all these circumstances of
+especial horror made men regard their chief instigator rather as one
+of the lower fiends masquerading in human guise than as a
+fellow-creature moved by any motives common to men. It was perhaps
+well for the fair fame of Englishmen that the Nana never fell into
+their hands, but saved himself by flight before the soldiers of
+Havelock had looked into the slaughter-house all strewn with relics
+of his victims and grimly marked with signs of murder, or had gazed
+shuddering at the dreadful well choked up with the corpses of their
+countrywomen. It required more than common courage, justice, and
+humanity, to withstand the wild demand for mere indiscriminating
+revenge which these things called forth. Happily those highest in
+power did possess these rare qualities. Lord Canning earned for
+himself the nickname of "Clemency Canning" by his perfect
+resoluteness to hold the balance of justice even, and unweighted by
+the mad passion of the hour. Sir John (afterwards Lord) Lawrence, the
+Chief Commissioner of the Punjaub, who, with his able subordinates,
+had saved that province at the very outset, and thereby in truth
+saved India, was equally firm in mercy and in justice. The Queen
+herself, who had very early appreciated the gravity of the situation
+and promoted to the extent of her power the speedy sending of aid and
+reinforcement from England, thoroughly endorsed the wise and clement
+policy of the Governor-General. Replying to a letter of Lord
+Canning's which deplored "the rabid and indiscriminate vindictiveness
+abroad," Her Majesty wrote these words, which we will give ourselves
+the pleasure to quote entire:--
+
+[Illustration: Sir John Lawrence.]
+
+"Lord Canning will easily believe how entirely the Queen shares his
+feelings of sorrow and indignation at the unchristian spirit, shown,
+alas! also to a great extent here by the public, towards Indians in
+general, and towards Sepoys _without discrimination!_ It is, however,
+not likely to last, and comes from the horror produced by the
+unspeakable atrocities perpetrated against the innocent women and
+children, which make one's blood run cold and one's heart bleed! For
+the perpetrators of these awful horrors no punishment can be severe
+enough; and sad as it is, _stern_ justice must be dealt out to all
+the guilty.
+
+"But to the nation at large, to the peaceable inhabitants, to the
+many kind and friendly natives who have assisted us, sheltered the
+fugitive, and been faithful and true, there should be shown the
+greatest kindness. They should know that there is no hatred to a
+brown skin--none; but the greatest wish on their Queen's part to see
+them happy, contented, and flourishing."
+
+These words well became the sovereign who, by serious and cogent
+argument, had succeeded in inducing her Ministers to strike strongly
+and quickly on the side of law and order, they having been at first
+inclined to adopt a "step-by-step" policy as to sending out aid,
+which would not have been very grateful to the hard-pressed
+authorities in India; while the Queen and the Prince shared Lord
+Canning's opinion, that "nothing but a long continued manifestation
+of England's might before the eyes of the whole Indian empire,
+evinced by the presence of such an English force as should make the
+thought of opposition hopeless, would re-establish confidence in her
+strength."
+
+The necessary manifestation of strength was made; the reputation of
+England--so rudely shaken, not only in the opinion of ignorant
+Hindoos, but in that of her European rivals--was re-established
+fully, and indeed gained by the power she had shown to cope with an
+unparalleled emergency. The counsels of vengeance were set aside, in
+spite of the obloquy which for a time was heaped on the true wisdom
+which rejected them. We did not "dethrone Christ to set up Moloch";
+had we been guilty of that sanguinary folly, England and India might
+yet be ruing that year's doing. On the contrary, certain changes
+which did ensue in direct consequence of the Mutiny were productive
+of undoubted good.
+
+It was recognised that the "fiction of rule by a trading company" in
+India must now be swept away; one of the very earliest effects of the
+outbreak had been to open men's eyes to the weak and sore places of
+that system. In 1858 an "Act for the better Government of India" was
+passed, which transferred to Her Majesty all the territories formerly
+governed by the East India Company, and provided that all the powers
+it had once wielded should now be exercised in her name, and that its
+military and naval forces should henceforth be deemed her forces. The
+new Secretary of State for India, with an assistant council of
+fifteen members, was entrusted with the care of Indian interests
+here; the Viceroy, or Governor-General, also assisted by a council,
+was to be supreme in India itself. The first viceroy who represented
+the majesty of England to the Queen's Indian subjects was the
+statesman who had safely steered us through the imminent, deadly
+peril of the Mutiny, and whom right feeling and  sound policy alike
+designated as the only fit wearer of this honour. Under the new
+regime race and class prejudices have softened, education is
+spreading swiftly, native oppression is becoming more difficult, as
+improved communications bring the light of day into the remoter
+districts of the immense peninsula. The public mind of England has
+never quite relapsed into its former scornful indifference to the
+welfare of India; rather, that welfare has been regarded with much
+keener interest, and the nation has become increasingly alive to its
+duty with regard to that mighty dependency, now one in allegiance
+with ourselves. There was much of happy omen in the reception
+accorded by loyal Hindoos to the Queen's proclamation when it reached
+them in 1858. While the mass of the people gladly hailed the rule of
+the "Empress," by whom they believed the Company "had been hanged for
+great offences," there were individuals who were intelligent enough
+to recognise with delight that noble character of "humanity, mercy,
+and justice," which was impressed by the Queen's own agency on the
+proclamation issued in her name. We may say that the joy with which
+such persons accepted the new reign has been justified by events, and
+that the same great principles have continued to guide all Her
+Majesty's own action with regard to India, and also that of her
+ablest representatives there.
+
+We may not leave out of account, in reckoning the loss and gain of
+that tremendous year, the extraordinary examples of heroism called
+forth by its trials, which have made our annals richer, and have set
+the ideal of English nobleness higher. The amazing achievements and
+the swiftly following death of the gallant Havelock did not indeed
+eclipse in men's minds the equal patriotism and success of his noble
+fellows, but the tragic completeness of his story and the antique
+grandeur of his character made him specially dear to his countrymen;
+and the fact that he was already in his grave while the Queen and
+Parliament were busy in assigning to him the honours and rewards
+which his sixty years of life had hitherto lacked, added something
+like remorse to the national feeling for him. But the heart of the
+people swelled high with a worthy pride as we dwelt on his name and
+those of the Lawrences, the Neills, the Outrams, the Campbells, and
+felt that all our heroes had not died with Wellington.
+
+Other anxieties and misfortunes had not been lacking while the fate
+of British India still hung in the balance. The attitude of some
+European Powers, whom the breaking forth of the Mutiny had encouraged
+in the idea that England's power was waning, was full of menace,
+especially in view of what the Prince Consort justly called "our
+pitiable state of unpreparedness" for resisting attack. Prompted by
+him, the Queen caused close inquiry to be made into the state of our
+home defences and of the navy--the first step towards remedying the
+deficiencies therein existing. Also a "cold wave" seemed to be
+passing over the commercial community in England; the year 1857 being
+marked   by very great  financial  depression, which affected more or
+less every department of our industries. In connection with this
+calamity, however, there was at least one hopeful feature: the very
+different temper which the working classes, then, as always, the
+greatest sufferers by such depression, manifested in the time of
+trial. They showed themselves patient and loyal, able to understand
+that their employers too had evils to endure and difficulties to
+surmount; they no longer held all who were their superiors in station
+for their natural enemies: a happy change, testifying to the good
+worked by the new, beneficent spirit of legislation and reform.
+
+It is under the date of this year that we find Mr. Greville, on the
+authority of Lord Clarendon, thus describing the very thorough and
+"eminently useful" manner in which the Queen, assisted by the Prince,
+was exercising her high functions:--
+
+"She held each Minister to the discharge of his duty and his
+responsibility to her, and constantly desired to be furnished with
+accurate and detailed information about all important matters,
+keeping a record of all the reports that were made to her, and
+constantly referring to them; _e.g._, she would desire to know what
+the state of the navy was, and what ships were in readiness for
+active service, and generally the state of each, ordering returns to
+be submitted to her from all the arsenals and dockyards, and again,
+weeks or months afterwards, referring to these returns, and desiring
+to have everything relating to them explained and accounted for, and
+so throughout every department....This is what none of her
+predecessors ever did, and it is, in fact, the act of Prince Albert."
+
+We turn from this picture of the Sovereign's habitual occupations to
+her public life, and we find it never more full of apparently
+absorbing excitements--splendid hospitalities exchanged with other
+Powers, especially with Imperial France, alternating with messages of
+encouragement, full of cordiality and grace, to her successful
+commander-in-chief in India, Sir Colin Campbell, with plans for the
+conspicuous rewarding of the Indian heroes at large, with public
+visits to various great English towns, and with preparations for the
+impending marriage of the Princess Royal; and we realise forcibly
+that even in those sunny days, when the Queen was surrounded with her
+unbroken family of nine blooming and promising children, and still
+had at her right hand the invaluable counsellor by whose aid England
+was governed with a wisdom and energy all but unprecedented, her
+position was so far from a sinecure that no subject who had his daily
+bread to gain by his wits could have worked much harder.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE BEGINNINGS OF SORROWS.
+
+[Illustration: Windsor Castle.]
+
+IT has been the Queen's good fortune to see her own true-love match
+happily repeated in the marriages of her children. One would almost
+say that the conspicuous success of that union, the blessing that it
+brought with it to the nation, had set a new fashion to royalty.
+There is quite a romantic charm about the first marriage which broke
+the royal home-circle of England--that of the Queen's eldest child
+and namesake, Victoria, Princess Royal, with Prince Frederick
+William, eldest son of the then Prince of Prussia, whose exaltation
+to the imperial throne of Germany lay dimly and afar--if not
+altogether undreamed of by some prophetic spirits--in the future. The
+bride and bridegroom had first met, when the youth was but nineteen
+and the maiden only ten, at the great Peace Festival, the opening of
+the first Exhibition. Already the charming grace and rare
+intelligence of the Princess had attracted attention; and it is on
+record that at this early period some inkling of a possible
+attraction between the two had entered one observer's mind, who also
+notes that the young Prince, greatly interested by all he saw of free
+England and its rulers, was above all taken with the "perfect
+domestic happiness which he found pervading the heart, and core, and
+focus of the greatest empire in the world." Four years later the
+Prince was again visiting England, a guest of the royal family in its
+Scottish retreat of Balmoral, where they had just been celebrating
+with beacon fires and Highland mirth and music the glad news of the
+fall of Sebastopol. He had the full consent of his own family for his
+wooing, but the parents of his lady would have had him keep silence
+at least till the fifteen-year-old maiden should be confirmed. The
+ease and unconstraint of that mountain home-life, however, were not
+very favourable to reserve and reticence; a spray of white heather,
+offered and received as the national emblem of good fortune, was made
+the flower symbol of something more, and words were spoken that
+effectually bound the two young hearts, though the formal betrothal
+was deferred until some time after the Princess, in the following
+March, had received the rite of Confirmation; and "the actual
+marriage," said the Prince Consort, "cannot be thought of till the
+seventeenth birthday is past." "The secret must be kept _tant bien
+que mal_," he had written, well knowing that it would be a good deal
+of an open secret.
+
+[Illustration: Prince Frederick William.]
+
+[Illustration: Princess Royal.]
+
+The engagement was publicly announced in May, 1857, and though, when
+first rumoured, it had been coldly looked on by the English public,
+now it was accepted with great cordiality. The Prince was openly
+associated with the royal family; he and his future bride appeared as
+sponsors at the christening of our youngest Princess, Beatrice; he
+rode with the Prince Consort beside the Queen when she made the first
+distribution of the Victoria Cross, and was a prominent and heartily
+welcomed member of the royal group which visited the Art Treasures
+Exhibition of Manchester. The marriage, which was in preparation all
+through the grim days of 1857, was celebrated with due splendour on
+January 25th, 1858, and awakened a universal interest which was not
+even surpassed when, five years later, the heir to the throne was
+wedded. "Down to the humblest cottage," said the Prince Consort, "the
+marriage has been regarded as a family affair." And not only this
+splendid and entirely successful match, but every joy or woe that has
+befallen the highest family in the land, has been felt as "a family
+affair" by thousands of the lowly. This is the peculiar glory of the
+present reign.
+
+[Illustration: Charles Kingsley. _From a Photograph by_ Elliott &
+Fry.]
+
+Happy and auspicious as this marriage was, it was nevertheless the
+first interruption to the pure home bliss that hitherto had filled
+"the heart of the greatest empire in the world." The Princess Royal,
+with her "man's head and child's heart," had been the dear companion
+of the father whose fine qualities she inherited, and had largely
+shared in his great thoughts. Nor was she less dear to her mother,
+who had sedulously watched over the "darling flower," admiring and
+approving her "touching and delightful" filial worship of the Prince
+Consort, and who followed with longing affection every movement of
+the dear child now removed from her sheltering care, and making her
+own way and place in a new world. There she has indeed proved
+herself, as she pledged herself to do, "worthy to be her mother's
+child," following her parents in the path of true philanthropy and
+gentle human care for the suffering and the lowly. So far the ancient
+prophecy has been well fulfilled which promised good fortune to
+Prussia and its rulers when the heir of the reigning house should wed
+a princess from sea-girt Britain. But the wedding so propitious for
+Germany seemed almost the beginning of sorrows for English royalty.
+Other betrothals and marriages of the princes and princesses ensued;
+but the still lamented death of the Prince Consort intervened before
+one of those betrothals culminated in marriage.
+
+Another event which may be called domestic belongs to the year
+following this marriage--the coming of age of the Prince of Wales,
+fixed, according to English use and wont, when the heir of the crown
+completes his eighteenth year. Every educational advantage that
+wisdom or tenderness could suggest had been secured for the Prince.
+We may note in passing that one of his instructors was the Rev.
+Charles Kingsley, whom Prince Albert had engaged to deliver a series
+of lectures on history to his son. This honour, as well as that of
+his appointment as one of Her Majesty's chaplains, was largely due to
+royal recognition of the practical Christianity, so contagious in its
+fervour, which distinguished Mr. Kingsley, not less than his great
+gifts; of his eagerness "to help in lifting the great masses of the
+people out of the slough of ignorance and all its attendant suffering
+and vice"--an object peculiarly dear to the Queen and to the Prince,
+as had been consistently shown on every opportunity.
+
+When the time came that the youth so carefully trained should be
+emancipated from parental control, it was announced to him by the
+Queen in a letter characterised by Mr. Greville or his informant as
+"one of the most admirable ever penned. She tells him," continues the
+diarist, "that he may have thought the rule they adopted for his
+education a severe one, but that his welfare was their only object;
+and well knowing to what seductions of flattery he would eventually
+be exposed, they wished to prepare and strengthen his mind against
+them; that he was now to consider himself his own master, and that
+they should never intrude any advice upon him, although always ready
+to give it him whenever he thought fit to seek it. It was a very long
+letter, all in that tone; and it seems to have made a profound
+impression on the Prince.... The effect it produced is a proof of the
+wisdom that dictated its composition."
+
+We have chosen this as a true typical instance of the blended
+prudence and tenderness that have marked the relations between our
+Sovereign and her children. Aware what a power for good or evil the
+characters of those children must have on the fortunes of very many
+others, she and her husband sedulously surrounded them with every
+happy and healthy influence, never forgetting the supreme need of due
+employment for their energies. "Without a vocation," said the Prince
+Consort, "man is incapable of complete development and real
+happiness": his sons have all had their vocation.
+
+It was the same period, marked by these domestic passages of mingled
+joy and sorrow, that became memorable in another way, through the
+various troublous incidents which gave an extraordinary impetus to
+our national Volunteer movement, which were not remotely connected
+with the War of Italian Independence, and for a short time overthrew
+the popular Ministry of Lord Palmerston, who was replaced in office
+by Lord Derby. The futile plot of Felice Orsini, an Italian exile and
+patriot, against the life of Louis Napoleon, provoked great anger
+among the Imperialists of France against England, the former asylum
+of Orsini. A series of violent addresses from the French army,
+denouncing Great Britain as a mere harbour of assassins, did but give
+a more exaggerated form to the representations of French diplomacy,
+urging the amendment of our law, which appeared incompetent to touch
+murderous conspirators within our borders so long as their plots
+regarded only foreign Powers. The tone of France was deemed insolent
+and threatening; Lord Palmerston, who, in apparent deference to it,
+introduced a rather inefficient measure against conspiracy to murder,
+fell at once to the nadir of unpopularity, and soon had no choice but
+to resign; and the Volunteer movement in England--which had been
+begun in 1852, owing to the sinister changes that then took place in
+the French Government--now at once assumed the much more important
+character it has never since lost. The immense popularity of this
+movement and its rapid spread formed a significant reply to the
+insensate calls for vengeance on England which had risen from the
+French army, and which seemed worthy of attention in view of the vast
+increase now made in the naval strength of France, and of other
+preparations indicating that the Emperor meditated a great military
+enterprise. That enterprise proved to be the war with Austria which
+did so much for Italy, and which some observers were disposed to
+connect with the plot of Orsini--a rough reminder to the Emperor,
+they said, that he was trifling with the cause of Italian unity, to
+which he was secretly pledged. But Englishmen were slow to believe in
+such designs on the part of the French ruler. "How should a despot
+set men free?" was their thought, interpreted for them vigorously
+enough by an anonymous poet of the day; and they enrolled themselves
+in great numbers for national defence. With this movement there might
+be some evils mixed, but its purely defensive and manly character
+entitles it on the whole to be reckoned among the better influences
+of the day.
+
+[Illustration: Lord Palmerston.]
+
+Palmerston's discredit with his countrymen was of short duration, as
+was his exile from office; he was Premier again in the June of 1859,
+and was thenceforth "Prime Minister for life." His popularity, which
+had been for some time increasing, remained now quite unshaken until
+his death in 1865. Before Lord Derby's Government fell, however, a
+reform had been carried which could not but have been extremely
+grateful to Mr. Disraeli, then the Ministerial leader of the House of
+Commons. The last trace of the disabilities under which the Jews in
+England had laboured for many generations was now removed, and the
+Baron Lionel de Rothschild was able quietly to take his seat as one
+of the members for the City of London. The disabilities in question
+had never interfered with the ambition or the success of Mr.
+Disraeli, who at a very early age had become a member of the
+Christian Church. But his sympathies had never been alienated from
+the own people, with whom indeed he had always proudly identified
+himself by bold assertion of their manifold superiority. There are
+still, undoubtedly, persons in this country whose convictions lead
+them to think it anything but a wholesome change which has admitted
+among our legislators men, however able and worthy, who disclaim the
+name of _Christian_. But the change was brought about by the
+conviction, which has steadily deepened among us, that oppression of
+those of a different faith from our own, either by direct severities
+or by the withholding of civil rights, is a singularly poor weapon of
+conversion, and that the adversaries of Christianity are more likely
+to be conciliated by being dealt with in a Christlike spirit;
+further, that religious opinion may not be treated as a crime,
+without violation of God's justice. On the point as to the claim of
+_irreligious_ opinion to similar consideration, the national feeling
+cannot be called equally unanimous. In the case of the English Jews,
+it may be said that the tolerant and equal conduct adopted towards
+them has been well requited; the ancient people of God are not here,
+as in lands where they are trampled and trodden down, an offence and
+a trouble, the cause of repeated violent disturbance and the object
+of a frenzied hate, always deeply hurtful to those who entertain it.
+
+Other changes and other incidents that now occurred engrossed a
+greater share of the public attention than this measure of relief.
+The rapid march of events in Italy had been watched with eager
+interest, divided partly by certain ugly outbreaks of Turkish
+fanaticism in Syria, and by our proceedings in the Ionian islands,
+which finally resulted in the quiet transfer of those isles to the
+kingdom of Greece. The commercial treaty with France effected,
+through the agency of Mr. Cobden, on Free Trade lines, and Mr.
+Gladstone's memorable success in carrying the repeal of the paper
+duty, and thereby immensely facilitating journalistic enterprise,
+were hailed with great delight as beneficial and truly progressive
+measures. But events of a more gigantic character now took place,
+which at the moment affected our prosperity more directly than
+any fiscal reform, and appealed more powerfully to us than the
+savagery of our Turkish _proteges_ or even than the union of
+Italy under Victor Emmanuel into one free and friendly State. The
+long-smouldering dissensions between the Northern and Southern States
+of the American Union at last broke into flame, and war was declared
+between them, in 1861.
+
+The burning question of slavery was undoubtedly at the bottom of this
+contest, which has been truly described as a struggle for life
+between the "peculiar institution" and the principles of modern
+society. The nobler and more enthusiastic spirits in the Northern
+States beheld in it a strife between Michael and Satan, the Spirit of
+Darkness hurling himself against the Spirit of Light in a vain and
+presumptuous hope to overpower him; and their irritation was great
+when an eminent English man of letters was found describing it
+scornfully as "the burning of a dirty chimney," and when English
+opinion, speaking through very many journalists and public men,
+appeared half hostile to the Northern cause. Indeed, it might have
+been thought that opinion in England--England, which at a great cost
+had freed its own slaves, and which had never ceased by word and deed
+to attack slavery and the slave-trade--would not have faltered for a
+moment as to the party it would favour, but would have declared
+itself massively against the slave-holding South. But the contest at
+its outset was made to wear so doubtful an aspect that it was
+possible, unhappily possible, for many Englishmen of distinction to
+close their eyes to the great evils championed by the Southern
+troops. The war was not avowedly made by the North for the
+suppression of slavery, but to prevent the Southern States from
+withdrawing themselves from the Union: the Southerners on their side
+claimed a constitutional right so to withdraw if it pleased them, and
+denounced the attempt to retain them forcibly as a tyranny.
+
+[Illustration: Abraham Lincoln and his son.]
