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LORD PALMERSTON.

said

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LORD ABERDEEN.

was heartily pleased, and so to the French Ambassador. The Queen, however, had very different views. As soon as she heard of the coup d'état she sent to Lord John Russell a message like the memoranda the Permanent Editor is constantly sending to his staff:

"The Queen has learned with surprise and concern the events which have taken place at Paris. She thinks it of great importance that Lord Normanby (our Ambassador at Paris) shoull be instructed to remain entirely passive, and should take no part whatever in what is passing."

Lord John assented, writing, "Your Majesty's directions respecting the affairs in Paris shall be followed."

The Ambassador wrote back saying the French Minister had replied to his assurances of passivity that "he had two days since heard from M. Walewski (French Ambassador in London) that Lord Palmerston had expressed his entire approbation of the act of the President and the conviction that he could not have acted otherwise." Thereupon Her Majesty the Queen, with the customary Royal emphasis of italics,

MR. GLADSTONE.

(Photo by the London Stereoscopic Co.)

dispatched the follow-
ing note to Lord John
Russell :-

"Osborne,
"December 13th, 1851.
"The Queen sends the
enclosed despatch from Lord
Normanby to Lord John
Russell, from which it
appears that the French
Government pretend to have
received the entire approval
of the late coup d'état by
the British Government as
conveyed by Lord Palmer-
ston to Count Walewski.
The Queen cannot believe in
the truth of the assertion, as
such an approval given by
Lord Palmerston would have
been in complete contradic-
tion to the line of strict
neutrality and passiveness
which the Queen had ex-
pressed her desire to see

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LORD ROSEBERY).

(Photo by Elliott and Fry.)

followed with regard to the late convulsions at Paris, and which was approved by the Cabinet, as stated in Lord John Russell's letter of the 6th inst. Does Lord John know anything about the alleged approval, which, if true, would again expose the honesty and dignity of the Queen's Government in the eyes of the world?"-"Life of the Prince Consort," p. 69.

This was on December 13th. Lord Palmerston took no notice of Lord John's inquiries, and on December 16th he wrote Lord Normanby a despatch expressing in the strongest terms his satisfaction at the success of the coup d'état. This despatch was not submitted either to the Prime Minister or the Queen.

After this Lord John could only write:

"I am most reluctantly compelled to the conclusion that the conduct of foreign affairs can no longer be left in your hands with advantage."

So down fell Lord Palmerston-speedily to be avenged on Lord John. But the principle was established, and his overthrow was hailed with a pæan of delight from Windsor Castle. The Prince, writing to the Prime Minister December 20th, said :

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"Windsor Castle, December 20th, 1851.

"My dear Lord John,-You will readily imagine that the news of the sudden termination of your difference with Lord Palmerston has taken us much by surprise, as we were wont to see such differences terminate in his carrying his points, and leaving the defence of them to his colleagues and the discredit to the Queen.

"It is quite clear to the Queen that we were entering upon most dangerous times, in which Military Despotism and Red Republicanism will for some time be the only Powers on the Continent, to both of which the Constitutional Monarchy of England will be equally hateful. That the calm influence of our institutions, however, should succeed in assuaging the contest abroad must be the anxious wish of every Englishman, and of every friend of liberty and progressive civilization. This influence has been rendered null by Lord Palmerston's personal manner of conducting the foreign affairs, and by the universal hatred which he has excited on the Continent. That you could hope to control him has long been doubted by us, and its impossibility is clearly proved by the last proceedings. I can, therefore, only congratulate you that the opportunity of the rupture

should have been one on which all the right is on your side."-"Life of the Prince Consort," pp. 70, 71.

The rest of the Prince's labours-how he endeavoured to drill into our wooden English heads some of the German notions as to armaments and armies, how he laboured in vain to make our statesmen understand the approaching unification of Germany, and how he spent his dying breath in smoothing down a despatch which might have created friction between England and America-for all these things, and many more besides, the student must turn to that great storehouse or archive house of the reign, "The Life of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort."

But the story of how the Crown averted war with the Republic must be told at some little length. The subject of Her Majesty's influence in foreign affairs could not be more appropriately illustrated than by a reference to the part

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MARQUIS OF SALISBURY (THE PRESENT PRIMB MINISTER).

(From a photograph by the Stereoscopic Co.)

she took in a very important crisis which threatened the good relations between Britain and the United States. The episode is familiar enough to the elder generation, but the popular memory is short, and there are, besides, many millions to whom what happened in 1861 is very ancient history indeed.

In the earlier days of the great War of Secession, on the 8th November, 1861, Captain Wilkes, of the San Jacinto, an American man-of-war, stopped the British mail steamer Trent a short distance from Havana by the summary process of firing first a round of shot and then a shell across her bows. Captain Wilkes had been ordered to arrest Messrs. Mason and Slidell, who were on board the Trent. Mr. Mason was accredited by the Confederate Government to the English Court, Mr. Slidell to the Court of France. They had run the blockade from Charlestown to Cuba, and were now on their way to Europe. After a vigorous protest on the part of the captain of the mail steamer, the Confederate envoys surrendered, and were carried off by Captain Wilkes. Of course, looking at the matter after the lapse of nearly forty years, it is quite obvious that the action of Captain Wilkes was utterly indefensible. Captain Wilkes had no more right to kidnap the Confederate envoys when they were on the high seas in a foreign flag, than he land an expedition in them off from a Lonin plain English, a discame perilously near nations in hostilities. war party in both society as a whole was pathy with the Conseized the opportunity on the flag to force London and Washinghand, there were not America who imagined sible to bribe the the offer of French mon cause with the should she espouse the

:

A MINIATURE OF THE QUEEN. (By Ross. Painted for Prince Albert, 1840.)

vessel protected by a would have had to England and carry don hotel. It was, tinct act of war, and involving the two There was a strong countries. English passionately in symfederates, and eagerly offered by this outrage on a breach between ton. On the other wanting those in that it would be posEmperor Napoleon by Canada to make comNorth against England cause of the Con

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federacy. The action of Captain Wilkes, however, by seizing the envoy accredited to France under circumstances incompatible with any theory of international law, led the Emperor to support instead of oppose the action of the British Government.

For a moment all Britain rang with clamour and clangour of preparations for war. Lord Palmerston was then Prime Minister, a man ever inclined to mount the high horse and "stand no nonsense." The case was clear. The law officers of the Crown advised the Cabinet that there could be no doubt whatever as to the merits of the question, and when the Cabinet met in the last days of November the atmosphere was electric with menace of coming war. The press was unanimous in resenting what was declared to be an unpardonable and intentional insult to the flag. Our arsenals were resounding with the din of warlike preparations. For the defence of Canada, eight thousand troops were being got ready to cross the Atlantic.. The situation, in short, was fraught with every element of mischief.

On the 30th November the Queen received from Lord John Russell, then Foreign Minister, the draft of a despatch which was to be sent-perhaps hurled would be a better term at the Washington Government. It was an uncompromising document,

the tone of which reflected with only too much accuracy the prevailing mood of public opinion. The Prince Consort at that time was striken with his last illness: he had indeed but another fortnight to live. But the moment the draft despatch reached Windsor for the Royal approval, ill though he was, he roused himself to examine the momentous paper on which the issues of peace and war would probably hang. Rising at seven the next morning, he drew up a memorandum-in which he embodied his objections to the draft dispatched to the British Minister at Washington, and suggested alterations calculated to throw oil upon the troubled waters, and render it possible for the American Government to retire from an untenable position with dignity and grace. He was wretchedly ill, and could scarcely hold his pen while writing it. The Queen going over the memorandum with him, made one or two suggestions, modifying for instance the

rel" into the question of disit to her Minissober second nised the jusrections of the Queen. Lord said he thought excellent; Lord wards Foreign pressed his dedespatch had in accordance gestions of Her the despatch ington, Mr. Lord Lyons was that the courteous and it been as dicmenacing as it original draft, been extremely to have conciling the the pacific

suc

was at once tain Wilkes was

THE PRINCE CONSORT AND THE PRINCESS ROYAL.