+
+This false colouring at first given to the contest had mischievous
+results. English feeling was embittered by the great distress in our
+manufacturing districts, directly caused up the action of the
+Northern States in blockading the Southern ports, and thus cutting
+off our supply of raw  material in the shape of cotton. On its side
+the North, which had calculated securely on English sympathy and
+respect, and was profoundly irritated by the many displays of a
+contrary feeling; and the exasperation on both sides more than once
+reached a point which made war appear almost inevitable--a war above
+all others to be deprecated. First came the affair of the
+_Trent_--the English mail-steamer from  which two  Southern envoys
+were carried off by an American naval commander, in contempt of the
+protection of the British flag. The action was technically illegal,
+and on the demand of the English Government its illegality was
+acknowledged, and the captives were restored; but the warlike and
+threatening tone of England on this occasion was bitterly resented at
+the North, and this resentment was greatly increased when it became
+known that various armed cruisers, in particular the notorious
+_Alabama_, designed to prey on the Northern commerce, were being
+built and fitted  by English  shipbuilders in English dockyards under
+the direction of the Southern foe, while the English Government could
+not decide if it were legally competent for Her Majesty's Ministers
+to interfere and detain such vessels. The tardy action at last taken
+just prevented the breaking out of hostilities. Out of these
+unfortunate transactions a certain good was to ensue at a date not
+far distant, when, after the restoration of peace, America and
+England, disputing as to the compensation due from one to the other
+for injuries sustained in this matter, gave to the world the great
+example of two nations submitting a point so grave to peaceful
+arbitration, instead of calling in the sword to make an end of it--an
+example more nearly pointing to the possible extinction of war than
+any other event of the world's history.
+
+Yet another hopeful feature may be noted in connection with this time
+of trouble. While the Secession war lasted, "the cotton famine" had
+full sway in Lancashire; unwonted and unwelcome light and stillness
+replaced the dun clouds of smoke and the busy hum that used to tell
+of fruitful, well-paid industry; and the patient people, haggard and
+pale but sadly submissive, were kept, and just kept, from starving by
+the incessant charitable effort of their countrymen. Never had the
+attitude of the suffering working classes shown such genuine
+nobility; they understood that the calamity which lay heavy on them
+was not brought about by the careless and selfish tyranny of their
+worldly superiors, but came in the order of God's providence; and
+their conduct at this crisis proved that an immense advance had been
+made in kindliness between class and class, and in true intelligence
+and appreciation of the difficulties proper to each. It was
+significant of this new temper that when at last peace returned,
+bringing some gleam of returning prosperity, the workers, who greeted
+with joyful tears the first bales of cotton that arrived, fell on
+their knees around the hopeful things and sang hymns of thanksgiving
+to the Author of all good.
+
+Such were the fruits of that new policy of care and consideration for
+the toilers and the lowly which had increasingly marked the new
+epoch, and which had been sedulously promoted by the Queen, in
+association with her large-thoughted and well-judging husband.
+
+It was in the midst of the troubles which we have just attempted to
+recall that a new and greater calamity came upon us, affecting the
+royal family indeed with the sharpest distress, but hardly less felt,
+even at the moment, by the nation.
+
+The year 1861 had already been darkened for Her Majesty by the death
+in the month of March, of her mother, the Duchess of Kent, to whose
+wise guardianship of the Queen's youth the nation owed so much, and
+who had ever commanded the faithful affection of this her youngest
+but greatest child, and of all her descendants. This death was the
+first stroke of real personal calamity to the Queen; it was destined
+to be followed by another bereavement, even severer in its nature,
+before the year had closed. The Prince Consort's health, though
+generally good, was not robust, and signs had not been wanting that
+his incessant toils were beginning to tell upon him. There had been
+illnesses, transitory indeed, but too significant of "overwork of
+brain and body." In addition to personal griefs, such as the death of
+the Duchess of Kent and of a beloved young Coburg prince and kinsman,
+the King of Portugal, which had been severely felt, there were the
+unhappy complications arising out of "the affair of the _Trent_,"
+which the Prince's statesmanlike wisdom had helped to bring to a
+peaceful and honourable conclusion. That wisdom, unhappily, was no
+longer at the service of England when a series of negligences and
+ignorances on the part of England's statesmen had landed us in the
+_Alabama_ difficulty.
+
+All these agitations had told upon a frame which was rather
+harmoniously and finely than vigorously constituted. "If I had an
+illness," he had been known to say, "I am sure I should not struggle
+for life. I have no tenacity of life." And in the November of 1861 an
+illness came against which he was not able to struggle, but which
+took all the country by surprise when, on December 14th, it
+terminated in death. Very many had hardly been aware that there was
+danger until the midnight tolling of the great bell of St. Paul's
+startled men with an instant foreboding of disaster. _What_ disaster
+it was that was thus knelled forth they knew not, and could hardly
+believe the tidings when given in articulate words.
+
+At first it had been said, the Prince had a feverish cold; presently
+the bulletin announced "fever, unattended with unfavourable
+symptoms." It was gastric fever, and before long there _were_
+unfavourable symptoms--pallid changes in the aspect, hurried
+breathing, wandering senses--all noted with heart-breaking anxiety by
+the loving nurses, the Queen and Princess Alice--the daughter so
+tender and beloved, the "dear little wife," the "good little wife,"
+whose ministerings were so comfortable to the sufferer overwearied
+with the great burden of life. He was released from it at ten minutes
+to eleven on the night of Saturday, December 14th; and there fell on
+her to whom his last conscious look had been turned, his last caress
+given, a burden of woe almost unspeakable, and for which the heart of
+the nation throbbed with well-nigh unbearable sympathy. Seldom has
+the personal grief of a sovereign been so keenly shared by subjects.
+Indeed, they had cause to lament; the removal of the Prince Consort,
+just when his faculties seemed ripest and his influence most assured,
+left a blank in the councils of the nation which has never been
+filled up. "We have buried our _king_" said Mr. Disraeli, regretting
+profoundly this national loss; but for once the English people forgot
+the public deprivation in compassionating her who was left more
+conspicuously lonely, more heavily burdened, than even the poor
+bereaved colliers' wives in the North for whom _her_ compassion was
+so quick and so sharply sympathetic. Something remorseful mingled
+then, and may mingle now, with the affection felt for this lost
+benefactor, who had not only been somewhat jealously eyed by certain
+classes on his first coming, but who had suffered much silently from
+misunderstanding and also from deliberate misrepresentation, and only
+by patient continuance in well-doing had at last won the favour which
+was his rightful due.
+
+    "That which we have we prize not to the worth
+    While we enjoy it; but being lacked and lost,
+    Why, then we rack the value, then we find
+    The virtue that possession would not show us
+    While it was ours."
+
+A peculiar tenderness was ever after cherished for Princess Alice,
+who in this dark hour rose up to be her mother's comforter,
+endeavouring in every way possible to save her all trouble--"all
+communications from the Ministers and household passed through the
+Princess's hands to the Queen, then bowed down with grief.... It was
+the very intimate intercourse with the sorrowing Queen at that time
+which called forth in Princess Alice that keen interest and
+understanding in politics for which she was afterwards so
+distinguished. The gay, bright girl suddenly developed into a wise,
+far-seeing woman, living only for others."
+
+[Illustration: Princess Alice.]
+
+This ministering angel in the house of mourning had been already
+betrothed, with her parents' full approval, to Prince Louis of Hesse;
+and to him she was married on July 1st, 1862, at Osborne, very
+quietly, as befitted the mournful circumstance of the royal family.
+Many a heartfelt wish for her happiness followed "England's
+England-loving daughter" to her foreign home, where she led a
+beautiful, useful life, treading in her father's footsteps, and
+continually cherished by the love of her mother; and the peculiarly
+touching manner of her death, a sort of martyrdom to sweet domestic
+affections, again stirred the heart of her own people to mournful
+admiration. A cottager's wife might have died as Princess Alice died,
+through breathing in the poison of diphtheria as she hung, a
+constant, loving nurse, over the pillows of her suffering husband and
+children. This beautiful _homeliness_ that has marked the lives of
+our Sovereign and her children has been of inestimable value, raising
+simple human virtues to their proper pre-eminence before the eyes of
+the English people of to-day, who are very materially, if often
+unconsciously, swayed by the example set them in high places.
+
+In the May after Prince Consort's death the second International
+Exhibition was opened, amid sad memories of the first, so joyful in
+every way, and a certain sense of discouragement because the golden
+days of universal peace seemed farther off than ten years before.
+
+        "Is the goal so far away?
+        Far, how far no tongue can say;
+        Let us dream our dream to-day."
+
+Far indeed it seemed, with the fratricidal contest raging in America,
+and shutting out all contributions to this World's Fair from the
+United States.
+
+[Illustration: The Mausoleum.]
+
+The Queen had betaken herself that May to her Highland home, whose
+joy seemed dead, and where her melancholy pleased itself in the
+erection of a memorial cairn to the Prince on Craig Lorigan, after
+she had returned from Princess Alice's wedding. But in May she had
+sent for Dr. Norman Macleod, who was not only distinguished as one of
+her own chaplains, but was also a friend already endeared to the
+Prince and herself; and she found comfort in the counsels of that
+faithful minister and loyal man, who has left some slight record of
+her words. "She said she never shut her eyes to trials, but liked to
+look them in the face; she would never shrink from duty, but all was
+at present done mechanically; her highest ideas of purity and love
+were obtained from the Prince, and God could not be displeased with
+her love.... There was nothing morbid in her grief.... She said that
+the Prince always believed he was to die soon, and that he often told
+her that he had never any fear of death." It seemed that in this
+persuasion the Prince had made haste to live up to the duties of his
+difficult station to the very utmost, and "being made perfect in a
+short time fulfilled a long time [Footnote]."
+
+[Footnote: Inscription on the cairn on Craig Lorigan.]
+
+"The more I learn about the Prince Consort," continues Dr. Macleod,
+"the more I agree with what the Queen said to me about him: 'that he
+really did not seem to comprehend a selfish character, or what
+selfishness was.' And on whatever day his public life is revealed to
+the world, I feel certain this will be recognised."
+
+[Illustration: Dr. Norman Macleod.]
+
+The Queen, by revealing to the world, with a kind of holy boldness,
+what the Prince's public and private life was, has justified this
+confidence of her faithful friend.
+
+Early in 1863, Dr. Macleod was led by the Queen into the mausoleum
+she had caused to be raised for her husband's last resting-place.
+Calm and quiet she stood and looked on the beautiful sculptured image
+of him she had lost: having "that within which passeth show," her
+grief was tranquil. "She is so true, so genuine, I wonder not at her
+sorrow; it but expresses the greatest loss that a sovereign and wife
+could sustain," said the deeply moved spectator.
+
+An event was close at hand which was to mingle a little joy in the
+bitter cup so long pressed to our Sovereign's lips. The Prince of
+Wales had formed an attachment to the Princess Alexandra of Denmark,
+a singularly winning and lovely lady, whose popularity, ever since
+her sweet face first shone on the surging crowds that shouted her
+welcome into London, has seemed always at flood-tide. Faithful to her
+experience and convictions, the Queen smiled gladly on the marriage
+of affection between this gentle princess and the heir to the throne,
+and was present as a spectator, though still wearing her sombre
+weeds, at the splendid show of her son's wedding on March 10th, 1863.
+"Two things have struck me much," writes Dr. Macleod, from whose
+Journal we again quote: "one was the whole of the royal princesses
+weeping, though concealing their tears with their bouquets, as they
+saw their brother, who was to them but their 'Bertie' and their dear
+father's son, standing alone waiting for his bride. The other was the
+Queen's expression as she raised her eyes to heaven while her
+husband's _Chorale_ was sung. She seemed to be with him alone before
+the throne of God."
+
+[Illustration: Prince of Wales. _From a Photograph by W. & D. Downey,
+Ebury Street, W._]
+
+"No possible favour can the Queen grant me, or honour bestow," said
+the manly writer of these words, "beyond what the poor can give the
+poor--her friendship." It is rarely that one sitting amid "the fierce
+light that beats upon the throne" has been able to enjoy the simple
+bliss of true, disinterested friendship with those of kindred soul
+but inferior station. Such rare fortune, however, has been the
+Queen's; and it is worthy of note that her special regard has been
+won by persons distinguished not less by loftiness and purity of
+character than by mental power or personal charm. She has not escaped
+the frequent penalty of strong affection, that of being bereaved of
+its objects. She has outlived earlier and later friends alike--Lady
+Augusta Stanley and her husband, the beloved Dean of Westminster; the
+good and beautiful Duchess of Sutherland; the two eminent Scotchmen,
+Principal Tulloch and Dr. Macleod himself; and the Archbishop of
+Canterbury, Dr. Tait, with his charming wife. To these might be
+added, among the more eminent objects of her regard, the late poet
+laureate, who shared with Macaulay the once unique privilege of
+having been raised to the peerage more for transcendent ability than
+for any other motive--a distinction that never would have been so
+bestowed by our early Hanoverian kings, and which offers a marked
+contrast to the sort of patronage with which later sovereigns have
+distinguished the great writers of their time. A new spirit rules
+now; of this no better evidence could be given than this recently
+published testimony to the relations between Queen and poet: "Mrs.
+Tennyson told us that the poet laureate likes and admires the Queen
+personally very much, and enjoys conversation with her. Mrs. Tennyson
+generally goes too, and says the Queen's manner towards him is
+childlike and charming, and they both give their opinions freely,
+even when those differ from the Queen's, which she takes with perfect
+good humour, and is very animated herself [Footnote]."
+
+[Footnote: "Anne Gilchrist: her Life and Writings." London: 1887.]
+
+[Illustration: Princess of Wales. _From a Photograph by Walery._]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+CHANGES GOOD AND EVIL.
+
+With the death of Lord Palmerston in 1865, a sort of truce in the
+strife of parties, which his supremacy had secured, came to an end.
+That supremacy had been imperilled for a moment when the Government
+declined to make an armed intervention in the struggle between
+Denmark and the German Powers in 1864. Such an intervention would
+have been very popular with the English people, who could hardly know
+that "all Germany would rise as one man" to repel it if it were
+risked. But the English Premier's rare command of his audience in
+Parliament enabled him to overcome even this difficulty; and the
+gigantic series of contests on the Continent which resulted in the
+consolidation of the German empire, the complete liberation of Italy,
+the overthrow of Imperialism in France and of the temporal power of
+the Pope even in Rome itself, went on its way without our
+interference also, which would hardly have been the case had we
+intermeddled in the ill-understood contention between Denmark and its
+adversaries as to the Schleswig-Holstein succession.
+
+[Illustration: Sir Robert Napier.]
+
+That strange crime, the murder of President Lincoln, in America just
+when the long contest between North and South had ended and the cause
+of true freedom had triumphed, was actually fruitful of good as
+regarded this country and the United States. A cry of horror went up
+from all England at the news of that "most accursed assassination,"
+which seemed at the moment to brand the losing cause, whose partisan
+was guilty of it, with the very mark of Cain. Expressions of sympathy
+with the outraged country and of admiring regret for its murdered
+head were lavished by every respectable organ of opinion; while the
+Queen, by writing in personal sympathy, as one widow to another, to
+the bereaved wife of Lincoln, made herself, as she has often done,
+the mouthpiece of her people's best feeling. Again and again has it
+been manifested that America and England are in more cordial
+relations with each other since the tremendous civil war than before
+it. It is no matter of statecraft, but a better understanding between
+two great English-speaking peoples, drawn into closer fellowship by
+far more easy communication than of old.
+
+A little war with Ashantee, not too successful, a difficulty with
+Japan, some more serious troubles with New Zealand, exhaust the list
+of the warlike enterprises of England in the last years of
+Palmerston. In a year or two after his death we were engaged in a
+brief and entirely successful campaign against the barbaric King
+Theodore of Abyssinia, "a compound of savage virtue and more than
+savage ambition and cruelty," who, imagining himself wronged and
+slighted by England, had seized a number of British subjects, held
+them in hard captivity, and treated them with such capricious cruelty
+as made it very manifest that their lives were not worth an hour's
+purchase. It fell to the Ministry of Mr. Disraeli, Premier on the
+resignation of his colleague Lord Derby, who had displaced Earl
+Russell in that office, to bring this strange potentate to reason by
+force of arms. Under Sir Robert Napier's management the work was done
+with remarkable precision; no English life was lost; and but few of
+our soldiers were wounded; Magdala, the mountain eyrie of King
+Theodore, was stormed and destroyed, and the captives, having been
+surrendered under dread of the British arms, were restored to freedom
+and safety. The honour of our land, imperilled by the oppression of
+our subjects was triumphantly vindicated; other good was not
+achieved. Theodore, unwilling to survive defeat, was found dead by
+his own hand when Magdala was carried, and he was afterwards
+succeeded on the Abyssinian throne by a chief who had more than all
+his predecessor's vices and none of his virtues. For this
+well-managed campaign Sir Robert Napier was raised to the peerage as
+Lord Napier of Magdala. The swift success, the brilliant promptitude,
+of his achievement are almost painful to recall to-day, in face of
+another enterprise for the rescue of a British subject, conducted by
+a commander not less able and resolute, at the head of troops as
+daring and as enthusiastic, which was turned into a conspicuous
+failure by unhappy delayings on the part of the civil authorities, in
+the fatal winter of 1884-5.
+
+[Illustration: Mr. Gladstone.]
+
+Turning our eyes from foreign matters to the internal affairs of the
+United Kingdom, we see two great leaders, Mr. Disraeli and Mr.
+Gladstone--whose "long Parliamentary duel" had begun early in the
+fifties of this century--outbidding each other by turns for the
+public favour, and each in his different way ministering to the
+popular craving for reform. With Mr. Disraeli's first appearance as
+leader of the house of Commons, this rivalry entered on its most
+noticeable stage; it only really ceased with the life of the
+brilliant, versatile, and daring _litterateur_ and statesman who died
+as Earl Beaconsfield, not very long after his last tenure of office
+expired in 1880. In 1867 Mr. Disraeli, as Leader of the Lower House,
+carried a measure for the reform of the franchise in England, and the
+year following similar measures with regard to Ireland and Scotland.
+In 1869 it was Mr. Gladstone's turn, and he introduced and carried
+two remarkable Bills--one for the disestablishment of the Irish
+Church, and one for the amendment of land tenure in Ireland, the
+latter passing into law in August, 1870. It had long been felt as a
+bitter grievance by the mass of Irishmen that the Church established
+in their country should be one which did not command the allegiance
+of one-sixth of its people and though opinion in England was sharply
+divided as to the question of Irish disestablishment, the majority of
+Englishmen undoubtedly considered the grievance to be something more
+than a sentimental one, and deserving of removal. Another startling
+measure of reform was the abolition of purchase in the army, carried
+in the face of a reluctant House of Lords by means of a sudden
+exercise of royal prerogative under advice of the Government; the
+Premier announcing "that as the system of purchase was the creation
+of royal regulation, he had advised the Queen to take the decisive
+step of cancelling the royal warrant which made purchase legal"--a
+step which, however singular, was undoubtedly legal, as was proved by
+abundant evidence.
+
+A measure which may not improbably prove to have affected the
+fortunes of this country more extensively than any of those already
+enumerated was the Education Bill introduced by Mr. Forster in 1870,
+and designed to secure public elementary education for even the
+humblest classes throughout England and Wales. Hitherto the teaching
+of the destitute poor had been largely left to private charity or
+piety, and in the crowded towns it had been much neglected, with the
+great exception of the work done in Ragged Schools--those gallant
+efforts made by unpaid Christian zeal to cope with the multitudinous
+ignorance and misery of our overgrown cities. It was very slowly that
+the national conscience was aroused to the peril and sin of allowing
+the masses to grow up in heathen ignorance; but at last the English
+State shook off its sluggish indifference to the instruction of its
+poor, and became as active as it had been supine. Mr. Forster's Bill
+is the measure which indicates this turning of the tide. We do not
+propose now to discuss the provisions of this Act, which were sharply
+canvassed at the time, and which certainly have not worked without
+friction; but we may say that the stimulus then given to educational
+activity, if judged by subsequent results, must be acknowledged to
+have been advantageous. The system of schools under the charge of
+various religious bodies, which existed before the Education Act, has
+not been superseded; that indeed would have been a deep misfortune,
+for it is more needed than ever; the masses of the population have
+been, to an appreciable extent, reached and instructed; and we shall
+not much err in connecting as cause and effect the wider instruction
+with the diminution of pauperism and crime which the statistics of
+recent years reveal.
+
+The same member who honoured himself and benefited his country by
+this great effort to promote the advance of the "angel Knowledge"
+also introduced, in 1871, the Ballot Bill, designed to do away with
+all the violence and corruption that had long disgraced Parliamentary
+elections in this free land, and that showed no symptom of a tendency
+to reform themselves. The new system of secret voting which was now
+adopted has required, it is true, to be further purified by the
+recent Corrupt Practices Bill and its stringent provisions; but no
+one, whose memory is long enough to recall the tumultuous and
+discreditable scenes attendant on elections under the old system,
+will be inclined to deny that much that was flagrantly disgraceful as
+well as dishonest has been swept away by the reforming energy of our
+own day.