(From a painting by Sir Edwin Landseer, 1842.)

phase "quarmilder term "a pute," and sent ters. Their thoughts recogtice of the corPrince and the Palmerston the changes Granville, afterMinister, ex

light that the been written

with the sugMajesty. When reached WashSeward told how pleased he despatch was friendly. Had tatorial and was in the it would have difficult for him ceeded in reGovernment to

course which adopted. Capdisowned, and

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the prisoners were cheerfully liberated. Before the news reached this country the Prince had passed away; but both his widow and her Prime Minister recognised how much the peace of the world and the unity of the great English-speaking nations owed to the suggestions of the Prince Consort. "There can be no doubt," wrote Lord Palmerston, "that the alterations made in the despatch to Lord Lyons contributed essentially to the satisfactory settlement of the dispute. These alterations were only one of innumerable instances of the tact and judgment and the power of nice discrimination which excited Lord Palmerston's constant and unbounded admiration." These facts were but dimly known at the time. It was not till 1874 that Mr. W. E. Forster, publicly declared with what "grateful and profound sense of obligation the British nation learnt how much it owed to its Sovereign at that profound crisis.

Notwithstanding her solicitude for the health of her dying husband, every detail both of the Trent affair and of the steps taken in consequence had been carefully considered by Her Majesty from day to day; but when the despatch came, with its dictatorial demand for the release of the envoys, Her Majesty, says Mr. Forster, "was startled and shocked at the idea of war with America." Not liking the peremptory language and defiant speech of the despatch, the Queen took it to the apartment of the Prince Consort, who used the pen for the last time in modifying the language and tone of the demand.

The incident was of brief duration, but it is often upon moments that the destinies of empires hang. It was due to the constant vigilence of the Queen, and her passionate devotion to the peace and union of the English-speaking world, that war was averted at a time when had it been declared the breach between England and America would have become an impassable gulf, even if the ulterior consequences ha'l not been the disruption of the territory of both combatants. Among other consequences there would probably have had to be reckoned the establishment of the Confederate Republic with slavery as its chief corner-stone, and the introduction of the standing army system of Europe into the American hemisphere. The whole world's history would probably have been changed, and changed for the worse, had Britain not possessed at Windsor a Sovereign with a right to curb the violence of national passion by the calm wisdom of mature experience.

IV. THE WIDOW OF WINDSOR.

The real reign of Queen Victoria only began in 1861. It is since the death of the Prince Consort that we have had to deal with the real Queen. As long as Prince Albert lived, no one could say how much of the Queen's memoranda were not hers, but his. We see, for instance, in the only autograph copy of such State documents found in Sir Theodore Martin's book, that the Prince wrote everything but seven or eight words, which appear as interlineations in the Queen's handwriting. But after the Queen was left alone we have the genuine Royal hand.

Not unnaturally, the Queen bas been more German than her husband ever dared to be. The Prince Consort avowedly subordinated his own feelings and purposely refrained from pressing his views on German questions, fearing lest jealous Britons might suspect the origin and motive of his remarks. But when he was gone,

the Queen was free to give full scope to her strong German sympathies. It was, indeed, a kind of homage to the memory of the dead. Everything combined to draw her very closely to Germany. Her eldest daughter was the wife of the heir to the Prussian throne. Her favourite, Alice, was soon to marry Prince Louis of Hesse. The French Emperor, although he remained, in a curious sort of fashion, true to the Queen, whose kindly counsels to his wife had furnished him with an heir, and to whom he had sworn personal allegiance when she invested him with the Order of the Garter, was rapidly going downhill, regarded with increasing distrust even by his old friend. Lord Palmerston. Bismarck was just beginning to be visible in the ascendent in the German horizon. The Queen, therefore, was German, and had reason to be German. These sympathies stood us in good stead when they helped, together with the pacific energy of Cobden and the material interests of Lancashire, to deliver England from the almost inconceivable disaster of a German war in 1864. But before telling that almost forgotten story at some length and with some detail, I may refer to some instances in which the Queen's influence has been felt in foreign affairs since she came into the sole possession of the Royal prerogative.

The evidence as to her action in the discharge of her editorial duties is naturally

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