+
+It is to the same period, made memorable by these internal reforms,
+that we have to refer the final settlement of the long-standing
+controversy between Great Britain and the United States as to the
+_Alabama_ claims. We have already referred to these claims and the
+peaceful though very costly manner of their adjustment. That the
+award on the whole should go against us was not very grateful to the
+English people; but when the natural irritation of the hour had time
+to subside, the substantial justice of the decision was little
+disputed. While England was thus busied in strengthening her walls
+and making straight her ways, her great neighbour and rival was
+passing through a very furnace of misery. The colossal-seeming
+Empire, whose head was rather of strangely mingled Corinthian metal
+than of fine gold, and whose iron feet were mixed with miry clay, was
+tottering to its overthrow, and fell in the wild days of 1870 with a
+world-awakening crash. Again it was a dispute concerning the throne
+of Spain which precipitated the fall of a French sovereign. It would
+seem as if interference with the affairs of its Southern neighbour
+was ever to be ominous of evil to France. The first great Napoleon
+had had to rue such interference; it had been disastrous to Louis
+Philippe; now Louis Napoleon, making the candidature of Leopold of
+Hohenzollern for the Spanish crown a pretext for war with Prussia,
+forced on the strife which was to dethrone himself, to cast down his
+dynasty, and to despoil France of two fair provinces, Alsace and
+Lorraine, once taken from Germany, now reconquered for United
+Germany. With that strife, which resulted in the exaltation of the
+Prussian King, our Princess Royal's father-in-law, as German Emperor,
+England had absolutely nothing to do, except to pity the fallen and
+help the suffering as far as in her lay; but it awakened profoundest
+interest, especially while the long siege of Paris dragged on through
+the hard winter of 1870-71; hardly yet is the interest of the subject
+exhausted.
+
+A certain fleeting effect was produced in England by the erection of
+a New Republic in France in place of the fallen Empire, while the
+family of the defeated ruler--rejected by his realm more for lack of
+success than for his bad government--escaped to the safety of this
+country from the angry hatred of their own. A few people here began
+to talk republicanism in public, and to commend the "logical
+superiority" of that mode of government, oblivious of the fact that
+practical Britain prefers a system, however illogical, that actually
+works well, to the most beautifully reasoned but untested paper
+theory. But the wild excesses of the Commune in Paris, outdoing in
+horror the sufferings of the siege, quickly produced the same effect
+here that was wrought in the last century by the French Reign of
+Terror, and English republicanism relapsed into the dormant state
+from which it had only just awakened. The dangerous illness that
+attacked the Prince of Wales in the last days of 1871, calling forth
+such keen anxiety throughout the land that it seemed as if thousands
+of families had a son lying in imminent peril of death, showed at
+once that the nation was yet loyal to the core. True prayers were
+everywhere offered up in sympathy with the mother, the sister, the
+wife, who watched at the bedside of the heir to the throne; and when,
+on the very anniversary of the Prince Consort's death, the life that
+had seemed ebbing away turned to flow upward again; a sort of sob of
+relief rose from the heart of the people, who rejoiced to be able, at
+a later day, to share with their Queen her solemn act of thanksgiving
+for mercy shown, as she went with her restored son, her son's wife,
+and her son's sons, to worship and give praise in the great cathedral
+of St. Paul's.
+
+Princess Alice, who had shared and softened the grief of her mother
+ten years before, had been again at her side during all the
+protracted anxiety of this winter, and had helped to nurse her
+brother. The Princess's experience of nursing had been terribly
+increased during the awful wars, when she had been incessantly busied
+in hospital organisation and work, suffering from the sight of
+suffering as a sensitive nature must, but ever toiling to lighten it;
+and she had come with her children to recover a little strength in
+her mother's Highland home. Thus it was that she was found at
+Sandringham when her brother's illness declared itself, "fulfilling
+the same priceless offices" of affection as in her maiden days, and
+endearing herself the more to the English people, who grieved for her
+when, in the ensuing year, a mournful accident robbed her of one
+darling child, and who felt it like a personal domestic loss when in
+1878 the beautiful life ended. Other royal marriages have from time
+to time awakened public interest, and one, celebrated between the
+Princess Louise and the Marquis of Lorne, heir of the dukedom of
+Argyll, had just preceded the illness of the Prince and was regarded
+with much more attention because no British subject since the days of
+George II's legislation as to royal alliances had been deemed worthy
+of such honour. But not even the more outwardly splendid match
+between the Queen's sailor son, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, and the
+daughter of the Czar Alexander, could eclipse in popularity the quiet
+marriage, overclouded with sorrow, and the tranquil, hard-working
+life of the good and gifted lady who was to die the martyr of her
+true motherly and wifely devotion.
+
+[Illustration: Lord Beaconsfield.]
+
+[Illustration: Lord Salisbury.]
+
+From these glimpses of the joys and troubles affecting the household
+that is cherished in the heart of England, we return to the more
+stormy records of our public doings. A sort of link between the two
+exists in the long and very successful tour which the Prince of
+Wales, some time after his restoration to health, made of the vast
+Indian dominions of the crown. Extensive travels and wide
+acquaintance with the great world to which Britain is bound by a
+thousand ties have entered largely into the royal scheme of education
+for the future King. No princes of England in former days have seen
+so much of other lands as the sons of Queen Victoria; and this
+particular journey is understood to have had an excellent political
+effect.
+
+Mr. Gladstone's five years' lease of power, which had been signalised
+by so many important changes, came to an end in 1874, just before the
+time when Sir Garnet Wolseley, sent to bring the savage King of
+Ashantee to reason, returned successful to England, having snatched a
+complete victory "out of the very jaws of approaching sun and fever"
+on the pestilent West Coast of Africa in the early days of 1874. The
+last Ministry of Mr. Disraeli, who now assumed office, was marked by
+several noticeable events: the proclamation of the Queen as "Empress
+of India," in formal definite recognition of the new relation between
+little England and the gigantic, many-peopled realm which through
+strange adventure has come directly under our Sovereign's sway; the
+Russo-Turkish war, following on the evil doings in Turkey known as
+the "Bulgarian atrocities," and terminating in a peace signed at
+Berlin, with which the English Premier, now known as Lord
+Beaconsfield, had very much to do; and the acquisition by England of
+the 176,000 shares in the Suez Canal originally held by the Khedive
+of Egypt--a transaction to which France, also largely interested in
+the Canal, was a consenting party. To this period belong the
+distressful Afghan and Zulu wars, the latter unhappily memorable by
+the tragic fate that befell the young son of Louis Napoleon, a
+volunteer serving with the English army. Deep sympathy was felt for
+his imperial mother, widowed since 1873, and now bereaved of her only
+child; and by none was her sorrow more keenly realised than by the
+Queen, who herself had to mourn the loss of the beloved Princess
+Alice, the first of her children to follow her father into the silent
+land. The death of the Prince Louis Napoleon at the hands of savage
+Zulus was severely felt by the still strong Bonapartism of France;
+but Englishmen, remembering the early melancholy death of the heir of
+the first Napoleon, were struck by the fatal coincidence, while they
+could honestly deplore the premature extinction of so much youth,
+gallantry, and hope-fulness, cast away in our own ill-starred
+quarrel.
+
+An agitation distinctly humanitarian and domestic had been going on
+during the early years of this Ministry, which resulted in the
+passing of the Merchant Shipping Bill, intended to remedy the many
+wrongs to which our merchant seamen were subject, a measure almost
+entirely procured by the fervent human sympathy and resoluteness of
+one member of Parliament, Samuel Plimsoll; and other measures
+belonging to this period, and designed to benefit the toilers of the
+land principally, were initiated by the energy of the Home Secretary,
+Mr. Cross. But neither the imposing foreign action of Lord
+Beaconsfield's Government, nor the domestic improvements wrought
+during its period of power, could maintain it in public favour. There
+was great and growing distress in the country; depression of trade,
+severe winters, sunless summers, all produced suffering, and
+suffering discontent. An appeal to the country, made in the spring of
+1880, shifted the Parliamentary majority from the Conservative to the
+Liberal side. Lord Beaconsfield resigned, and Mr. Gladstone returned
+to power.
+
+The history of the Gladstone Ministry does not come well within the
+scope of this work. Certain very memorable events must be touched
+upon; there are dark chapters of our national story, stains and blots
+on our great name, which force themselves upon us. But to follow the
+Government through its years of struggle with the ever-growing bulk
+of Irish difficulty, and to track it through its various enactments
+designed still further to improve the condition of the English
+people, would require a small volume to itself. England still
+remembers the thrill, half fury, half anguish, which ran through her
+at the tidings that the new Chief Secretary for Ireland, charged with
+a message of peace and conciliation, had been stabbed to death within
+twenty-four hours of his landing on that unhappy shore. She cannot
+forego the deep instinctive feeling--so generally manifested at the
+time of Lincoln's murder--that the lawless spilling of life for any
+cause dishonours and discredits that cause; nor have various
+subsequent efforts made to terrorise public opinion here been
+differently judged.
+
+But it was a far more cruel shock that was inflicted through the
+series of ill-advised proceedings that brought about the great
+disaster of Khartoum. Before we deal with these, we must glance at
+the African and Afghan troubles, again breaking out and again
+quieted, the first by a peace with the Boers of the Transvaal that
+awakened violent discussion not yet at an end, and the second, after
+some successes of the British arms, by a judicious arrangement
+designed to secure the neutrality of Afghanistan, interposed by
+nature as a strong, all but insurmountable, barrier between India and
+Central Asia. These transactions, the theme of sharp contention at
+the time, were cast into the shade by events in which we were
+concerned in Egypt, our newly acquired interests in the Suez Canal
+making that country far more important to us than of yore. Its
+condition was very wretched, its government at once feeble and
+oppressive, and, despite the joint influence which France and England
+had acquired in Egyptian councils, an armed rebellion broke out,
+under the leadership of Arabi Pasha. France declining to act in this
+emergency, the troops and fleet of England put down this revolt
+single-handed; and in their successes the Queen's third son, Arthur,
+Duke of Connaught, took his part, under the orders of Sir Garnet
+(afterwards Lord) Wolseley. There were again rejoicings in Balmoral,
+where the Queen, with her soldierly son's young wife beside her, was
+preparing to receive another bride--Princess Helen of Waldeck, just
+wedded to our youngest Prince, Leopold, Duke of Albany.
+
+But this gleam of brightness was destined to be followed by darker
+disaster far than that which seemed averted for the moment. A
+mightier rebellion was arising in the Soudan, a vast tract of country
+annexed by the ambition of Ismail, the former Khedive of Egypt, to be
+ill governed by his officials and ravaged by the slave-trade. These
+evils were checked for a few years by the strong hand of Charles
+George Gordon, already famous through his achievements in China, and
+invested with unlimited power by Ismail; but, that potentate being
+overthrown, the great Englishman left his thankless post, no longer
+tenable by him. Then it seemed that chaos had come again; and a bold
+and keen, though probably hypocritical, dervish, self-styled the
+_Mahdi_, or Mohammedan Messiah, was able to kindle new flames of
+revolt, which burned with the quenchless fury of Oriental fanaticism.
+His Arab and negro soldiers made short work of the poor Egyptian
+fellaheen sent to fight them, though these were under the command of
+Englishmen. The army led by Hicks Pasha utterly vanished in the
+deserts, as that of Cambyses did of old. The army under Baker Pasha
+did not, indeed, disappear in the same mysterious manner, but it too
+was routed with great slaughter.
+
+The English Government, willing to avoid the vast task of crushing
+the revolt, had counselled the abandonment of the Soudan, and the
+Khedive's Ministers reluctantly acquiesced. But there were Egyptian
+garrisons scattered throughout the Soudan which must not be abandoned
+with the country. Above all, there was Khartoum, an important town at
+the junction of the Blue and the White Nile, with a large European
+settlement and an Egyptian garrison, all in pressing danger, loyal as
+yet, but full of just apprehension. These troops, these officials,
+these women and children, who only occupied their perilous position
+through the action of the Khedive's Government, had a right to
+protection--a right acknowledged by Her Majesty's Ministers; but they
+wished to avoid hostilities. General Graham, left in command on the
+Red Sea littoral, was allowed to take action against the Mahdi's
+lieutenant who was threatening Suakim, and who was driven back with
+heavy loss; but he might not follow up the victory.
+
+[Illustration: General Gordon.]
+
+The English Government hoped to withdraw the garrisons in safety,
+without force of arms. They had been for some time urging on the
+Khedive that the marvellous influence which Gordon was known to have
+acquired in his old  province should now be utilised, and that to
+_him_ should be entrusted the herculean task of tranquillising the
+Soudan, by reinstating its ancient dynasties of tribal chiefs and
+withdrawing all Egyptian and European troops and officials. Their
+plan was at last accepted; then Gordon, hitherto unacquainted, like
+the public at large, with the Government designs, was informed of
+them and invited to carry them out. He consented; and, with the
+chivalric promptitude which essentially belonged to his character, he
+departed the same night on his perilous errand. Passing through
+Cairo, he received plenary powers from the Khedive, and went on
+almost alone to Khartoum, where he was received with an overflowing
+enthusiasm. But, with all his eager haste, he was too late to bring
+about the desired results by peaceful means. "He should have come a
+year ago," muttered his native well-wishers. Week after week and
+month after month, his position in Khartoum became more perilous;
+the Mahdi's power waxed greater, and his hordes drew round the city,
+which long defied them, while garrison after garrison fell into their
+hands elsewhere. It was in vain that General Gordon urged the
+despatch of British troops, a few hundred of whom would at one time
+have sufficed to turn the tide, and insure success in his enterprise.
+They were still withheld; and he would not secure his own safety by
+deserting the people whom his presence had induced to stand out
+against the impostor and his hosts. The city endured a long, cruel
+siege, and fell at last, reduced by hunger and treachery, just as a
+tardily despatched British force was making its way to relieve it--a
+force commanded by Lord Wolseley, who half a year before had been
+protesting against the "indelible disgrace" of leaving Gordon to his
+fate. He was not able even to bury his friend and comrade, slain by
+the fanatic enemy when they broke into the city in the early morning
+of January 26th, 1885.
+
+[Illustration: Duke of Albany. _From a Photograph by A. BASSANO, Bond
+Street, W._]
+
+"I have done my best for the honour of our country," were the parting
+words of the dead hero. His country felt itself profoundly
+dishonoured by the manner in which it had lost this its famous son--a
+man distinguished at once by commanding ability, unsullied honour,
+heroic valour; a man full of tenderest beneficence towards his
+fellows, and of utter devotion to his God; "the grandest figure,"
+said an American admirer, "that has crossed the disc of this planet
+for centuries." Him England had fatally delayed to help, withheld by
+the dread of costly and cruel warfare; and then just failed to save
+him by a war enormously costly and cruelly fatal indeed. A general
+lamentation, blent with cries of anger, rose up from the land. Her
+Majesty shared the common sorrow, as her messages of sympathy to the
+surviving relations of Gordon testified. Various charitable
+institutions, modelled on the lines which he had followed in his work
+among the poor, rose to keep his memory green; and thus the objects
+of his Christlike care during his life are now profiting by the
+world-famous manner of his death. But there is still a deep feeling
+that even time itself can hardly efface the stain that has been left
+on our national fame. An English expedition, well commanded, full of
+ardour and daring, sent to accomplish a specific object, and failing
+in that object; its commander, entirely guiltless of blame, having to
+abandon the scene of his triumphs to a savage, fanatic foe as was now
+the case--this was evil enough; but that our beloved countryman, a
+true knight without fear and without reproach, should have been
+betrayed to desertion and death through his own magnanimity and our
+sluggishness, added a rankling, poisonous sense of shame to our
+humiliation. That the same year saw further electoral privileges
+extended to the humble classes in England, beyond what even the last
+Reform Bill had conferred, which might prove of advantage afterwards,
+but was an imperfect consolation at the time. Another grief fell upon
+the Queen in this year in the early death of Leopold, Duke of Albany,
+a Prince whose intellectual gifts were nearly allied to those of his
+father, but on whom lifelong delicacy of health had enforced a life
+of comparative quietude. His widowed bride and infant children have
+ever since been cared for tenderly by his royal mother.
+
+[Illustration: Duchess of Albany. _From a Photograph by A. BASSANO,
+Bond Street, W._]
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+OUR COLONIES.
+
+[Illustration: Sydney Heads.]
+
+If now we turn our eyes a while from the foreign and domestic
+concerns of Great Britain proper, and look to the Greater Britain
+beyond the seas, we shall find that its progress has nowise lagged
+behind that of the mother Isle. To Lord Durham, the remarkable man
+sent out in 1838 to deal with the rebellion in Lower Canada, we owe
+the inauguration of a totally new scheme of colonial policy, which
+has been crowned with success wherever it has been introduced. It has
+succeeded in the vast Canadian Dominion, now stretching from ocean to
+ocean, and embracing all British North America, with the single
+exception of the Isle of Newfoundland. In 1867 this Federation was
+first formed, uniting then only the two Canadas with New Brunswick
+and Nova Scotia, under a constitution framed on Lord Durham's plan,
+and providing for the management of common affairs by a central
+Parliament, while each province should have its own local
+legislature, and the executive be vested in the Crown, ruling through
+its Governor General. It had been made competent for the other
+provinces of British North America to join this Federation, if they
+should so will; and one after another has joined it, with the one
+exception mentioned above, which may or may not be permanent. The
+population of the Dominion has trebled, and its revenues have
+increased twenty-fold, since its constitution was thus settled.
+
+The same system, it may be hoped, will equally succeed in that
+wonderful Australasia where our colonists now have the shaping of
+their destinies in their own hands, amid the yet unexplored amplitude
+of a land where "in the softest and sweetest air, and in an
+unexhausted soil, the fable of Midas is reversed; food does not turn
+to gold, but the gold with which the land is teeming converts itself
+into farms and vineyards, into flocks and herds, into crops of wild
+luxuriance, into cities whose recent origin is concealed and
+compensated by trees and flowers."
+
+In such terms does a recent eye-witness describe the splendid
+prosperity attained within the last two or three decades by that
+Australia which our fathers thought of chiefly as a kind of far-off
+rubbish-heap where they could fling out the human garbage of England,
+to rot or redeem itself as it might, well out of the way of society's
+fastidious nostril, and which to our childhood was chiefly associated
+with the wild gold-fever and the wreck and ruin which that fever too
+often wrought. The transportation system, so far as Australia was
+concerned, came virtually to an end with the discovery of gold in the
+region to which we had been shipping off our criminals. The colonists
+had long been complaining of this system, which at first sight had
+much to recommend it, as offering a fair chance of reformation to the
+convict, and providing cheap labour for the land that received him.
+But it was found, as a high official said, that convict labour was
+far less valuable than the uncompelled work of honest freemen; and
+the contagious vices which the criminal classes brought with them
+made them little welcome. When to these drawbacks were added the
+difficulties and dangers with which the presence of the convict
+element in the population encumbered the new gold-mining industry,
+the question reached the burning stage. The system was modified in
+1853, and totally abolished in 1857. Transports whose sentence were
+unexpired lingered out their time in Tasmania, whence the aborigines
+have vanished under circumstances of cruelty assuredly not mitigated
+by the presence of convicts in the island; but Australia was
+henceforth free from the blight.
+
+The political life of these colonies may be said to have begun in the
+same year--1853--when the importation of criminals received its first
+check. New South Wales, the eldest of the Australian provinces,
+received a genuine constitution of its own; Victoria followed in
+1856--Victoria, which is not without its dreams of being one day "the
+chief State in a federated Australia," an Australia that may then
+rank as "a second United States of the Southern Hemisphere." Western
+Australia, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, and New Zealand,
+one after another, attained the same liberties; all have now
+representative governments, modelled on those of the mother country,
+but inevitably without the aristocratic element. Such an aristocracy
+as that of England is the natural growth of many centuries and of
+circumstances hardly likely to be duplicated--a fact which the Prince
+Consort once had occasion to lay very clearly before Louis Napoleon,
+anxious to surround himself with a similar nobility, if only he could
+manage it. But though the aristocratic element be lacking, the
+patriotic passion and the sentiment of loyalty are abundantly
+present; nor has the mother country any intellectual pre-eminence
+over her colonies, drawn immeasurably nearer to her in thought and
+feeling as communication has become rapid and easy.
+
+There is something almost magical at first sight in the
+transformation which the Australian colonies have undergone in a very
+limited space of time; yet it is but the natural result of the
+untrammelled energy of a race sovereignly fitted to "subdue the
+earth." It is curious to read how in 1810 the convict settlement at
+Botany Bay--name of terror to ignorant home criminals, shuddering at
+the long, dreadful voyage and the imagined horrors of a savage
+country--was almost entirely nourished on imported food, now that the
+vast flocks and herds of Australia and New Zealand contribute no
+inconsiderable proportion of the food supply of Britain.
+
+The record of New Zealand is somewhat less brilliant than that of its
+gigantic neighbour. This is due to somewhat less favourable
+circumstances, to a nobler and less manageable race of aborigines;
+the land perhaps more beautiful, is by the very character of its
+beauty less subduable. Its political life is at least as old as that
+of the old Australian colony, its constitution being granted about
+the same time; but this colony has needed, what Australia has not,
+the armed interference of the Home Government in its quarrels with
+the natives--a race once bold and warlike, able to hold their own
+awhile even against the English soldiers, gifted with eloquence, with
+a certain poetic imagination, and no inconsiderable intelligence. It
+seemed, too, at one moment as if these Maoris would become generally
+Christianised; but the kind of Christianity which they saw
+exemplified in certain colonists, hungry for land and little
+scrupulous as to the means by which they could gratify that hunger,
+largely undid the good effected through the agency of missionaries,
+the countrymen of these oppressors, whose evil deeds they were
+helpless to hinder. A superstition that was nothing Christian laid
+hold of many who had once been altogether persuaded to embrace the
+teachings of Jesus, and the relapsed Maoris doubtless were guilty of
+savage excesses; yet the original blame lay not chiefly with them;
+nor is it possible to regard without deep pity the spectacle
+presented at the present day of "the noblest of all the savage races
+with whom we have ever been brought in contact, overcome by a worse
+enemy than sword and bullet, and corrupted into sloth and
+ruin, ...ruined physically, demoralised in character, by drink."
+Nobler than other aborigines, who have faded out before the invasion
+of the white man, as they may be, their savage nobility has not saved
+them from the common fate; they too have "learned our vices faster
+than our virtues," aided by the speculative traders in alcoholic
+poison, who have followed on the track of the colonist, and who,
+devil's missionaries as they are, have counteracted too quickly the
+work of the Christian evangelists who preceded them.
+
+The extraordinary natural fertility of the country, whose volcanic
+nature was very recently terribly demonstrated, is yet very far from
+being utilised to the utmost, the population of the islands, not
+inferior in extent to Great Britain, being yet a long way below that
+of London. Probably this "desert treasure-house of agricultural
+wealth" may, under wise self-government, yet rise to a position of
+magnificent importance.
+
+Of all our colonies that in Southern Africa has the least reason to
+be proud of its recent history, which has not been rendered any
+fairer by the discovery of the great Diamond Fields, and the rush of
+all sorts and conditions of men to profit thereby. Into the entangled
+history of our doings in relation to Cape Colony--originally a Dutch
+settlement--and all our varied and often disastrous dealings with the
+Dutch-descended Boers and the native tribes in its neighbourhood, we
+cannot well enter. Our missionary action has the glory of great
+achievement in Southern Africa; of our political action it is best to
+say little.
+
+A more encouraging scene is presented if we turn to the Fijian Isles,
+whose natives, once a proverb of cannibal ferocity, have been
+humanised and Christianised by untiring missionary effort, and by
+their own free-will have passed under British domination and are
+ruled by a British governor. The extraordinary change worked in the
+people of these isles, characterised now, as even in their heathen
+days, by a certain bold manliness, that hitherto has escaped the
+usual deterioration, is so great and unmistakable that critics
+predisposed to unfriendliness do not try to deny it.
+
+In consequence of the immensely increased facilities of communication
+that we now enjoy, our own great food-producing dependencies and the
+vast corn-growing districts of other lands can pour their stores into
+our market--a process much aided by the successive removal of so many
+restrictions on commerce, and by the practical science which has
+overcome so many difficulties connected with the transport of slain
+meat and other perishable commodities. England seems not unlikely to
+become a wonderfully cheap country to live in, unless some new turn
+of events interferes with the processes which during the last two
+decades have so increased the purchasing power of money that, as is
+confidently stated, fifteen shillings will now buy what it needed
+twenty shillings to purchase twenty years ago. To this result, as a
+matter of course, the enormous development of our manufacturing and
+other industries has also contributed.
+
+There is another side to the medal, and not so fair a one. The
+necessaries of life are cheaper; wages are actually higher, when the
+greater value of money is taken into account; more care is taken as
+to the housing of the poor; the workers of the nation have more
+leisure, and spend not a little of it in travelling, being now by far
+the most numerous patrons of the railway; the altered style of the
+conveyances provided for them is a sufficient testimony to their
+higher importance. All this is to the good; so, too, is the
+diminution in losses by bankruptcy and in general pauperism, the
+increasing thrift shown by the records of savings banks, the
+lengthening of life, the falling off in crime, which is actually--not
+proportionally--rarer than ten years ago, to go no further back.
+
+Against this we have to set the facts that the terrible malady of
+insanity is distinctly on the increase--whether due to mere physical
+causes, to the high pressure at which modern society lives, or to the
+prevalent scepticisms which leave many wretched men so little
+tranquillising hope or faith, who shall say?--that all trades and
+professions are more or less overcrowded; and that there is a
+terrible amount, not of pauperism, but of hard-struggling poverty,
+massed up in the crowded, wretched, but high-priced tenements of
+great towns, and maintaining a forlorn life by such incessant, cruel
+labour as is not exacted from convicted criminals in any English
+prison. London, where this kind of misery is inevitably at its
+height, receives every week an accession of a thousand persons, who
+doubtless, in a great majority of cases, simply help to glut the
+already crowded labour market and still further lower the wages of
+the workers; and the other great towns in like manner grow, while the
+rural population remains stagnant or lessens. Agricultural distress,
+which helps to keep the tide of emigration high, also accounts in
+part for this singular, undesirable displacement of population; while
+recent testimony points to the fact that the terribly unsanitary and
+inefficient housing of the rural poor does much to drive the best and
+most laborious members of that class away from the villages and
+fields which might otherwise be the homes of happy and peaceful
+industry. For this form of evil, in town and country, private
+greed--frequently shown by small proprietors, who have never learnt
+that property has duties as well as rights--is very largely
+responsible; for how many other of the evils we have to deplore is
+not the greed of gain responsible?
+
+The sins of the age are still much the same sins that the Laureate
+roughly arraigned when the Crimean war broke our long peace;
+denouncing the race for riches which turned men into "pickpockets,
+each hand lusting for all that is not its own;" denouncing the cruel
+selfishness of rich and poor as the vilest kind of civil war, being
+"underhand, not openly bearing the sword." We had made the blessings
+of peace a curse, he told us, in those days, "when only the ledger
+lived, and when only not all men lied; when the poor were hovelled
+and hustled together, each sex, like swine; when chalk and alum and
+plaster were sold to the poor for bread, and the spirit of murder
+worked in the very means of life." Yet those very days saw the
+uprising of a whole generation of noble servants of humanity,
+resolute to tight and overcome the rampant evils that surrounded
+them. And though we would avoid the error of praising our own epoch
+as though it alone were humane, as though we only, "the latest seed
+of Time, have loved the people well," and shown our love by deeds;
+though we would not deny that to-day has its crying abuses as well as
+yesterday; yet it is hardly possible to survey the broad course of
+our history during the past sixty years, and not to perceive, amid
+all the cross-currents--false ambitions, false pretences,
+mammon-worship, pitiless selfishness, sins of individuals, sins of
+society, sins of the nation--an ever-widening and mastering stream of
+beneficent energy, which has already wonderfully changed for the
+better many of the conditions of existence, and which, since its flow
+shows no signs of abating, we may hope to see spreading more widely,
+and bearing down in its great flood the wrecks of many another
+oppression and iniquity.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL PROGRESS.
+
+[Illustration: Robert Southey.]
+
+"Man doth not live by bread alone." The enormous material progress of
+this country during the last sixty years--imperfectly indicated by
+the fact that during the last forty years the taxable income of the
+United Kingdom has been considerably more than doubled--would be but
+a barren theme of rejoicing, if there were signs among us of
+intellectual or spiritual degeneracy. The great periods of English
+history have been always fruitful in great thinkers and great
+writers, in religious and mental activity. Endeavouring to judge our
+own period by this standard, and making a swift survey of its
+achievements in literature, we do not find it apparently inferior to
+the splendours of "great Elizabeth" or of the Augustan age of Anne.
+Our fifth Queen-regnant, whose reign, longer than that of any of her
+four predecessors, is also happier than that of the greatest among
+them, can reckon among her subjects an even larger number of men
+eminent in all departments of knowledge, though perhaps we cannot
+boast one name quite equal to Newton in science, and though assuredly
+neither this nor any modern nation has yet a second imaginative
+writer whose throne may be set beside that of Shakespeare.
+
+[Illustration: William Wordsworth.]
+
+[Illustration: Alfred Tennyson. _From a Photograph by Elliott & Fry_]
+
+We excel in quantity, indeed; for while, owing to the spread of
+education, the number of readers has been greatly increased, the
+number of writers has risen proportionately; the activity of the
+press has increased tenfold. Journalism has become a far more
+formidable power in the land than in the earlier years when, as our
+domestic annals plainly indicate, the _Times_ ruled as the Napoleon
+of newspapers. This result is largely due to the removal of the
+duties formerly imposed both on the journals themselves and on their
+essential paper material; and it would indeed "dizzy the arithmetic
+of memory" should we try to enumerate the varied periodicals that are
+far younger than Her Majesty's happy reign. Of these a great number
+are excellent in both intention and execution, and must be numbered
+among the educating, civilising, Christianising agencies of the day.
+They are something more and higher than the "savoury literary
+_entremets_" designed to please the fastidious taste of a cultured
+and leisured class, which was the just description of our periodical
+literature at large not so very long ago. The number of our
+imaginative writers--poets and romancers, but especially the
+latter--has been out of all proportion great. We give the place of
+honour, as is their due, to the singers rather than to the
+story-tellers, the more readily since the popular taste, it cannot be
+denied, chooses its favourites in inverse order as a rule.
+
+[Illustration: Robert Browning. _From a Photograph by Elliott &
+Fry_.]
+
+When Her Majesty ascended the throne, one brilliant poetical
+constellation was setting slowly, star by star. Keats and Shelley and
+Byron, none of them much older than the century, had perished in
+their early prime between 1820 and 1824; Scott had sunk under the
+storms of fortune in 1832; the fitful glimmer of Coleridge's genius
+vanished in 1834, and a year later "the gentle Elia" too was gone.
+Southey, who still held the laureate-ship in 1837, had faded out of
+life in 1843, and was succeeded in his once-despised office by
+William Wordsworth, who, with Rogers and Leigh Hunt and Moore, lived
+far into the new reign, uniting the Georgian and the Victorian school
+of writers. Thomas Hood, the poet of the poor and oppressed, whose
+too short life ended in 1845, gives in his serious verse such
+thrilling expression to the impassioned, indignant philanthropy,
+which has actuated many workers and writers of our own period, that
+it is not easy to reckon him with the older group. His song rings
+like that of Charles Kingsley, poet, novelist, preacher, and
+"Christian socialist," who did not publish his "Saint's Tragedy" till
+three years after Hood was dead.
+
+There has, indeed, been no break in the continuity of our great
+literary history; while one splendid group was setting, another as
+illustrious was rising. Tennyson, who on Wordsworth's death in 1850
+received at Queen Victoria's hand the "laurel greener from the brows
+of him that uttered nothing base," had published his earliest two
+volumes of poems some years before Her Majesty's accession; and of
+that rare poetic pair, the Brownings, each had already given evidence
+of the great powers they possessed, Robert Browning's tragedy of
+"Strafford" being produced on the stage in 1837, while his future
+wife's translation of the "Prometheus Bound" saw the light four years
+earlier. The Victorian period can boast no greater poetic names than
+these, each of which is held in highest reverence by its own special
+admirers. The patriotic fervour with which Lord Tennyson has done
+almost all his laureate work, the lucid splendour of his style, the
+perfect music of his rhythm, and the stinging sharpness with which he
+has sometimes chastised contemporary sins, have all combined to win
+for him a far wider popularity than even that accorded to the fine
+lyrical passion of Mrs. Browning, or to the deep-thoughted and
+splendid, but often perplexing and ruggedly phrased, dramatic and
+lyric utterances of her husband. All three have honoured themselves
+and their country by a majestic purity of moral and religious
+teaching--an excellence shared by many of their contemporaries, whose
+powers would have won them a first place in an age and country less
+fruitful of genius; but not so conspicuous in some younger poets,
+later heirs of fame, whose lot it may be to carry on the traditions
+of Victorian greatness into another reign.
+
+There are not a few writers of our day whose excellent prose work has
+won more of popular favour than their verse, which notwithstanding is
+of high quality. Such was the "unsubduable old Roman," Walter Savage
+Landor, a contemporary of Byron and Wordsworth, who long outlived
+them, dying in 1864. Such--to bring two extremes together--are the
+critic and poet Matthew Arnold, the poet and theologian John Henry
+Newman. Intimately associated in our thought with the latter, who has
+enriched our devotional poetry with one touching hymn, is Keble, the
+singer _par excellence_ of the "Catholic revival," and the most
+widely successful religious poet of the age, though only very few of
+his hymns have reached the heart of the people like the far more
+direct and fervent work of the Wesleys and their compeers. He is even
+excelled in simplicity and passion, though not in grace and
+tenderness, by two or three other workers in the same field, who
+belong to our day, and whose verse is known more widely than their
+names.
+
+We have several women-poets who are only less beloved and less well
+known than Mrs. Browning; but so far the greatest literary
+distinction gained by the women of our age and country,
+notwithstanding the far wider and higher educational advantages
+enjoyed by them to-day, has been won, as of yore, in the field of
+prose fiction. More than a hundred years ago a veteran novelist,
+whose humour and observation, something redeeming his coarseness,
+have ranked him among classic English authors, referred mischievously
+to the engrossing of "that branch of business" by female writers,
+whose "ease, and spirit, and delicacy, and knowledge of the human
+heart," have not, however, availed to redeem their names from
+oblivion. For some of their nineteenth-century   successors at least
+we may expect a more enduring memory.
+
+Numerous as are our poets, they are far outnumbered by the novelists,
+whose works are poured forth every season with bewildering profusion;
+but as story-tellers have always commanded a larger audience than
+grave philosophers or historians, and as our singers deal as much in
+philosophy as in narrative, perhaps in seeking for the cause of this
+overrunning flood of fiction we need go no further than the immensely
+increased number of readers--a view in which the records of some
+English public libraries will bear us out. We may therefore be
+thankful that, on the whole, such literature has been of a vastly
+purer and healthier character than of yore, reflecting that higher
+and better tone of public feeling which we may attribute, in part at
+least, to the influence of the "pure court and serene life" of the
+Sovereign.
+
+[Illustration: Charles Dickens. _From a Photograph by Elliott &
+Fry_.]
+
+[Illustration: W.M. Thackeray. _From a Drawing by Samuel Lawrence_.]
+
+This nobler tone is not least perceptible in the eldest of the great
+masters of fiction whom we can claim for our period--Dickens, who in
+1837 first won by his "Pickwick Papers" that astonishing popularity
+which continued widening until his death; Thackeray, who in that year
+was working more obscurely, having not yet found a congenial field in
+the humorous chronicle that reflects for us so much of the Victorian
+age, for _Punch_ was not started till 1841, and Thackeray's first
+great masterpiece of pathos and satire, "Vanity Fair," did not begin
+to appear till five years later. Each of these writers in his own way
+held "the mirror up" to English human nature, and showed "the very
+age and body of the time his form and pressure," with manly boldness
+indeed, but with due artistic reticence also; each knew how to be
+vivid without being vicious, to be realistic without being revolting;
+and despite the sometimes offensive caricature in which the one
+indulged, despite the seeming cynicism of the other their influence
+must be pronounced healthy. Thackeray did not, like Dickens, use his
+pen against particular glaring abuses of the time, nor insist on the
+special virtues that bloom amid the poor and lowly; but he attacked
+valiantly the crying sins of society in all time--the mammon-worship
+and the mercilessness, the false pretences and the fraud--and never
+failed to uphold for admiration and imitation "whatsoever things are
+true, whatsoever things are honourable, whatsoever things are just,
+whatsoever thing are pure, whatsoever things are lovely." And though
+both writers were sometimes hard on the professors of religion,
+neither failed in reverence of tone when religion itself was
+concerned.
+
+[Illustration: Charlotte Bronte.]
+
+The sudden death of both these men, in the very prime of life and in
+the fulness of power, was keenly felt at the time: each had a
+world-wide fame, and each awakened a blank, distressful sense of
+personal loss in his many admirers as he was suddenly called away
+from incomplete work and faithful friendship. Contemporary literature
+has not benefited by the removal of these two men and the gradual
+diminishing of the influence they so strongly exerted while yet they
+"stood up and spoke." The work of Charlotte Bronte--produced under a
+fervent admiration for "the satirist of Vanity Fair," whom she deemed
+"the first social regenerator of his day"--is, with all its
+occasional morbidness of sensitive feeling, far more bracing in moral
+tone, more inspiring in its scorn of baseness and glorifying of
+goodness, than is the work of recent Positivist emulators of the
+achievements of George  Eliot. Some romances of this school are vivid
+and highly finished pictures of human misery, unredeemed by hope, and
+hardly brightened by occasional gleams of humour, of the sardonic
+sort which may stir a mirthless smile, but never a laugh. Herein they
+are far inferior to their model, whose melancholy philosophy is half
+hidden from her readers by the delightful freshness and truth of her
+"Dutch painter's" portraying of every-day humanity, by her delicately
+skilful reproduction of its homely wit and harmless absurdity.
+Happily neither these writers, nor the purveyors of mere sensation
+who cannot get on without crime and mystery, exhaust the list of our
+romancers, many of whom are altogether healthful, cheerful, and
+helpful; and it is no unreasonable hope that these may increase and
+their gloomier rivals decrease, or at least grow gayer and wiser.
+
+[Illustration: Lord Macauley.]
+
+There are many other great writers, working in other fields, whom we
+may claim as belonging altogether or almost to the Victorian age.
+Within that period lies almost entirely the brilliantly successful
+career of Macaulay, essayist, poet, orator, and historian. For the
+last-named _role_ Macaulay seemed sovereignly fitted by his
+extraordinary faculty for assimilating and retaining historical
+knowledge, and by the vividness of imagination and mastery of words
+which enabled him to present his facts in such attractive guise as
+made them fascinating far beyond romance. His "History of England
+from the Accession of James II," whereof the first volumes appeared
+in 1849, remains a colossal fragment; the fulness of detail with
+which he adorned it, the grand scale on which he worked, rendered its
+completion a task almost impossible for the longest lifetime; and
+Macaulay died in his sixtieth year. Despite the defects of
+partisanship and exaggeration freely and not quite unjustly charged
+upon his great work, it remains a yet unequalled record of the period
+dealt with, just as his stirring ballads, so seemingly easy of
+imitation in their ringing, rolling numbers, hold their own against
+very able rivals and are yet unequalled in our time.
+
+[Illustration: Thomas Carlyle.]
+
+Macaulay was not the first, and he is not the last, of our
+picturesque historians. It was in 1837 that Carlyle, who four years
+before had startled the English-reading public by his strangely
+worded, bewildering "Sartor Resartus," brought out his astonishing
+"History of the French Revolution"--a prose poem, an epic without a
+hero, revealing as by "flashes of lightning" the ghastly tragedy and
+comedy of that tremendous upheaval; and in 1845 he followed up the
+vein thus opened by his lifelike study of "Oliver Cromwell," which
+was better received by his English readers than the later "History of
+Friedrich II," marvel of careful research and graphic reproduction
+though it be. To Carlyle therefore and to Macaulay belongs the honour
+of having given a new and powerful impulse to the study they adorned;
+dissimilar in other respects, they are alike in their preference for
+and insistent use of original sources of information, in their able
+employment of minute detail, and in the graphic touch and artistic
+power which made history very differently attractive in their hands
+from what it had ever been previously. Mr. Froude and Mr. Green may
+be ranked as their followers in this latter respect; hardly so Mr.
+Freeman or the philosophic Buckle, Grote, and Lecky, who by their
+style and method belong more to the school of Hallam, however widely
+they may differ from him or from each other in opinion. But in
+thoroughness of research and in resolute following of the very truth
+through all mazes and veils that may obscure it, one group of
+historians does not yield to the other.
+
+[Illustration: William Whewell, D.D.]
+
+[Illustration: Sir David Brewster.]
+
+And the same zealous passion for accuracy that has distinguished
+these and less famous historians and biographers has shown itself in
+other fields of intellectual endeavour. Our Queen in her desire "to
+get at the root and reality of things" is entirely in harmony with
+the spirit of her age. In scientific men we look for the ardent
+pursuit of difficult truth; and it would be thankless to forget how
+numerous beyond precedent have been in the Victorian period faithful
+workers in the field of science. Though some of our _savants_ in
+later years have injured their renown by straying outside the sphere
+in which they are honoured and useful and speaking unadvisedly on
+matters theological, this ought not to deter us from acknowledging
+the value of true service rendered. The Queen's reign can claim as
+its own such men as John Herschel, worthy son of an illustrious
+father, Airy, Adams, and Maxwell, Whewell and Brewster and Faraday,
+Owen and Buckland and Lyell, Murchison and Miller, Darwin and Tyndall
+and Huxley, with Wheatstone, one of the three independent inventors
+of telegraphy, and the Stephensons, father and son, to whose ability
+and energy we are indebted for the origination and perfection of our
+method of steam locomotion; it can boast such masters in philosophy
+as Hamilton and Whately and John Stuart Mill, each a leader of many.
+It has also the rare distinction of possessing one lady writer on
+science who has attained to real eminence--eminence not likely soon
+to be surpassed by her younger sister-rivals--the late Mrs. Mary
+Somerville, who united an entirely feminine and gentle character to
+masculine powers of mind.
+
+[Illustration: Sir James Simpson.]
+
+[Illustration: Michael Faraday.]
+
+Only to catalogue the recent discoveries and inventions we owe to men
+of science, from merciful anaesthetics to the latest applications of
+electric power, would occupy more space than we ought here to give.
+All honour to these servants of humanity! We rejoice to find among
+them many who could unite the simplest childlike faith with a wide
+and grand mental outlook; we exult not less to find in many Biblical
+students and commentators the same patience, thoroughness, and
+resolute pursuit of the very truth as that exemplified by the
+devotees of physical science. God's Word is explored in our day--the
+same clay which has seen the great work of the Revised Version of the
+Scriptures begun and completed--with no less ardour than God's world.
+And what vast additions have been made to our knowledge of this
+earth! We have seen Nineveh unburied, the North-West Passage
+explored, and the mysterious Nile stream at last tracked to its
+source. To compare a fifty-years-old map of Africa with one of the
+present day will a little enable us to estimate the advances made in
+our acquaintance with the Dark Continent alone; similar maps
+including the Polar regions of North America will testify also to a
+large increase of hard-won knowledge.
+
+[Illustration: David Livingstone.]
+
+[Illustration: Sir John Franklin.]
+
+Exploration--Arctic, African, Oriental and Occidental--has had its
+heroic devotees, sometimes its martyrs. Witness Franklin, Burke and
+Wills, and Livingstone. The long uncertainty overhanging the fate of
+the gallant Franklin, after he and the expedition he commanded had
+vanished into the darkness of Arctic winter in 1845, and the
+unfaltering faithfulness with which his widow clung to the search for
+her lost husband, form one of the most pathetic chapters of English
+story. The veil was lifted at last and the secret of the North-West
+Passage, to which so many lives had been sacrificed, was brought to
+light in the course of the many efforts made to find the dead
+discoverer. As Franklin had disappeared in the North, so Livingstone
+was long lost to sight in the wilds of Africa, and hardly less
+feverish interest centred round the point, so long disputed, of his
+being in life or in death--interest freshly awakened when the remains
+of the heroic explorer, who had been found only to be lost again,
+were brought home to be laid among the mighty dead of England. The
+fervent Christian philanthropy of Livingstone endeared him yet more
+to the national heart; and we may here note that very often, as in
+his case, the missionary has served not only Christianity, as was his
+first and last aim, but also geographical and ethnological science
+and colonial and commercial development. We have briefly referred
+already to some of the struggles, the sufferings, and the triumphs of
+missionary enterprise in our day: to chronicle all its effort and
+achievement would be difficult, for these have been world-wide, and
+often wonderfully successful. Nor has much less success crowned other
+agencies for meeting the ever-increasing need for religious
+knowledge, which multiply and grow in number and in power. Witness,
+among many that might be named, the continuous development of the
+Sunday School system and the immensely extended operations of the
+unsectarian Bible Society.
+
+[Illustration: John Ruskin. _From a Photograph by Elliott & Fry_.]
+
+Great advances have been made during this reign in English art and
+art-criticism, and more particularly in the extension of real
+artistic education to classes of the community who could hardly
+attain it before, though it was perhaps more essential to them than
+to the wealthy and leisurely who had previously monopolised it. The
+multiplication of Schools of Design over the country, intended to
+promote the tasteful efficiency of those engaged in textile
+manufactures and in our decorative and constructive art generally, is
+one remarkable feature of the time, and the sedulous cultivation of
+music by members of all classes of society is another, hardly less
+hopeful. In all these efforts for the benefit and elevation of the
+community the Prince Consort took deep and active interest, and the
+royal family themselves, from Her Majesty downwards, highly cultured
+and accomplished, have not failed to act in the same spirit. But the
+history of English nineteenth-century art would be incomplete indeed
+without reference to two powerful influences--the rise and progress
+of the new art of photography, which has singularly affected other
+branches of graphic work; and the career, hitherto unexampled in our
+land, of the greatest art-critic of this, perhaps of any, age--John
+Ruskin, the most eminent also of the many writers and thinkers who
+have been swayed by the magic spell of Carlyle, whose fierce and
+fervid genius, for good or for evil, told so strongly on his
+contemporaries. Ruskin is yet more deeply imbued with his master's
+philosophy than those other gifted and widely influential teachers,
+Maurice and Kingsley; and yet perhaps he is more strongly and
+sturdily independent in his individuality than either, while the
+unmatched English of his prose style differs not less widely from the
+rugged strength of Carlyle than from the mystical involution of
+Maurice and the vehement and, as it were, breathless, yet vivid and
+poetic, utterance of Kingsley. When every defect has been admitted
+that is chargeable against one or all of this group of sincere and
+stalwart workers, it must be allowed that their power on their
+countrymen has been largely wielded for good. Particularly is this
+the case with Ruskin, whose influence has reached and ennobled many a
+life that, from pressure of sordid circumstances, was in great need
+of such help as his spirituality of tone, and deeply felt reverential
+belief in the Giver of all good and Maker of all beauty, could
+afford.
+
+[Illustration: Dean Stanley.]
+
+[Illustration: "I was sick, and ye visited me."]
+
+We have preferred not to dwell on one department of literature which,
+like every other, has received great additions during our
+period--that of religious controversy. A large portion of such
+literature is in its very nature ephemeral; and some of the disputes
+which have engaged the energies even of our greatest masters in
+dialectics have not been in themselves of supreme importance; but
+many points of doctrine and discipline have been violently canvassed
+among professing Christians, and attacks of long-sustained vigour and
+virulence have been made on almost every leading article of the
+Christian creed by the avowed enemies or the only half-hostile
+critics of the Church, which the champions of Scripture truth have
+not been backward to repel. Amid all this confusion and strife of
+assault and resistance one thing stands out clearly: Christianity and
+its progress are more interesting to the national mind than ever
+before. It has been well, too, that through all those fifty years a
+large-minded and fervent but most unobtrusive and practical piety has
+been enthroned in the highest places of the land--a piety which will
+escape the condemnation of the King when He shall come in His glory,
+and say to many false followers, "I was an hungred, and ye gave Me no
+meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink; I was a stranger, and
+ye took Me not in; naked, and ye clothed Me not; sick, and in prison,
+and ye visited Me not."
+
+These dread words are not for those who have cared as our Sovereign
+Lady and her beloved ones have cared for the sick and the suffering
+and the sad; who have bound up the heart-wounds of the widow and the
+orphan and ministered to their earthly needs; who, like our lost
+Princess Alice and her royal elder sister, have tended the victims of
+war, shrinking from no ghastliness or repulsiveness, no horrors of
+the hospital where victor and vanquished lay moaning in common
+misery; or, like their queenly mother, have shed the sunshine of
+royal smiles and soothing words and helpful alms upon the obscurer
+but hardly less pitiable patients who crowd our English infirmaries.
+In her northern and southern "homes" of Osborne and Balmoral the
+Queen, too, has been able to share a true, unsophisticated friendship
+with her humble neighbours, to rejoice in their joys and lighten
+their griefs with gentle, most efficient sympathy. It was of a
+Highland cottage that Dr. Guthrie wrote that "within its walls the
+Queen had stood, with her kind hands smoothing the thorns of a dying
+man's pillow. There, left alone with him at her own request, she had
+sat by the bed of death--a Queen ministering to the comfort of a
+saint." It was in a cottage at Osborne that the same gentle and
+august almsgiver was found reading comfortable Scripture words to a
+sick and aged peasant, quietly retiring upon the entrance of the
+clerical visitant, that _his_ message of peace might be freely given,
+and thus allowing the sufferer to disclose to the pastor that the
+lady in the widow's weeds was Victoria of England. These are
+examples, which it would be easy to multiply, of that true oneness of
+feeling between the lofty and the lowly which is the special, the
+unique glory of Christ's kingdom. May our land never lack them; may
+they multiply themselves to all time.
+
+The best evidence of the truth of the Gospel is admittedly its
+unequalled power of lifting up humanity to higher and yet higher
+levels. In many and mighty instances of that power our age is not
+barren. And in despite of the foes without and within that have
+wrought her woe--of the Pharisaism that is a mask for fraud, of the
+mammon-worship cloaked as respectability, of scepticism lightly
+mocking, of the bolder enmity of the blasphemer--we cannot
+contemplate the story of Christianity throughout our epoch, even in
+these islands and this empire, without seeing that the advance of the
+Faith is real and constant, the advance of the rising tide, and that
+her seeming defeats are but the deceptive reflux of the ever-mounting
+waves.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+PROGRESS OF THE EMPIRE FROM 1887 TO 1897.
+
+[Illustration: Duke of Connaught.]
+
+Resuming our pen after an interval of ten years, we have thought it
+well, not only to carry on our story of the Sovereign and her realm
+to the latest attainable point, but also to give some account of the
+advance made and the work accomplished by the Methodist Church,
+which, youngest of the greater Nonconformist denominations, has acted
+more powerfully than any other among them on the religious and social
+life, not only of the United Kingdom and the Empire, but of the
+world. This account, very brief, but giving details little known to
+outsiders, will form a valuable pendant to the sketch of the general
+history of Victoria's England that we are now about to continue.
+
+[Illustration: The Imperial Institute.]
+
+Many thousands who rejoiced in the Queen's Jubilee of 1887 are glad
+to-day that the close of the decade should find the beloved Lady of
+these isles, true woman and true Queen, still living and reigning.
+
+On September 23, 1896, Queen Victoria had reigned longer than any
+other English monarch, and the desire was general for some immediate
+celebration of the event; but, by the Queen's express wish, all
+recognition of the fact was deferred until the sixtieth year should
+be fully completed, and the nation prepared to celebrate the "Diamond
+Jubilee" on June 22, 1897, with a fervour of loyalty that should far
+outshine that of the Jubilee year of 1887.
+
+In the personal history of our Queen during those ten years we may
+note with reverent sympathy some events that must shadow the festival
+for her. The calm and kindly course of her home-life has again been
+broken in upon by bereavement. All seemed fair in the Jubilee year
+itself, and the Queen was appearing more in public than had been her
+wont--laying the foundations of the Imperial Institute; unveiling in
+Windsor Park a statue of the Prince Consort, Jubilee gift of the
+women of England; taking part in a magnificent naval review at
+Spithead. But a shadow was already visible to some; and early in 1888
+sinister rumours were afloat as to the health of the Crown Prince of
+Germany, consort of the Queen's eldest daughter. Too soon those
+rumours proved true. Even when the prince rode in the splendid
+Jubilee procession, a commanding figure in his dazzling white
+uniform, the cruel malady had fastened on him that was to slay him in
+less than a year, proving fatal three months after the death of his
+aged father had called him to fill the imperial throne. The nation
+followed the course of this tragedy with a feverish interest never
+before excited by the lot of any foreign potentate, and deeply
+sympathised with, the distress of the Queen and of the bereaved
+empress.
+
+[Illustration: Duke of Clarence. _From a Photograph by Lafayette,
+Dublin_.]
+
+But the year 1892 held in store a blow yet more cruelly felt. The
+English people were still rejoicing with the Queen over the betrothal
+of the Duke of Clarence, eldest son of the Prince of Wales, to his
+kinswoman Princess May of Teck, when the death of the bridegroom
+elect in January plunged court and people into mourning. That the
+Queen was greatly touched by the universal sympathy with her and hers
+was proved by the pathetic letter she wrote to the nation, and by the
+frank reliance on their affection which marked the second letter in
+which, eighteen months later, she asked them to share her joy in the
+wedding of the Duke of York, now heir-presumptive, to the bride-elect
+of his late brother. This union has been highly popular, and the
+Queen's evident delight in the birth of the little Prince Edward of
+York in June, 1894, touched the hearts of her subjects, who
+remembered the deep sorrow of 1892.
+
+[Illustration: Duke of York. _From a Photograph by Russell & Sons,
+Baker Street, W_.]
+
+[Illustration: Duchess of York. _From a Photograph by Russell & Sons,
+Baker Street, W_.]
+
+Once more they were called to grieve with her, when the husband of
+her youngest daughter Beatrice, Prince Henry of Battenberg, who for
+years had formed part of her immediate circle, died far from home and
+England, having fallen a victim to fever ere he could distinguish
+himself, as he had hoped, in our last expedition to Ashanti. The
+pathos of such a death was deeply felt when the prince's remains were
+brought home and laid to rest, in the presence of his widow and her
+royal mother, in the very church at Whippingham that he had entered
+an ardent bridegroom. Not all gloom, however, has been Her Majesty's
+domestic life in these recent years; she has taken joy in the
+marriages of many of her descendants; and the visits of her
+grandchildren--of whom one, Princess Alice of Hesse, daughter of the
+well-beloved Alice of England, became Czarina of Russia only the
+other day--are a source of keen interest to her.
+
+[Illustration: Princess Henry of Battenberg. _From a Photograph by
+Hughes & Mullins, Ryde, Isle of Wight_.]
+
+[Illustration: Prince Henry of Battenberg. _From a Photograph by
+Hughes & Mullins, Ryde, Isle of Wight_.]
+
+[Illustration: The Czarina of Russia.]
+
+But there is no selfish absorption in her own family affairs, no
+neglect of essential duty. The Prince of Wales and "the Princess"
+relieve the Queen of many irksome social functions; but she does not
+shun these when it is clear to her that her people wish her to
+undertake them. Witness her willingness to take part in the Jubilee
+Thanksgiving services and pageant, despite the feebleness of her
+advanced age.
+
+We need not dwell long on the rather stormy Parliamentary history of
+the last decade, on the divisions and disappointments of the Irish
+Home Rule party, once so powerful, or on the various attacks aimed at
+the Welsh and Scottish Church establishments and at the principle of
+"hereditary legislation" as embodied in the House of Lords. Some
+useful legislation has been accomplished amid all the strife. We may
+instance the Act in 1888 creating the new system of County Councils,
+the Parish Councils Act, the Factory and Workshops Amendment Act, and
+the Education Act of 1891--measures designed to protect the toiling
+millions from the evils of "sweating," and to assure their children
+of practically free education.
+
+Substantial good has been done, whether the reins of power have been
+held by Mr. Gladstone or by Lord Salisbury--whose long tenure of
+office expiring in 1892, the veteran statesman whom he had displaced
+again took the helm--or by Lord Rosebery, in whose favour the great
+leader finally withdrew in 1894 into private life, weary of the
+burden of State. In 1897 we again see Lord Salisbury directing the
+destinies of the mighty empire--a task of exceptional difficulty, now
+that the gravest complications exist in Europe itself and in Africa.
+The horrors suffered by the Armenian subjects of the Turk have called
+for intervention by the great powers; but no sooner had Turkish
+reforms been promised in response to the joint note of Great Britain,
+France, and Russia, than new troubles began in Crete, its people
+rising in arms to shake off the Turkish yoke.
+
+Meanwhile our occupation of Egypt is compelling us to use armed force
+against the wild, threatening dervishes in the Soudan, and
+well-grounded uneasiness is felt as to the position and action of our
+countrymen in Southeastern Africa in connexion with the Boer republic
+of the Transvaal. The British South Africa Chartered Company, formed
+in 1889, adventurous and ambitious, loomed large in men's eyes during
+1896, when the historic and disastrous raid of Dr. Jameson and his
+followers startled the civilised world. The whole story of that
+enterprise is yet to unfold; but it has added considerably to the
+embarrassments of the British government. Hopes were entertained in
+1890 that the British East Africa Company, by the pressure it could
+put on the Sultan of Zanzibar, had secured the cessation of the slave
+trade on the East African shore; these hopes are not yet fulfilled,
+but it may be trusted that a step has been taken towards the
+mitigation of the evil--the "open sore of the world."
+
+If we turn to India, we see it in 1896-7 still in the grip of a cruel
+famine, aggravated by an outbreak of the bubonic plague too well
+known to our fathers, which, appearing three years ago at Hong-Kong,
+has committed new ravages at Bombay. Government is making giant
+efforts to meet both evils, and is aided by large free-will offerings
+of money, sent not only from this country, but also from Canada. "Ten
+years ago such a manifestation would have been unlikely. The sense of
+kinship is stronger, the imperial sentiment has grown deeper, the
+feeling of responsibility has broadened." Kinship with a starving
+race is felt and shown by the Empress on her throne, and her subjects
+learn to follow her example.
+
+But the sense of brotherhood seems somewhat deficient when we look at
+the continual labour wars that mark the period in our own land. From
+the Hyde Park riots of socialists and unemployed, in the end of 1887,
+to the railway strikes of 1897, the story is one of strikes among all
+sorts and conditions of workers, paralysing trade, and witnessing to
+strained relations between labour and capital; the great London
+strike of dock labourers, lasting five weeks, and keeping 2,500 men
+out of work, may yet be keenly remembered. There seems an imperative
+need for the wide diffusion of a true, practical Christianity among
+employers and employed; some signs point to the growth of that
+healing spirit: and we may note with delight that while never was
+there so much wealth and never such deep poverty as during this
+period, never also were there so many religious and charitable
+organisations at work for the relief of poverty and the uplifting of
+the fallen; while not a few of the wealthy, and even one or two
+millionaires, have shown by generous giving their painful sense of
+the contrast between their own wealth and the destitution of others.
+
+It has been a period of sharp religious disputes, and every religious
+and benevolent institution is keenly criticised; but great good is
+being done notwithstanding by devoted men and women. The centenary of
+the Baptist Missionary Society, observed in 1892, recalled to mind
+the vast work accomplished by missions since that pioneer society
+sent out the apostolic "shoemaker" Carey, to labour in India, and
+reminds us of the great change wrought in public opinion since he and
+his enterprise were so bitterly attacked. The heroic missionary
+spirit is still alive, as is proved by the readiness of new
+evangelists to step into the place of the missionaries to China,
+cruelly murdered at Ku-Cheng in 1895 by heathen fanatics.
+
+The immense development of our colonies during the reign has already
+been noticed; some of them have made surprising advances during the
+last ten years. In southern and eastern Africa British enterprise has
+done much to develop the great natural wealth of the land; but the
+frequent troubles in Matabeleland and the complications with the
+Transvaal since the discovery of gold there may be regarded as
+counterbalancing the material advantages secured. Ceylon has a
+happier record, having more than regained her imperilled prosperity
+through the successful enterprise of her settlers in cultivating the
+fine tea which has almost displaced China tea in the British market,
+Ceylon exporting 100,000,000 lbs. in 1895 as against 2,000,000 lbs.
+ten years previously. Canada also now takes rank as a great maritime
+state, and the fortunes of Australia, though much shaken a few years
+ago by a great financial crisis, are again brilliant; in the world of
+social progress and democracy it is still the colonial marvel of our
+times.
+
+[Illustration: H. M. Stanley.]
+
+The last census, taken in 1891, in Great Britain and Ireland showed a
+vast increase of population, sixty-two towns in England and Wales
+returning more than 50,000 inhabitants, and the total population of
+the United Kingdom being 38,104,975. Alarmists warned us that, with
+the ratio of increase shown, neither food nor place would soon be
+found for our people; and a great impetus being given to emigration,
+our colonies benefited. But despite such alarms, articles of luxury
+were in greater demand than ever, the tobacco duty reaching in 1892
+the sum of L10,135,666, half a million, more than in the previous
+year; and the consumption of tea and spirits increased in due
+proportion. The same year saw great improvements in sanitation put
+into practice as the result of an alarm of cholera, that plague
+ravaging Hamburg.
+
+[Illustration: Dr. Fridtjof Nansen.]
+
+[Illustration: Miss Kingsley.]
+
+Vast engineering works, of which the Manchester Ship Canal is the
+most familiar instance, have been carried on. This great waterway,
+thirty-five miles long, and placing an inland town in touch with the
+sea, was begun in 1887 and finished in 1894. Numerous exhibitions, at
+home and abroad, have stimulated industrial and aesthetic progress;
+and science has continued to advance with bewildering rapidity,
+developing chiefly in practical directions. The bacteriologist has
+unveiled much of the mystery of disease, showing that seed-germs
+produce it; the photographer comes in aid of surgery, for the
+discovery of the X or Roentgen rays, by the German professor whose
+name is associated with them, now enables the surgeon to discover
+foreign bodies lodged within the human frame, and to decide with
+authority their position and the means of removing them. Burial
+reforms, in the interests of health and economy, have been
+introduced, and nursing, elevated into a science, has become an
+honourable profession for cultured women. In 1894 that eminent
+_savant_ Lord Rayleigh brought before the British Association his
+discovery of a hitherto unknown constituent in the atmosphere. The
+use of steam as a motive power, almost contemporaneous with the
+Queen's reign, has bound our land in a network of railways: now it is
+electricity which is being utilised in the same sense, and to the
+telephone and the telegraph as means of verbal communication is added
+the motorcar as a means of rapid progression, 1896 seeing its use in
+streets sanctioned by Parliament. It may not yet supersede the
+bicycle, which in ten years has greatly increased in favour. Electric
+lighting, in the same period, has become very general; and further
+adaptations of this mysterious force to man's service are in the air.
+
+[Illustration: J. M. Barrie.]
+
+[Illustration: Richard Jefferies.]
+
+This is an age of great explorers. Stanley has succeeded to
+Livingstone, Nansen to Franklin; but it has been only within
+comparatively recent years that women have emulated men in
+penetrating to remote regions. Within the decade we have seen Mrs.
+Bishop a veteran traveller, visiting south-west Persia; Mrs. French
+Sheldon has shown how far beyond the beaten track a woman's
+adventurous spirit may lead her; and Miss Mary Kingsley, a niece of
+the late Charles Kingsley, has intrepidly explored the interior of
+Africa, her scientific observations being welcomed by British
+_savants_. In 1896 women, who had long sought the privilege, were
+permitted to compete for the diploma of the Royal College of
+Surgeons, and in many other walks of usefulness the barriers
+excluding women have been removed, with benefit to all concerned. It
+is not other than natural that under the reign of a noble woman there
+should arise women noble-minded as herself, cherishing ideas of life
+and duty lofty as her own, and that their greatest elevation of
+purpose should tent to raise the moral standard among the men who
+work with them for the uplifting of their fellow subjects. Such signs
+of the times may be noticed now, more evident than even ten years
+ago.
+
+[Illustration: Professor Huxley. _From a Photograph by the London
+Stereoscopic Co_.]
+
+[Illustration: Professor Tyndall. _From a Photograph by Alexander
+Bassano, Ltd_.]
+
+The educational progress of the last decade has been very great,
+especially as regards the instruction of women; yet the period has
+not been noticeably fruitful of literature in the highest sense. In
+the world of fiction there is much that looks like degeneration; the
+lighter magazines and serials have multiplied past computation, and
+form all the reading of not a few persons. To counteract the
+unhealthy "modern novel" has arisen the Scottish school, the
+"literature of the kailyard," as it has been termed in scorn; yet a
+purer air breathes in the pages of J. M. Barrie, "Ian Maclaren," and
+Crockett. Their many imitators are in some danger of impairing the
+vogue of these masters, but still the tendency of the school is
+wholesome. Other artists in fiction assume the part of censors of
+society, and write of its doings with a bitterness that may or may
+not profit; the unveiling of cancerous sores is of doubtful advantage
+to health.
+
+[Illustration: C. H. Spurgeon.]
+
+[Illustration: Dr. Horatius Bonar.]
+
+The death-roll from 1887 to 1897 is exceptionally heavy; in every
+department of science, art, literary and religious life, the loss has
+been great. Many musicians have been taken from us since the
+well-beloved Jenny Lind Goldschmidt; Canon Sir E. A. Gore Ouseley,
+Sir G. Macfarren, Principal of the Royal Academy of Music,
+Rubinstein, Carrodus, and others.
+
+[Illustration: Rev. J. G. Wood.]
+
+[Illustration: Dean Church.]
+
+English letters have suffered by the removal of many whose services
+in one way or another have been great: the prose-painter Richard
+Jefferies; the pure and beneficent Mrs. Craik, better known as Miss
+Muloch; Matthew Arnold, poet, educationalist, critic, whose verse
+should outlive his criticisms; the noble astronomer Richard Proctor;
+Gustave Masson, the careful biographer of Milton; Laurence Oliphant,
+gifted and eccentric visionary; the naturalist J. G. Wood; the
+explorer and orientalist Burton; the historians Kinglake, Froude, and
+Freeman; the great ecclesiastics Bishop Lightfoot, Canon Liddon,
+Archbishop Magee of York, Dean Church, Dean Plumptre, and the
+Cardinals Newman and Manning; Tennyson and Browning, poets whose
+mantle has yet fallen on none; Huxley and Tyndall, eminent in
+science; the justly popular preacher and writer Charles H. Spurgeon;
+the orator and philanthropist John Bright, whose speeches delight
+many in book-form; and Robert Louis Stevenson, novelist, essayist,
+poet. To these we may add Eliza Cook and Martin Tapper, widely
+popular a generation ago, and surviving into our own day; Lord
+Lytton, known as "Owen Meredith," a literary artist, before he became
+viceroy of India and British ambassador at Paris; and Professor Henry
+Drummond, dead since 1897 began, and widely known by his "Natural Law
+in the Spiritual World." Even so our list is far from complete.
+
+[Illustration: J. E. Millais, P.R.A. _From a Photograph by Elliott &
+Fry_.]
+
+Of painters and sculptors we have lost since 1887 Frank Holl; Sir
+Edgar Boehm, buried in St. Paul's by express wish of the Queen; Edwin
+Long; John Pettie; Sir Noel Paton; Sir Frederick Leighton; and Sir
+J. E. Millais. The last two illustrious painters were successively
+Presidents of the Royal Academy, Millais, who followed Leighton in
+that office, surviving him but a short time. Sir Frederick had been
+raised to the peerage as Lord Leighton only a few days before he
+died, the patent arriving too late for him to receive it.
+
+[Illustration: Sir Frederick Leighton, P.R.A. _From a Photograph by
+J. R. Mayall, Piccadilly, W_.]
+
+The English world is the poorer for these many losses, some of which
+took place under tragic circumstances; yet hope may well be cherished
+that amongst us are those, not yet fully recognised, who will nobly
+fill the places of the dead. Some hymn-writer may arise whose note
+will be as sweet as that of the much loved singer, Dr. Horatius
+Bonar, some painter as spiritual and powerful as Paton, some poet as
+grandly gifted as the late laureate and his compeer Browning. We do
+not at once recognise our greatest while they are with us; therefore
+we need not think despairingly of our age because the good and the
+great pass away, and we see not their place immediately filled. Nor,
+though there be great and crying evils in our midst, need we tremble
+lest these should prevail, while there is so much earnest and
+energetic endeavour to cope with and overcome them.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+PROGRESS OF WESLEYAN METHODISM
+UNDER QUEEN VICTORIA, 1837-1897. [Footnote]
+
+PART I.
+
+[Illustration: Wesley preaching on his father's tomb.]
+
+When the Queen ascended the throne Wesleyan Methodism in this country
+was recovering from the effects of the agitation occasioned by Dr.
+Warren, who had been expelled from its ministry; the erection of an
+organ in a Leeds chapel had caused another small secession. But the
+Conference of 1837, assembled in Leeds under the presidency of the
+Rev. Edmund Grindrod, with the Rev. Robert Newton as secretary, had
+no reason to be discouraged. Faithful to the loyal tradition of
+Methodism, it promptly attended to the duty of congratulating the
+young Sovereign who had ascended the throne on June 20, a few weeks
+before.
+
+[Footnote: The writer desires to acknowledge special obligation to
+the Rev. J. Wesley Davies for invaluable aid rendered by him in
+collecting and arranging the material embodied in this chapter.]
+
+We may read in its Minutes of the vote in favour of an address, which
+should assure the Queen of the sincere attachment cherished by her
+Methodist subjects for her person and government, and of their
+fervent prayers to Almighty God "for her personal happiness and the
+prosperity of her reign." By a singular coincidence, it will probably
+be one of the first acts of a Leeds Conference in 1897 to forward
+another address, congratulating Her Majesty on the long and
+successful reign which has realised these aspirations of unaffected
+devotion. The address of 1837 had gracious acknowledgment, conveyed
+through Lord John Russell.
+
+[Illustration: Group of Presidents Number One]
+
+At this time Methodism had spread throughout the world. Its
+membership in Great Britain and Ireland numbered 318,716; in foreign
+mission stations 66,007; in Upper Canada 14,000; while the American
+Conferences had charge of 650,678 members; thus the total for the
+world, exclusive of ministers, was 1,049,401.
+
+Of ministers there were 1,162 in the United Kingdom and 3,316
+elsewhere. It will be obvious that British and Irish Methodism even
+then formed a body whose allegiance was highly valuable.
+
+The 1837 Conference had to discuss the subject of the approaching
+Centenary of Methodism, which had for years been anticipated with
+great interest. With Mr. Butterworth--a Member of Parliament and a
+loyal Methodist and generous supporter of our funds--originated the
+idea of commemorating God's goodness in a fitting manner, not in a
+boastful spirit; a committee which had been appointed reported to the
+next Conference "that the primary object of the said celebration
+should be the religious and devotional improvement of the centenary";
+and that there should also be "thank-offering to Almighty God" in
+money contributions for some of the institutions of the Church. The
+Conference approved these suggestions, and appointed a day of united
+prayer in January, 1839, "for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit" on
+the Connexion during the year.
+
+[Illustration: Centenary meeting at Manchester.]
+
+There had been some difficulty in fixing the date of the birth of
+Methodism; but 1739 was determined on, because then the first
+class-meetings were held, the first chapel at Bristol was opened, the
+first hymn-book published; then the United Societies were formed,
+then field-preaching began, and then Whitefield, Charles Wesley, and
+others held that historic lovefeast in Fetter Lane when the Holy
+Spirit came so mightily on them that all were awed into silence, some
+sank down insensible, and on recovering they sang with one voice
+their Te Deum of reverent praise.
+
+The centenary year being decided, a three days' convention of
+ministers and laymen was held at Manchester to make the needful
+arrangements; its proceedings were marked by a wonderful enthusiasm
+and liberality.
+
+The Centenary Conference assembled at Liverpool in 1839. It could
+report an increase of 13,000 members. On August 5 it suspended its
+ordinary business for the centenary services--a prayer-meeting at six
+in the morning being followed by sermons preached by the Rev. Thomas
+Jackson and the President, the Rev. Theophilus Lessey. A few weeks
+later came the festal day, October 25, morning prayer-meetings and
+special afternoon and evening services being held throughout the
+country. Never had there been such large gatherings for rejoicing and
+thanksgiving; there were festivities for the poor and for the
+children of the day and Sunday schools. These celebrations, in which
+the whole Methodist Church joined, aroused the interest of the
+nation, and called forth appreciative criticism from press and
+pulpit.
+
+[Illustration: Wesleyan Centenary Hall.]
+
+When the idea of this first great Thanksgiving Fund was originally
+contemplated, the most hopeful only dared look for L10,000; but when
+the accounts were closed the treasurers were in possession of
+L222,589, one meeting at City Road having produced L10,000; and the
+effort was made at a time of great commercial depression. This
+remarkable liberality drew the attention of the Pope, who said in an
+encyclical that _the heretics were putting to shame the offerings of
+the faithful_.
+
+Not a few meetings took the form of lovefeasts, where generous giving
+proved the reality of the religious experiences; for there has ever
+been an intimate connexion between the fellowship and the finance of
+Methodism. Part of the great sum raised went to the Theological
+Institution, part to Foreign Missions; Wesleyan education was helped
+by a grant, L1,000 were paid over to the British and Foreign Bible
+Society; and the laymen desiring to help the worn-out ministers and
+their widows and children, L16,000 were set aside to form the
+Auxiliary Fund for this purpose.
+
+It was now that the Missionary Committee were enabled to secure the
+Centenary Hall, the present headquarters of the Missionary Society.
+The remaining sums were given to other useful purposes.
+
+Methodism in 1839 in all its branches [Footnote] reckoned more than
+1,400,000 members, with 6,080 itinerant preachers and 350
+missionaries; 50,000 pupils were instructed in the mission schools,
+and there were upwards of 70,000 communicants and at least 200,000
+hearers of the gospel in Methodist mission chapels. In England alone
+the Wesleyan Methodists owned 3,000 chapels, and had many other
+preaching places; there were 3,300 Sunday schools, 341,000 scholars,
+and 4,000 local preachers. These figures, when, compared with those
+given at the end of our sketch, will furnish some idea of the
+numerical advance of Methodism throughout the world during the
+Queen's reign.
+
+[Footnote: "Methodism in all its branches" must be understood of
+_all_ bodies bearing the name of Methodist, including the New
+Connexion and the Primitive Methodists. The membership of Wesleyan
+Methodism alone throughout the world, according to the _Minutes of
+Conference_ for 1839, was 1,112,519; and the total ministry,
+including 335 missionaries, 4,957.]
+
+The centenary celebrations marked the high flood-tide of spiritual
+prosperity for many ensuing years, for a time of great trial
+followed. Gladly would we forget the misunderstandings of our
+fathers; yet this sketch would be incomplete without reference to
+unhappy occurrences which caused the loss of 100,000 members, and
+allowance must be made for this terrible loss in estimating the
+progress of Wesleyan Methodism. The troubles began when certain
+anonymous productions, known as "Fly Sheets," severely criticised the
+administration of Methodism and libellously assailed the characters
+of leading ministers, especially Dr. Bunting, who stood head and
+shoulders above all others in this Methodist war. He was chosen
+President when only forty-one, and on three other occasions filled
+the chair of the Conference. He became an authority on Methodist
+government and policy. Dr. Gregory says, "As an administrator, he was
+unapproached in sagacity, aptitude, personal influence, and
+indefatigability... his character was spotless." He was a born
+commander. The "Liverpool Minutes," describing the ideal Methodist
+preacher, are his work.
+
+Dr. Bunting volunteered to be tried by the Conference as to the
+anonymous charges against him, but no one came forward with proofs to
+sustain them. Three ministers, Messrs. Everett, Dunn, and Griffiths,
+supposed to be the chief movers of this agitation, refused to be
+questioned on the matter, and defying the Conference, were expelled.
+Thereafter the agitation was kept up, and caused great disaffection
+in the Societies, resulting in the loss we have referred to. The
+seceders called themselves "Reformers"; many of them eventually
+joined similar bodies of seceders, forming with them the "United
+Methodist Free Churches." These in 1857 reported a membership of
+41,000, less than half that which was lost to Wesleyan Methodism. But
+now they may be congratulated on better success, the statistics for
+1896 showing, at home and abroad, a total of nearly 90,000 members,
+with 1,622 chapels, 417 ministers, 3,448 local preachers, 1,350
+Sunday schools, and 203,712 scholars. It may be noted with pleasure
+that the leaders of the movement outlived all hostility to the mother
+Church; one of them attended the Ecumenical Conference of 1881, and
+took the sacrament with the other delegates.
+
+With great regret we speak of this painful disruption, now that so
+much better feeling animates the various Methodist Churches.
+Practically there is no difference of doctrine among them. It has
+been well said, "Our articles of faith stand to-day precisely as in
+the last century, which makes us think that, like Minerva from the
+brain of Jupiter, they were born full-grown and heavily armoured."
+
+An influential committee has been appointed to ascertain how
+concerted action may be taken by the Methodist Churches; and the hope
+is cherished that their suggestions may lead to the adoption of
+methods which will prevent strife and friction and unworthy rivalry.
+The New Connexion and Methodist Free Church Conferences also
+appointed a joint committee to consider the same subject. The
+brotherly desire for spiritual fellowship and mutual help and counsel
+thus indicated must be held as a very hopeful token of something
+better than numerical advance.
+
+[Illustration: Group of Presidents Number Two.]
+
+The bitter experiences through which the Church passed called
+attention to the need for modification and expansion of Wesleyan
+Methodist polity. The Conference of 1851 appointed a committee of
+ministers to consider the question; 745 laymen were invited to join
+them. Their recommendations led Conference to adopt resolutions
+defining the proper constitution of the quarterly meeting, and to
+provide for special circuit meetings to re-try cases of discipline,
+which had been brought before the leaders' meeting, when there was
+reason to think that the verdict had been given in a factious spirit.
+The chairman of the district, with twelve elected by the quarterly
+meeting, formed a tribunal to re-try the case. From this decision
+there was an appeal to the district synods, and also to the
+Conference. Provision was made for the trial of trustees, so that
+every justice should be done them. Local Church meetings were
+guaranteed the right of appeal to Conference, and circuits were
+allowed to memorialise Conference on Connexional subjects, within
+proper limits. The quarterly meetings, having considered these
+resolutions, gave them a cordial reception, and they were confirmed
+by the Conference of 1853.
+
+No new rule is enforced by Conference until opportunity is given to
+bring it before all the quarterly meetings, and it is not likely to
+become Methodist law if the majority object. The enlarged district
+synods are an additional safeguard for the privileges of the people.
+By ballot the circuit quarterly meetings may now elect one, or in
+some cases two gentlemen, who, with the circuit steward, shall
+represent the circuit in the district synod.
+
+In 1889, Conference sanctioned the formation of Methodist councils,
+composed of ministers and laymen, to consult on matters pertaining to
+Methodist institutions in the towns. Their decisions of course do not
+bind any particular Society.
+
+The disaffection so fruitful of suffering had been due to a suspicion
+that men were retained in departmental offices when they no longer
+had the confidence of the people. Now such officials are only elected
+for six years, though eligible for re-election. One-sixth of the
+laymen on Connexional committees retire yearly; they may be
+re-elected, but must receive a four-fifths vote. Visitors may be
+present when the President is inducted into office, and during the
+representative session, when also reporters other than ministers are
+now allowed to take notes.
+
+It was the year 1878 which witnessed that most important development
+of Methodist economy, the introduction of lay representatives to take
+part with ministers in the deliberations of Conference. This was no
+sudden revolution; laymen had long had their share in the work of
+quarterly meetings, district synods, and great Connexional
+committees; in 1861 they were admitted to the Committees of Review,
+which arranged the business of Conference; they sat in the nomination
+committee each year, and had power to scrutinise, and even to alter,
+the lists of names for the various committees. Now in natural
+sequence they were to be endowed with legislative as well as
+consultative functions; it might be said they had been educated to
+this end.
+
+The committee appointed to consider the matter having done its work,
+the report was submitted to the district synods and then to
+Conference. Long, earnest, animated, but loving was the debate that
+ensued; the assembled ministers, by a large majority, determined that
+the laity should henceforth share in their deliberations on all
+questions not strictly pastoral.
+
+It was resolved that there should be a representative session of 240
+ministers and 240 laymen. The ministerial quota was to consist of
+President and secretary, members of the Legal Hundred, assistant
+secretary, chairmen of districts not members of the Hundred, and
+representatives of the great departments; six ministers stationed in
+foreign countries, but visiting England at the time; and the
+remainder elected by their brethren in the district synods; the
+laymen to be elected in the synods by laymen only. A small proportion
+at one Conference is chosen to attend the next.
+
+Such were the new arrangements that came into force in 1878, causing
+no friction, since they secured "a maximum of adaptation with a
+minimum of change"; there was no difficulty in deciding what business
+should belong to either session of Conference. It is needless to
+dwell here on minor alterations, introduced in the past, or
+contemplated for the future, as to the order of the sessions; it may
+amply suffice us to remark that Wesleyan Methodism, thanks to the
+modifications of its constitution which we have briefly touched upon,
+is one of the most truly popular Church systems ever devised. For, as
+the Pastoral Address of 1896 puts it, "Methodism gives every class,
+every member, all the rights which can be reasonably claimed, listens
+to every complaint, asserts no exclusive privilege, but insures that
+all things are done 'decently and in order.'"
+
+The great change just described, being the work of the ministers
+themselves, and accomplished by them before there was any loud demand
+for it, was effected with such moderation and discretion as not to
+entail the loss of a single member or minister. This was justly held
+a cause for great thankfulness; and it was determined to raise a
+thanksgiving fund for the relief of the various departments.
+
+Great central meetings, extending over two years (1878--1880), were
+held throughout the country, and were characterised by enthusiasm and
+wonderful generosity. At a time when the country was suffering almost
+unheard of commercial depression, the sum of L297,500 was raised, to
+be apportioned between Foreign Missions, the Extension of Methodism
+in Great Britain, Education, Home Missions, Methodism in Scotland,
+the Sunday-school Union, a new Theological College, the "Children's
+Home," the Welsh and German chapels in London, a chapel at Oxford,
+the relief of necessitous local preachers, and the promotion of
+temperance. The missionary debt was paid, and the buildings for
+soldiers and sailors at Malta and Aldershot were cleared of debt.
+
+Such work could not be done if the circuits acted independently; but
+united as they are, and forming one vast connexion, much which would
+otherwise be impossible can be achieved by means of the great
+Connexional funds. Of these funds not a few have been established
+since 1837; but the most important among them, the Foreign Mission
+fund, can boast an earlier origin.
+
+Wesleyanism, indeed, is essentially missionary in spirit, her
+original aim being to spread scriptural holiness throughout the
+world. "The world is my parish," said Wesley though he himself could
+never visit the whole of that parish, his followers have at least
+explored the greater part of it, causing the darkness to flee before
+the radiance of the lamp of truth.
+
+British Methodism has now missions in almost every quarter of the
+globe--in Asia, in Africa, on the Continent of Europe, in the Western
+Hemisphere. Her mission agencies include medical missions, hospitals,
+schools for the blind, homes for lepers, orphanages, training and
+industrial schools, etc.
+
+In Europe we have set on foot missions in countries that are
+nominally Christian, where the people are too often the victims of
+ignorance, wickedness, vice, scepticism, and superstition; France,
+Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Portugal have all been objects of
+our missionary enterprise during the present reign, and in some
+instances conspicuous success has been attained. Witness the good
+work still going on in Italy, and the independent position attained
+by the _Conference, Methodiste de France_.
+
+In India, Ceylon, China, and Burma, our agents are working amongst
+races in which they have to combat heathenism strong in its
+antiquity. The progress is necessarily slow, but a point has been
+reached where great success may be prophesied, as the result largely
+of the work of the pioneers. The schools are turning out many who, if
+they do not all become decided Christians, are intellectually
+convinced that Christianity is right, and will put fewer difficulties
+in the way of their children than they themselves had to contend
+with. This educational work prepares the way for the gospel;
+observers declare that nearly all converts in Ceylon have been
+trained in our schools.
+
+The important missions in Southern and Western Africa must not be
+forgotten, nor those in Honduras and the Bahamas.
+
+The present policy throughout our actual mission-field is as far as
+possible to raise up native agents. Probably the heathen lands will
+be won for the great Captain of salvation by native soldiers; but for
+a long time they will need officers trained in countries familiar for
+generations with the blessings of the gospel. The number of our
+missionaries may be stated at 400, more than half being native
+agents; there are 2,680 other mission workers, 52,058 Church members;
+84,113 children and young people having instruction in the schools.
+But these figures would give a false idea of the progress of the work
+if compared with the statistics of 1837; for _then_ our missions
+included vast regions that have now their own Conferences. When the
+Queen ascended the throne Fiji was a nation of cannibals. Two years
+before her accession our Missionary Society commenced operations in
+those islands. John Hunt laboured with apostolic zeal, and died
+breathing the prayer, "God, for Christ's sake, bless Fiji, save
+Fiji." The prayer is already answered. All these islands have been
+won for Christ, and are trophies of Wesleyan missionary toil. There
+are 3,100 native preachers under the care of nine white missionaries;
+1,322 chapels, 43,339 members and catechumens, and more than 42,000
+scholars. Fiji has become almost a nation of Methodists. But it were
+vain to look for traces of this vast achievement in the "Minutes of
+Conference" of 1896; for a special feature of our missionary policy
+is the establishment of affiliated Conferences, which in course of
+time become self-supporting. In 1883 all the branches of the Canadian
+Methodists united to form one Canadian Conference. The first French
+Conference met in 1852. In 1855 the Conference of Eastern British
+America was formed. The same year the first Australian Conference
+met, and took charge of the Missions in Fiji, the Friendly Isles, and
+New Zealand. The first South African Conference met in 1882, and the
+two West Indian Conferences in 1884. Although more or less
+independent of the mother Conference, they still retain the
+characteristics of Methodism. A distinct branch of Mission work,
+known as the Women's Auxiliary, has been established, and sends forth
+ladies to engage in educational, zenana, and medical work. They are
+doing good service in India, China, and other parts of the world. In
+1896 they expended more than L10,000.
+
+The total expenditure last year (1896) was L124,700, incurred by our
+own Mission work and by grants to the affiliated Conferences. It is
+satisfactory to note that in the districts helped, including those
+covered by these Conferences, an additional L185,000 was raised. We
+have magnificent opportunities; and with full consecration of our
+people's wealth there would be glorious successes in the future.
+Foreign Missions have been the chief honour of Methodism, and it is
+to be hoped the same affection for them will be maintained; for
+wherever Methodism is found throughout the world, it is the result of
+mission work.
+
+Meanwhile there has been no sacrificing of home interests. Never were
+greater efforts made by Methodism for the evangelisation of the
+masses in Great Britain. The Home Mission Fund, first instituted in
+1756, was remodelled in 1856. Its business is to assist the dependent
+circuits in maintaining the administration of the gospel, to provide
+means for employing additional ministers, and to meet various
+contingencies with which the circuits could not cope unassisted. Our
+needs as a Connexion demand such a Contingent Fund. One-third of the
+amount raised by the Juvenile Home and Foreign Missionary Association
+is devoted to Home Missions. The income, which in 1837 was less than
+L10.000, is now more than L36,000; an increase witnessing to a spirit
+of aggression and enterprise in modern Methodism. This fund provides
+for the support of the Connexional evangelists and district
+missionaries.
+
+In the year 1882, under the head "Home Missions," there was a new and
+important departure, by the appointment of the first "Connexional
+evangelists," of whom there are now four; they have already been the
+means of great blessing throughout the country, showing that the old
+gospel, preached as in the old days, is still mighty to awaken and
+convert.
+
+Under the direction of the Home Mission Committee, commissioners
+visit certain districts, to give advice and discover the best methods
+for improving the condition of Methodism where it appears to be low.
+
+Special attention is given to the villages. The "Out-and-Out Band"
+subscribed for four Gospel Mission vans, each carrying two
+evangelists, and a large quantity of literature, to the villages; the
+evangelists in charge conducting services in the village chapels and
+in the open air. The sale of books and the voluntary contributions of
+the people help to defray the expenses. This agency is now under the
+direction of the Home Mission committee, and the gospel cars will be
+known as "Wesleyan Home Mission Cars."
+
+Another new movement, helpful to village Methodism, is the "Joyful
+News" mission, originating with the Rev. Thomas Champness, who has
+been set free from ordinary circuit work to manage it. He trains lay
+agents, for whose services there is a great demand in villages where
+the people are too poor to maintain additional ministers, and where
+the supply of local preachers is deficient. Some of these agents are
+at work abroad.
+
+The energetic Home Mission Committee has also set on foot missions
+where Methodism was feeble. Nor are those forgotten who "go down to
+the sea in ships, and do business in great waters." As far as means
+permit, efforts are made for the spiritual benefit of our sailors in
+all the great ports of the world; our soldiers, too, are equally
+cared for. Methodism has always been interested in the army, in which
+some of Wesley's best converts were found; yet there was no
+systematic work in it before 1839, when an order by the
+commander-in-chief permitted every soldier to attend the church of
+his choice. Some years afterwards, the Rev. Dr. Rule strove hard to
+secure the recognition of the rights of Wesleyans, and after much
+struggle the War Office recognised Wesleyan chaplains. The work and
+position of Wesleyan Methodism are now thoroughly organised
+throughout the world. The government allows a capitation grant for
+all declared Wesleyans, and it amounts to a large sum of money every
+year. In 1896 there were, including the Militia, 22,663 declared
+Wesleyans in the army and 1,485 Church members. There are 28 Sailors'
+and Soldiers' Homes, providing 432 beds, and these Homes have been
+established at a cost of L35,000. In them are coffee bars, libraries,
+lecture halls, and, what is most appreciated by Christian soldiers,
+rooms for private prayer. The officiating ministers, who give the
+whole or part of their time to the soldiers and their families,
+number 195.
+
+There are many local preachers among the soldiers, and at least two
+have left the ranks to become ministers.
+
+On the Mission field, soldiers render valuable aid to the missionary
+in building chapels, distributing tracts, and often teaching and
+preaching to the natives and others. Thus, whilst helping to hold the
+empire for their Queen, they are hastening on the day when all the
+kingdoms of the world shall be the kingdom of our Lord and of His
+Christ.
+
+This deeply interesting work in the Army and Royal Navy is
+appropriately mentioned in connexion with our Home and Foreign
+Missions, both intimately concerned in its maintenance and
+management. It is right to mention that the Soldiers' and Sailors'
+Homes described are free to all members of H.M.'s sea and land
+forces, irrespective of religious denomination.
+
+PART II.
+
+One great event in Methodist history since 1837 now calls for
+notice--the assembling of the first Oecumenical Conference in
+Wesley's Chapel, City Road, London, in 1861. This idea was in strict
+keeping with the spirit Wesley discovered when, five weeks before his
+death, he wrote to his children in America: "See that you never give
+place to one thought of separating from your brethren in Europe. Lose
+no opportunity of declaring to all men that the Methodists are one
+people in all the world, and that it is their full determination so
+to continue,
+
+       "'Though mountains rise, and oceans roll,
+            To sever us in vain.'"
+
+The growing affection among Methodists of all branches made the idea
+of an Oecumenical Conference practicable.
+
+[Illustration: Sir Francis Lycett.]
+
+The suggestion took form at the Joint Conference of the Methodist
+Episcopal Church of America in 1876. The American Methodists sent a
+delegate to the British Conference, proposing a United Conference
+which should demonstrate to the world the essential oneness in
+doctrine, spirit, and principle of all the Churches which
+historically trace their origin to John Wesley; such a manifestation,
+it was hoped, would strengthen and perpetuate that unity.
+
+Further, the Conference was to discover how to adjust our mission
+work so as to prevent waste and friction; suggesting also modes and
+agencies for the most successful work of evangelisation. Nor was this
+all; its promoters trusted to gain light on the relation of universal
+Methodism to education, civil government, other Christian bodies, and
+missionary enterprise at large, and looked for a vast increase in
+spiritual power and intelligent, enthusiastic activity among the
+various branches of Methodism, whose gathering together might well
+draw "the attention of scholars and reformers and thinkers to the
+whole Methodist history, work, and mission," while a new impulse
+should be given to every good work, and a more daring purpose of
+evangelisation kindled. The British Conference pointed out the need
+of frankly recognising the not unimportant differences amongst the
+various Methodist bodies, so as to rule out of discussion any points
+which had a suggestion of past controversies. The American Conference
+accepted this.
+
+[Illustration: The Methodist Settlement, Bermondsey, London, S.E.]
+
+The smaller Methodist bodies being invited to join, the four hundred
+delegates were sent up by the various branches of the Methodist
+Church as nearly as possible in proportion to their numerical
+strength; seven sections of British Methodism and thirteen from the
+United States and the Mission fields, numbering probably twenty
+millions, were represented. It was fitting that the first Oecumenical
+Conference should meet in City Road, the cathedral of Methodism.
+Bishop Simpson preached the opening sermon; the delegates then
+partook of the sacrament together, and Dr. Osborn, President of the
+Conference, gave the opening address. The Oecumenical Conference did
+not aim at determining any debated condition of Church membership, or
+at defining any controverted doctrine, or settling any question of
+ritual; it met for consultative, not legislative purposes. As such,
+the gathering brought about the thing which is written: "Thy watchmen
+shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they
+sing... Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall
+fear, and be enlarged."
+
+By a happy coincidence, that largehearted son of Methodism, the late
+Sir William M'Arthur, was then Lord Mayor of London, and he gave a
+congratulatory welcome to the delegates at a magnificent reception in
+the Mansion House.
+
+The next important event in Methodist history during the Queen's
+reign is the rise and progress of the great Wesleyan Missions in the
+towns--a vast beneficent movement, in which some at least of the
+aspirations cherished by the promoters of the first Oecumenical
+Conference appeared to have been realised.
+
+The tendency of our day is towards a steady flow of population from
+the villages to the towns, especially to London. In 1837, there was
+only one London district, covering a very wide area, and including
+six circuits, whose total membership was only 11,460, after a hundred
+years of Methodism. The various branches of the recently established
+London Mission report more than a third of this number after less
+than ten years' labour.
+
+[Illustration: Theological Institution, Richmond.]
+
+The success of London Methodism in late years is largely due to the
+establishment of the Metropolitan Chapel Building fund in 1862. The
+late Sir Francis Lycett gave L50,000, on condition that an equal
+amount should be raised throughout the country, and that ten chapels,
+each seating at least a thousand persons, should in ten years be
+built in the metropolitan area. The noble challenge called forth a
+fit response. In his will he left a large sum to the same fund, so
+the committee could offer an additional L500 pounds to every chapel
+commenced before the end of 1898, with a proportionate grant to
+smaller chapels; aid will also be given by the committee in securing
+additional ministerial supply. Such offers should stimulate chapel
+building for the two years. Already, since the establishment of the
+fund, more than ninety chapels have been built in London at a cost of
+L630,000, towards which the fund contributed in grants and loans
+L213,000. Before 1862, there were only three important chapels south
+of the Thames, and now there are thirty-seven. During the last ten or
+twelve years unprecedented prosperity has been shown, not only in
+chapel building, but in chapel filling, and the establishment of
+successful missions.
+
+In 1885 the earnest attention of the Churches was directed to
+"outcast London." The deepest interest was aroused, especially in
+Methodist circles; and that year great meetings were held in City
+Road, to initiate a movement that should benefit London's outcasts. A
+large sum of money was raised, and the London Mission formed. The
+West London Mission at St. James's Hall, the East End branch, and the
+almost deserted chapel in Clerkenwell became notable centres. Thus at
+one time efforts were put forth to reach the rich, the artisans, and
+the outcasts. The success has abundantly justified the enterprise. In
+addition to evangelistic work, the missions make strenuous efforts to
+improve the social condition of the people, for Methodism realises
+that she is called to minister not only to the souls, but also to the
+bodies of men. Already, as a result of the London Mission, a new,
+fully organised circuit has grown up; the West London Mission alone
+reporting a membership which is one-tenth of the whole membership of
+London in 1837.
+
+The latest and most novel branch of the work is the "Bermondsey
+Settlement," established six years ago in the poorest district of
+south-east London. In this hall of residence live devoted workers who
+have been trained in our universities or in our high-class schools,
+and who spend their leisure in benefiting their poor neighbours by
+religious, educational, and social effort. A home for women, in which
+about ten ladies reside, is connected with the settlement, which is
+in special connexion with Wesleyan schools throughout the country.
+The programme of work is extensive, and in addition the settlement
+takes an increasing part in local administration and philanthropy,
+many non-resident workers assisting.
+
+[Illustration: Theological Institution, Didsbury.]
+
+To support the London Mission, appeal is made to Methodists
+throughout the country and the world. The meetings held on its behalf
+in the provinces have greatly blessed the people, stimulating them to
+fresh efforts in their own localities. Similar agencies had
+previously been established in various great trading centres, where
+the tendency is for the people who can afford it to leave the towns
+and to live in the suburbs. Thus many chapels have become almost
+deserted. The Conference decided that the best method of filling
+these chapels would be to utilise them as Mission halls, for
+aggressive evangelistic and social effort; which has been done with
+surprising success in Manchester, Leeds, Hull, Birmingham, and many
+other large towns. In Manchester there are from ten to twelve
+thousand people reached by the Mission agencies, and already a new
+circuit has been formed, the members of its Society having been
+gathered in from the army of distress and destitution. It would be
+impossible here to enumerate the thousand ways in which the Mission
+workers toil for the redemption of the downfallen, or to tell half
+the tale of their success. But all this work could not be so well
+carried on without the assistance of another important department.
+The Wesleyan Chapel Building Committee, instituted in 1818, was
+reconstituted in 1854; it meets monthly in Manchester to dispose of
+grants and loans, to consider cases of erections, alterations,
+purchases, and sales of Wesleyan trust property, and to afford advice
+in difficult cases. It has also to see that all our trust property is
+duly secured to the Connexion. The erection of the Central Hall in
+Manchester, to be at once the headquarters of our Chapel Committee
+and of the great Mission, marked a most important era in Methodist
+aggressive enterprise. The income of the Chapel Fund from all sources
+last year was L9,115. It was reported that the entire debt discharged
+or provided for during the last forty-one years was L2,389,073, and
+the total debt remaining on trust property is not more than L800,000;
+while L9,000,000 had been expended on chapel buildings during the
+thirty years preceding 1893.
+
+[Illustration: Theological Institution, Headingley.]
+
+The Extension of Methodism Fund was established in 1874, to
+supplement the ordinary funds of the Connexion and the local
+resources of the people, by aiding in the increase of chapel
+accommodation throughout the country, and in the extension of
+Methodism by Home Mission and similar agencies. At first the building
+of a thousand chapels was contemplated; but already 1,796 cases have
+been helped, with grants and loans amounting to L122,999. In 1867 a
+fund was started for the relief and extension of Methodism in
+Scotland; a Chapel Fund for the North Wales District was instituted
+in 1867, and for South Wales in 1873. There are now in Great Britain
+10,000 Wesleyan chapels, which will accommodate 2,156,209 hearers,
+more than four times the number of members returned; for there is
+something misleading, as far as the general public is concerned, in
+the published statistics of Methodism, which take account of
+class-meeting membership only. Estimating the other Methodist bodies
+at the same rate, Methodist chapels provide accommodation for
+3,000,000 people; so that the united Methodist Church in this country
+is second only to the Established Church of England.
+
+The Wesleyan Methodist Trust Assurance Company was established in
+1872, for the insurance of Methodist Trust property only. The Board
+of Trustees for Chapel Purposes was formed in 1866, which undertakes
+to invest money intended for the chapel trust and for Methodist
+objects. Seeing that there are so many funds in Methodism, and that
+while some have a balance, others might be obliged to borrow at a
+high rate of interest, it was suggested that a Common Cash Fund
+should be established, making it possible for the committees to
+borrow from and lend to one another, the borrowers paying the
+ordinary bank rate of interest, and the profits being equally divided
+among the funds.
+
+[Illustration: Theological Institution, Handsworth.]
+
+A passing reference must be made to another committee, instituted in
+1803--the Committee of Privileges and Exigency: and in 1845 an acting
+special committee for cases of great emergency was formed. Between
+the sessions of the Conference this committee often renders great
+service, safeguarding Methodist interests when they would be
+endangered by proposed government measures, or in any other way. At
+present it is engaged in trying to get through Parliament several
+measures in the interests of Nonconformity generally.
+
+The subject of education drew the anxious attention of Wesley; his
+followers were less alive to its importance, until just before the
+Queen came to the throne. The training of the ministry was neglected,
+and the young ministers had to educate themselves. Though Wesley
+approved the idea of a seminary for his preachers, it was only three
+years before the Queen's accession that the first Theological
+Institution was opened at Hoxton. The Centenary Fund provided for one
+such institution at Richmond, and another at Didsbury. The Headingley
+branch was opened in 1868, and the Birmingham branch, built with part
+of the Thanksgiving Fund, in 1881. Our ministers are now far better
+trained than were the old Methodist preachers, and, taking them as a
+whole, they do not come short of their predecessors in any necessary
+qualification for their work.
+
+[Illustration: Kingswood School, Bath.]
+
+Their culture must not be judged by the scantiness of their literary
+production. The empress Catherine once said to a French _savant_, "My
+dear philosopher, it is not so easy to write on human flesh as on
+paper." Much more difficult is the task of our ministers, whose
+religious, social, and financial work leaves them little of that
+learned leisure enjoyed by Anglican divines, who by their masterly
+works have made the entire Christian Church their debtor. But in the
+period we are reviewing, despite the demands made on the time of the
+ministers, many have written that which will not easily be forgotten.
+The Church that nurtured Dr. Moulton, whose edition of Winer's "Greek
+Grammar" is a standard work, used by all the greatest Greek New
+Testament scholars, need not be ashamed of her learning. Dr. Moulton
+and Dr. Geden were on the revision committee which undertook the
+fresh translation of the Old and New Testaments. Other Wesleyan
+ministers have made their mark as commentators, apologists, scholars,
+and scientists in the last few decades. The _Fernley Lectures_ have
+proved the ability of many Methodist preachers; we lack space to
+refer to the many able writers who have ceased from their labours.
+
+The _London Quarterly Review_ has kept up the literary reputation of
+Methodism: nor are we behind any Nonconformist Church in journalistic
+matters. Two newspapers represent the varying shades of opinion in
+Methodism, and give full scope to its expression. A high level of
+excellence is seen in the publications of the Book Room, and our
+people when supporting it are also helping important Connexional
+funds, to which the profits are given.
+
+[Illustration: The North House, Leys School, Cambridge.]
+
+While increasing care has been taken with the training of the
+ministry, lay education has not been neglected. Kingswood School,
+founded by Wesley, continues, as in his day, to give excellent
+instruction to ministers' sons. In 1837 a Methodist school, Wesley
+College, was opened at Sheffield, and a few years later one at
+Taunton, well known as Queen's College. The Leys School at Cambridge,
+under the head-mastership of Dr. Moulton, was opened in 1874, and has
+shown "the possibility of reconciling Methodist training with the
+breadth and freedom of English public school life." There are in
+Ireland excellent colleges at Belfast and Dublin.
+
+In 1875, a scheme for establishing middle-class schools was adopted,
+resulting in the opening of such schools at Truro, Jersey, Bury St.
+Edmunds, Woodhouse Grove, Congleton, Canterbury, Folkestone,
+Trowbridge, Penzance, Camborne, and Queenswood; all report
+satisfactorily.
+
+Elementary education, which has made such great progress during the
+Queen's reign, engaged the anxious attention of our authorities long
+before the initiation of the School Board system, under which the
+average attendance in twenty-five years increased almost fourfold.
+Methodism has been in the forefront of the long battle with
+ignorance.
+
+The establishment of "week-day schools" in connexion with this great
+Church owed its origin to the declaration of the Conference in 1833.
+that "such institutions, placed under an efficient spiritual control,
+cannot fail to promote those high and holy ends for which we exist as
+a religious community." The object was to give the scholars "an
+education which might begin in the infant school and end in heaven,"
+thus subserving the lofty aim of Methodism, "to fill the world with
+saints, and Paradise with glorified spirits"; a more ambitious idea
+than that expressed by Huxley when he said, "We want a great highway,
+along which the child of the peasant as well as of the peer can climb
+to the highest seats of learning."
+
+[Illustration: Queen's College, Taunton.]
+
+In 1836 the attention of the Conference was directed to education in
+general, and especially to Wesleyan day schools; the Pastoral Address
+of 1837, regretting that children had to be trained outside the
+Church or be left untaught, expressed the hope that soon, in the
+larger circuits, schools might be established which would give a
+scriptural and Wesleyan education. Already some schools had been
+commenced; and the plan was devised which has been the basis of all
+subsequent Methodist day-school work.
+
+In 1840 it was decided to spend the interest of the L5,000 given from
+the Centenary Fund for the training of teachers, work which was at
+first carried on at Glasgow. The determination of Conference to
+perfect its plan of Wesleyan education was quickened when an unfair
+Education Bill, not the last of its kind, was introduced into
+Parliament in 1843, proposing to hand over the children in factory
+districts to the Church of England. An Education Fund was
+established. Government, in 1847, offered grants for the training of
+elementary school teachers; and in 1851 the Westminster Training
+College was opened, with room for 130 men students. In 1872, in
+response to an increased demand for Wesleyan teachers, a separate
+college for mistresses was opened at Southlands, Battersea. Already
+four thousand have been trained in these institutions. Many hold
+positions in Board schools. In 1896 the number in Wesleyan and Board
+schools was 2,400.
+
+The system thus inaugurated met a great and real need, and under it
+excellent work has been done on the lines laid down by the Department
+at Whitehall; for, receiving State aid, the training colleges and all
+the schools, like other similar denominational institutions on the
+same footing, are inspected and in a measure controlled by the
+national educational authority. In 1837 there were only 31 Wesleyan
+day schools; to-day there are 753 school departments, and on their
+books 162,609 scholars. But the introduction of free education has
+made it difficult for the Methodist Church to maintain her schools,
+efficient though they be. Since 1870, when school boards were
+introduced, the number of Wesleyan day schools has only increased by
+10, while 9,752 Board schools have arisen, and the Church of England
+schools have increased from 9,331 to 16,517; the Roman Catholic
+schools actually trebling in number and attendance.
+
+[Illustration: Wesley College, Sheffield.]
+
+In view of these changed conditions, Conference has expressed itself
+anxious for such a complete national system of education as might
+place a Christian unsectarian school within reasonable distance of
+every family, especially in rural districts, with "adequate
+representative public management"; it has most earnestly deprecated
+the exclusion of the Bible, and suitable religious instruction
+therefrom by the teachers, from the day schools; but, so long as
+denominational schools form part of the national system, it is
+resolved to maintain our schools and Training Colleges, in full
+vigour. Difficulties, undreamed of sixty years ago, surround this
+great question; but assuredly Methodism will be true to its trust and
+its traditions.
+
+The cost of Wesleyan schools last year was L215,634, and was met by
+school fees, subscriptions, and a government grant of L185,780. The
+Education Fund of 1896, amounting to L7,115, was spent on the
+Training Colleges, grants to necessitous schools, etc.
+
+Wesley approved of Sunday schools as means of giving religious
+instruction to the children of the poor, and Hannah Ball at High
+Wycombe, a good Methodist, and Silas Told, teaching at the Foundery,
+both anticipated the work of Raikes by several years. In 1837 there
+were already 3,339 Sunday schools, with 341,442 scholars. Today the
+schools number 7,147, the officers and teachers 131,145, and there
+are in the schools 965,201 children and young people. The formation
+in 1869 of the Circuit Sunday-school Union, and in 1874 of the
+Connexional Sunday-school Union, has done much for the schools, in
+providing suitable literature for teachers and scholars, and in
+organising their work. An additional motive to Scripture study is
+furnished by the "Religious Knowledge Examinations" instituted by
+Conference; certificates, signed by the President, being granted to
+teachers and scholars who succeed in passing the examinations. In
+recognition of the value of so important a department of the Church,
+adequate representation at the quarterly meetings is now accorded to
+the Sunday schools.
+
+It is not in our day only that the pastoral oversight of the young
+has been deemed worthy of attention; the duty has always been
+enforced on ministers; but in 1878 there were first formed junior
+Society classes, to prepare children for full membership. There are
+now seventy-two thousand in such classes.
+
+In 1896 we note a new effort to bring young people into the kingdom,
+in the foundation of the "Wesley Guild," of which the President of
+Conference is the head, with four vice-presidents, two being laymen.
+The guild is "a union of the young people of a congregation. Its
+keynote is comradeship, and its aim is to encourage the young people
+of our Church in the highest aims of life." The story of its origin
+may be briefly told.
+
+The Rev. Charles H. Kelly introduced the subject in the London
+Methodist Council, and then brought the matter before the Plymouth
+Conference of 1895, dwelling on the desire existing to form a Wesley
+Guild that should do for Britain what the Epworth League does for
+American Methodism, and secure the best advantages not only of that
+league, but of the Boys' Brigade, Bands of Hope, Christian Endeavour
+and Mutual Improvement Societies, which it should federate. The
+Liverpool Conference of 1896 therefore sanctioned the formation of
+the "Wesley Guild." Its three grades of members include young people
+already attached to the Church, with others not yet ripe for such
+identification, and "older people young in heart," who all join in
+guild friendship, and aid in forming this federation of the existing
+societies interesting to young people.
+
+By periodical meetings, weekly if possible, for devotional, social,
+and literary purposes, a healthy common life and beneficent activity
+are stimulated, and the rising generation is happily and usefully
+drawn into relation with the older Church workers, whom it aids by
+seeking out the young, lonely, and unattached, and bringing them into
+the warm circle of youthful fellowship.
+
+Such in brief is the programme of the Guild, which may yet greatly
+enrich the Church with which it is connected.
+
+We turn now to one of the most notable changes in Methodism during
+the Queen's reign--the wonderful advance in the temperance movement.
+Wesley himself was an ardent temperance reformer, but his preachers
+were slow to follow him. A few prominent men strove long to induce
+Conference to institute a temperance branch of our work, and finally
+succeeded, their efforts having effected a great change in opinion.
+For many years our theological students, though not compelled
+thereto, have almost all been pledged abstainers. 1873 saw Conference
+appoint a temperance committee "to promote legislation for the more
+effectual control of the liquor traffic--and in general for the
+suppression of intemperance." In 1879 a scheme was sanctioned for the
+formation of Methodist Bands of Hope and Circuit Temperance Unions;
+and a special Sunday, the last in November, is devoted to considering
+"the appalling extent and dire result" of our national sin, one of
+the greatest obstacles to that "spread of scriptural holiness" which
+is the aim of the true Wesleyan Methodist, whose chosen Church, with
+its manifold organisation, has unequalled facilities for temperance
+work. In 1896 the report showed 1,374 temperance societies, with
+80,000 members--figures that do not include all the abstainers in
+Methodism; some societies have no temperance association, and some
+Methodists are connected with other than our own temperance work. The
+4,393 Bands of Hope count 433,027 members.
+
+[Illustration: Children's Home, Bolton.]
+
+We have already spoken of the growth and development of social
+philanthropic work in connexion with the great Methodist missions in
+towns; there remains one most important movement in this direction to
+notice--the establishment of the "Children's Home," which, begun in
+1869 by Dr. Stephenson, received Conference recognition in 1871. It
+has now branches in London, Lancashire, Gravesend, Birmingham, and
+the Isle of Man, and an emigration depot in Canada. Over 900 girls
+and boys are in residence, while more than 2,900 have been sent forth
+well equipped for the battle of life; some of them becoming
+ministers, local preachers, Sunday-school workers, and in many ways
+most useful citizens. The committee of management has the sanction of
+Conference. This "powerful arm of Christian work" not only rescues
+helpless little ones from degradation and misery; it undertakes the
+special training of the workers amongst the children in industrial
+homes and orphanages; and hence has arisen the institution in 1895 of
+the order of Methodist deaconesses, which is recommended by
+Conference to Connexional sympathy and confidence, the deaconesses
+rendering to our Church such services as the Sisters of Mercy give to
+the Church of Rome. One example may suffice. A London superintendent
+minister describes the work of one of the Sisters during the past
+twelvemonth as "simply invaluable. She has visited the poor, nursed
+the sick, held services in lodging-houses, met Society classes and
+Bible-classes, gathered round her a godly band of mission-workers,
+and in a hundred ways has promoted the interests of God's work."
+
+Two events made 1891 memorable for Methodists, the centenary of
+Wesley's death and its commemoration being the first.
+
+The Conference decided that suitable memorial services should be
+held, and an appeal made to Methodists everywhere for funds to
+improve Wesley's Chapel and the graveyard containing his tomb.
+Universal interest was aroused; all branches of Methodism were
+represented; the leading ministers of Nonconformist Churches also
+shared in the services. Crowded and enthusiastic congregations
+assembled in City Road when on Sunday, March 1, the Rev. Charles H.
+Kelly, Ex-President, preached on "The Man, his Teaching, and his
+Work," and when the Rev. Dr. Moulton delivered the centenary sermon.
+On March 2, a statue of Wesley was unveiled--exactly one hundred
+years after his death--Dean Farrar and Sir Henry H. Fowler addressing
+the meeting.
+
+[Illustration: Westminster Training College.]
+
+The Allan Library, the gift of the late Thomas R. Allan, containing
+more than 30,000 books and dissertations, was opened by the
+President; it has since been enriched by gifts of modern books from
+the Fernley Trustees and others, and a circulating library is now
+connected with it. Accessible on easy terms to ministers and local
+preachers, and within the reach of many others, this library should
+be a useful stimulus to the taste for study among ministers and
+people.
+
+The other event of the year was the meeting of the second Oecumenical
+Conference in October, at Washington, in the country where Methodism
+obtained great triumphs. The Conference lasted twelve days, like its
+predecessor; the opening sermon, prepared by the Rev. William Arthur,
+was read for him, Mr. Arthur's voice being too weak to be heard; and
+the President of the United States gave a reception at the Executive
+Mansion, and also visited the Conference. Many topics of deep
+interest were discussed on this occasion, and not the least
+attractive subject was the statistical report presented. The
+difficulty of estimating the actual strength and influence of
+Methodism is very great.
+
+In the present year the membership of the Wesleyan Methodists, for
+Great Britain and Ireland, is estimated at 494,287; of other
+Methodist bodies in the United Kingdom at 373,700; the affiliated
+Conferences of Wesleyan Methodists in France, South Africa, the West
+Indies, and Australasia at 212,849, being 1,942 for France, 62,812
+for South Africa, 50,365 for the two West Indian, and 97,730 for the
+Australasian Conferences. American Methodism in all its branches,
+white and coloured, returns a membership of 5,573,118, while the
+united Methodism of Canada shows 272,392, and the foreign missions of
+British Wesleyan Methodism 52,058 members. These figures, giving a
+total of 6,978,404 members, exclusive of the ministers, estimated at
+43,368, are sufficiently gratifying; yet they do not represent the
+real strength of the Church at large, and give only a faint idea of
+its influence.
+
+The Oecumenical Report gave the number of Methodist "adherents" as
+24,899,421, intending, by the term _adherents_, those whose religious
+home is the Methodist chapel, though their visits to it be irregular.
+For the British Wesleyans the two millions of sittings were supposed
+to represent the number of adherents (yet should all the occasional
+worshippers wish to attend at once, it may be doubted if they could
+be accommodated); for the other branches of Methodism in the United
+Kingdom, four additional persons were reckoned to each member
+reported. The statistics for Ireland and Canada were checked by the
+census returns. Probably in the case of missions the adherents would
+be more than four times the membership. Varying principles were
+adopted for the United States, and the adherents reckoned at less
+than four times the members reported. Should we to-day treat the
+returns of membership on the same principle (Sunday scholars being
+now as then included in the term "adherents "), we should find nearly
+thirty millions of persons in immediate touch with Methodism and
+strongly bound to it. Compare these figures with those of 1837, and
+we must exclaim, "What hath God wrought!"
+
+Estimating the increase of British Methodism, we have to remember
+that the population has almost doubled in the sixty years, while
+British Wesleyan Methodism has not doubled; but the great losses
+occasioned by the agitations must be taken into account, and also the
+curious fact that the ratio of increase for Methodism at large, in
+the ten years between the two Oecumenical Conferences, was thirty per
+cent--twice as great as the increase of population in the countries
+represented; the Methodist Church in Ireland actually increasing
+thirteen per cent, while the population of the country was
+diminishing and the other Protestant Churches reported loss.
+
+If the increase in Great Britain be proportionally smaller, this need
+not cause surprise, in view of that vast development of energy in the
+Established Church which is really due to the reflex action of
+Methodism itself; that Church, with all the old advantages of wealth
+and prestige and connexion with the universities and grammar schools
+which she possessed in the days of her comparative supine-ness, with
+her clergy roll of 23,000, and her many voluntary workers, having in
+twenty-seven years almost doubled the number of her elementary
+schools, largely attended by Methodist children. But the indirect
+influence of Methodism is such as cannot be represented in our
+returns; figures cannot show us the true spiritual status of a
+Church. The total cost of the maintenance of our work in all its
+branches can be estimated; and so able an authority as the Rev. Dr.
+H. J. Pope stated it at from L1,500,000 to L1,750,000 pounds
+annually, a sum more than equal to a dividend on fifty millions of
+consols; but it is impossible to compute the profit to the human race
+from that expenditure and the work it maintains. This may be said
+with certainty, that other Churches have been greatly enriched
+thereby. We may just refer to that remarkable religious movement, the
+Salvation Army, of Methodist origin, though working on new lines;
+doing such work, social and evangelistic, as Methodism has chosen for
+its own, and absorbing into its ranks many of our own trained
+workers. "The Salvationists, taught by Wesley," said the late Bishop
+of Durham, "have learned and taught to the Church again the lost
+secret of the compulsion of human souls to the Saviour."
+
+"The Methodists themselves," says John Richard Green, "are the least
+result of the Methodist revival"; the creation of "a large and
+powerful and active sect," numbering many millions, extending over
+both hemispheres, was, says Lecky, but one consequence of that
+revival, which exercised "a large influence upon the Established
+Church, upon the amount and distribution of the moral forces of the
+nation, and even upon its political history"; an influence which
+continues, the sons of Methodism taking their due part in local and
+imperial government. Eloquent tributes to the work of Wesley are
+frequent to-day, the _Times_, in an article on the centenary of his
+death, saying: "The Evangelical movement in the Church of England was
+the direct result of his influence and example, and since the
+movements and ideas which have moulded the Church of England to-day
+could have found no fitting soil for their development if they had
+not been preceded by the Evangelical movement, it is no paradox to
+say that the Church of England to-day is what it is because John
+Wesley lived and taught in the last century.... He remains the
+greatest, the most potent, the most far-reaching spiritual influence
+which Anglo-Saxon Christianity has felt since the days of the
+Reformation." So far the _Times_, of him whom it styles "the restorer
+of the Church of England." Many impartial writers, some being ardent
+friends of the English Church, have also recognised a gracious
+overflow from Methodism which has blessed that Church, the
+Nonconformist bodies, and the nation at large. If a man would
+understand "the religious history of the last hundred years," that
+"most important ecclesiastical fact of modern times," the rise and
+progress of Methodism, must be studied in relation to the Anglican
+and the older Nonconformist Churches, and the general "missionary
+interests of Christianity": so we are taught by Dr. Stoughton, who
+has traced the influence of Methodism in the general moral condition
+of the country and the voluntary institutions of our age. The
+doctrines once almost peculiar to Wesley and his followers--such as
+entire sanctification--are now accepted and taught by many Churches,
+and the religious usages of Methodism are imitated, watchnight
+services being held, and revival mission services and prayer-meetings
+being conducted, in Anglican churches; while the hymns of Charles
+Wesley, sung by all English-speaking Protestants, and translated into
+many languages, enrich the devotional life of the Christian world.
+
+It was a fit tribute to the benefits which the English Church has
+derived from the Methodist movement, when the memorial tablet to the
+brothers John and Charles Wesley was unveiled in Westminster Abbey by
+the late Dean Stanley, in 1872.
+
+"The bracing breezes," said Dr. Stoughton, "came sweeping down from
+the hills of Methodism on Baptist meadows as well as upon Independent
+fields." We may give some few instances that will show what blessings
+have come to Nonconformist Churches by the agency of Methodism.
+
+A remarkable incident that occurred in 1872 was recorded in the
+_Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_. Dr. Jobson had invited five eminent
+ministers to meet the President of Conference at his house. After
+breakfast their conversation quite naturally took the form of a
+lovefeast, all being familiar with Methodist custom; when Dr. Allon,
+Dr. Raleigh, and Dr. Stoughton all said they were converted in
+Methodist chapels, and began Christian work as Methodists. Thomas
+Binney said that "the direct instrumentality in his conversion was
+Wesleyan," and Dr. Fraser was induced to enter the ministry by a
+Wesleyan lady. Charles H. Spurgeon was converted through the
+instrumentality of a Primitive Methodist local preacher; William Jay
+of Bath was converted at a Methodist service; John Angell James
+caught fire among the Methodists; and Thomas Raffles was a member of
+the Wesleyan Society; Dr. Parker began his ministrations as a
+Methodist local preacher; while Dr. Dale has shown the indebtedness
+of Nonconformity to Methodism. In France and Germany Methodist agency
+has been one of the strongest forces in re-awakening the old
+Protestant Churches; the services held by our Connexional evangelists
+send many converts to swell the fellowship of Churches not our own.
+And the same effects followed the great Methodist revival in America;
+out of 1,300 converts, 800 joined the Presbyterian and other
+denominations. But while calling attention to the spiritual wealth
+and the beneficent overflow of Methodism, we would not be unmindful
+of the debt which Methodism owes to other Churches, and in special of
+its obligations to those Anglican divines of our day who have
+enriched the whole Church of Christ by their scholarly contributions
+to sacred literature; and we would ascribe all the praise of
+Methodist achievement to the almighty Author of good, whom the spirit
+of ostentation and vain glorifying must displease, while it would
+surely hinder His work.
+
+The great desire of Methodism to-day--its great need, as Dr. Handles
+expressed it in his presidential address--is "fulness of spiritual
+life." If this be attained, the actual resources of the Church will
+amply suffice to carry on its glorious future mission; it will not
+fail in its primary duties of giving prominence to the spirituality
+of religion, of maintaining strict fidelity to scriptural doctrine,
+of giving persevering illustration of the fellowship of believers,
+nor in upholding the expansion of home and foreign missions, nor in
+ceaseless efforts to promote social advancement. "There is no rigid
+system of Church mechanism, nor restraining dogma," to hinder
+missions.
+
+[Illustration: Group of Presidents Number Three.]
+
+At present four-sevenths of the human race are in heathen darkness.
+To win the world for Christ demands that Methodists should unite with
+all His true soldiers. Wesley said: "We have strong reason to hope
+that the work He hath begun He will carry on until the day of the
+Lord Jesus; that He will never intermit this blessed work of His
+Spirit until He has fulfilled all His promises, until He hath put a
+period to sin and misery, infirmity and death, re-established
+universal holiness and happiness, and caused all the inhabitants of
+the earth to sing, 'Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.'"
+If Methodism be faithful to her mission, this prophecy may be
+fulfilled.
+
+When the second temple was built, Haggai exhorted Zerubbabel and
+Joshua to be strong, and all the people to be strong, and to work,
+for the Lord was with them. Let Methodists be strong in God's
+strength, and work with the consciousness that the Lord of hosts is
+with them, and they will insure success to the great mission of their
+Church.
+
+We will conclude with the last paragraph of the Rev. Charles H.
+Kelly's sermon at the celebration of the centenary of Wesley's death
+in 1891.
+
+"Surely the lesson to the Methodists of to-day is clear enough. Let
+us cherish the memory of our forefathers, let us emulate their
+spirit, let us cling to their God-given doctrines, let us cultivate,
+as they did, communion with the Master and fellowship with each
+other. Let us aim to be one, to do our duty. Let us strive to make
+our Church a greater power for evangelism among the people of the
+earth than ever, let us look to the Holy Spirit for the richer
+baptism of grace, and Methodism, so blest of the Lord in the past,
+will yet be blest. Her mission is not accomplished, her work is not
+done; long may she live and prosper. Peace be within her walls, and
+prosperity within her palaces. For my brethren and companions' sake,
+the faithful living and the sainted dead, I will now say, Peace be
+within her; peace be within her."
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+The last days of the half-century are fleeting fast as we write, and
+we are yet at peace with Europe, as when Victoria's reign began. How
+long that peace shall last, who shall say? who can say how long it
+may be ere the elements of internal discord that have threatened to
+wreck the prosperity of the empire, shall be composed to a lasting
+peace, and leave the nation free to follow its better destiny? But
+foes within and foes without have many times assailed us in vain in
+past years; many times has the political horizon been shadowed with
+clouds portending war and strife no less gloomily than those which
+now darken it, and as yet the Crimean war is the only war on which we
+have entered that can be called European; many times have grave
+discontents broken our domestic peace, but wise statesmanship has
+found a timely remedy. We need not, if we learn the lessons of the
+past aright, fear greatly to confront the future. Not to us the glory
+or the praise, but to a merciful overruling Providence, ever raising
+up amongst us noble hearts in time, that we are found to-day
+
+        "A nation yet, the rulers and the ruled,"
+
+not quite bankrupt in heart or hope or faith, but possessing
+
+        "Some sense of duty, something of a faith,
+        Some reverence for the laws ourselves have made,
+        Some patient force to change them when we will;"
+
+and we may justly acknowledge, in thankfulness not vainglorious, the
+happier fate that has been ours above many another land, that may
+still be ours, "if England to itself do rest but true."
+
+We have seen during these sixty years the map of Europe remodelled to
+an undreamed of extent. Fair Italy, though still possessing her fatal
+gift of beauty, though still suffering many things, is no longer the
+prey of foreign unloved rulers, but has become a nation, a mere
+"geographical expression" no longer; Germany, whose many little
+princedoms were once a favourite theme of British mockery, is now one
+great and formidable empire; the power of Russia has, despite the
+Crimean check, continued to expand, while desperate internal
+struggles have shaken that half-developed people, proving fatal to
+the gentle successor of Nicholas, the emancipator of the Russian
+serfs, and often threatening the life of _his_ successors; and the
+once formidable American slave-system has been swept away, with
+appalling loss of human life; a second President of the United States
+has fallen by the hand of an assassin; and new difficulties, scarce
+inferior to those connected with slavery, have followed on its
+abolition. Our record shows no calamity comparable to the greatest of
+these, if we set aside the Indian horrors so terribly avenged at the
+moment, but by their teaching resulting ultimately in good rather
+than evil.
+
+Besides the furious strife and convulsion that have rent other lands,
+how inconsiderable seem the disturbances that disfigure our home
+annals, how peaceful the changes in our constitutional system,
+brought about orderly in due form of law, how purely domestic the
+saddest events of our internal history! We wept with our Sovereign in
+her early widowhood, a bereavement to the people as well as to the
+Queen; we trembled with her when the shadow of death hung over her
+eldest son, rejoicing with her when it passed away; we shared her
+grief for two other of her children, inheritors of the noble
+qualities of their father, and for the  doom which took from us one
+whom we had loved to call "our future king"; we deplored the other
+bereavements which darkened her  advancing years; we have lamented
+great  men taken from us, some, like the conqueror of Waterloo, "the
+great world-victor's victor," in the fulness of age and honour,
+others with their glorious work seemingly half done, their career of
+usefulness mysteriously cut short; we have shuddered when the hateful
+terrorism, traditional pest of Ireland through centuries of wrong and
+outrage, has once and again lifted its head among ourselves; we have
+suffered--though far less severely than other lands, even than some
+under our own rule--from plague, pestilence, and famine, from dearth
+of work and food. But what are these woes compared to those that
+other peoples have endured, when it has been said to the sword,
+"Sword, go through the land," and the dread word has been obeyed;
+when war has slain its thousands, and want its tens of thousands; or
+when terrible convulsions of nature have shaken down cities, and
+turned the fruitful land into a wilderness?
+
+Events have moved fast since the already distant day when the
+Colonial and Industrial Exhibition was ministering exultation to many
+a British heart by its wonderful display of the various wealth of our
+distant domains and their great industrial resources. We were even
+then tempted--as have been nations that are no more--to pride
+ourselves on having reached an unassailable height of grandeur. Since
+then our territory has expanded and our wealth increased; but with
+them have increased the evils and the dangers inseparable from great
+possessions, and the responsibilities involved in them. We can only
+"rejoice with trembling" in this our second year of Jubilee.
+Remembering with all gratitude how we have been spared hitherto, and
+mindful of the perils that wait on power and prosperity, let it be
+ours to offer such sacrifices of thanksgiving as can be pleasing to
+the almighty Ruler of the ways of men, whom too often in pride of
+power, in selfish satisfaction with our own achievements, we forget.
+
+Many are the works of mercy, well pleasing in His sight, with which
+we can associate ourselves, even in this favoured land, whose ever
+increasing wealth is balanced by terrible poverty, and its affluence
+of intellectual and spiritual light by grossest heathen darkness. Day
+by day, as our brief account has shown, are increasing efforts put
+forth by our Christian men and women to overcome these evils; and
+through such agencies our country may yet be saved, and may not
+perish like other mighty empires, dragged down by its own
+over-swollen greatness, and by neglect of the eternal truth that
+"righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any
+people."
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT BRITAIN AND HER QUEEN***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 13103.txt or 13103.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/0/13103
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/old/13103.zip b/old/13103.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..39415e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/13103.zip