1844 THE KING OF SAXONY. 225 The warmth of the Emperor's reception in England was not calculated to allay the jealousy with which his visit was regarded by a section of the political parties in France, who immediately surmised that it must be connected with some secret arrangements to the prejudice of French interests. It was quite possible that this jealousy, loudly echoed as it was in the Parisian journals, might have had the effect of interfering with the project of a visit to England which had been warmly entertained by King Louis Philippe ever since the visit of the Queen and Prince to the Château d'Eu. It is to this that Her Majesty alludes in the following passage of the letter just quoted : 'I hope that you will persuade the King (Louis Philippe) to come all the same in September. Our motives and politics are, not to be exclusive, but to be on good terms with all-and why should we not? We make no secret of it. 'The good King of Saxony remains another week with us. He is so unassuming. He is out sight-seeing all day, and enchanted with everything.' On the 19th of June the king left England. This most amiable and accomplished Sovereign had lost no opportunity of seeing everything which London had to offer of interest or significance. He went away delighted with his visit, and left behind him with his hosts the most agreeable impression of the sweetness of his character, and of a mind singularly open, intelligent, and unaffected.12 12 The King of Saxony was thrown from his carriage and killed, in August, 1854. VOL. I. 226 CHAPTER XII. BEFORE the excitement of the Imperial visit had passed away, the Queen and Prince were thrown into a state of great anxiety by a grave ministerial crisis. Nothing could have been more satisfactory than the progress of events since the accession of Sir Robert Peel to power. Abroad success had attended our arms; our relations with America were placed on a satisfactory footing, although soon afterwards to be again disturbed by the question of the Oregon Territory; but, above all, the internal prosperity of the country had revived, and, instead of a succession of alarming deficits, the revenue had increased far beyond the estimates. In the year ending 5th April, 1844, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was able to show a surplus of no less than 4,165,000l., which, after clearing off the heavy deficiency of the previous year, left a net balance of 1,400,000l. at his disposal. But the financial policy of Sir Robert Peel, to which this satisfactory result was due, based as it was upon a gradual abolition of protective duties, had been unwelcome, as we have already indicated, to many of the adherents of the Government, and they had from time to time by their votes shown a disposition to embarrass the action of their leader. On the 14th of June the Government found themselves in a minority of 20, on an Amendment to the Resolutions proposed by them upon the Sugar Duties. This was brought about by the defection of a considerable number of their ordinary supporters, some of whom voted in defence of the 1844 THE PEEL MINISTRY. 227 West India interest, which they conscientiously believed would be injured by the ministerial measure, while others had merely seized the opportunity to testify their general dissatisfaction with a Minister, who, they saw, was determined to act upon his own convictions, without respect to the laggards of his party. Staggered by the dissatisfaction thus shown, Sir Robert Peel, and with him the leading members of his Government, were disposed to resign at once, rather than expose themselves to the chance of being compelled to do so at a later stage by a continuance of similar acts of disaffection. Without the full support and confidence of his party in the details of his administration, Sir Robert Peel felt that his position would become intolerable. The Opposition, it is true, on a vote of confidence would unquestionably have been in a minority of 100, but they might by similar defections of his own party at any time renew his embarrassment. He had no reason to doubt, that the principles on which he was acting were those which the country had sent a majority of its representatives to support; but, if this support were to be denied, the Government could not be carried on. The necessity for the decisive step of resignation, however, was happily obviated by the action of his own party. A large meeting of Conservatives, held on the morning of the 18th, assured the Government of the general and united support of the party, and a vote the same evening in Committee, reversing the decision of the 14th, and come to after a distinct intimation from the Premier, that it would decide the fate of the Government, averted for a time a change which at this period would have been most undesirable. About the same time a fresh source of anxiety sprang up in a question comparatively trivial in itself, but which threatened to break up the French alliance. The convention which had been extorted in September, 1842, by Admiral Du Petit Thouars from our old ally, Queen Pomare, and under which the French had assumed possession of the Island of Tahiti, had on its becoming known brought matters to a critical issue between the countries. It was only by the moderation of the respective Governments that a rupture was averted. The French Government disavowed the right of dominion over Otaheite, which had been asserted in their name, and professed themselves satisfied with the more modest claim to a Protectorate merely. This concession, avowedly made in deference to English remonstrance, was seized by the French Liberals as the occasion for a series of most vehement attacks upon the government of M. Guizot. So high did the spirit of hostility run to a Minister who was accused of 'putting France at the feet of England,' that the paragraph in the Address approving of the concessions was carried in the Chamber of Deputies by a majority of only 8, on a division of 205. This cause of ill-feeling between the countries had scarcely been removed (January 1844), when the respective Governments found themselves once more embroiled by the indiscretion of the French officials in Tahiti. The French had made themselves most unpopular in the island, and on the night of the 2nd of March one of their sentinels was disarmed by the natives. This was made the pretext for seizing and imprisoning in reprisal' Mr. Pritchard, who, besides being the British Consul, was an active and influential Protestant missionary, long resident in the island, and therefore peculiarly obnoxious to the French Roman Catholic missionaries. He was released only on condition of instantly leaving the Pacific, which he had to do without even seeing his family, and to find his way to London by way of Valparaiso. The outrage thus done to England in the person of its Consul created profound indignation, which burst into a flame the more readily because of the still smouldering irritation occasioned by the seizure of the island. Sir Robert 1844 BIRTH OF PRINCE ALFRED. 229 Peel, carried away by the general feeling, denounced it in Parliament in language not calculated to smooth the difficulty. I do not hesitate,' he said, 'to declare that a gross insult, accompanied with a gross indignity, has been committed. The insult was committed by a person clothed with a temporary authority, and, so far as we can discover, by the direction of the French Government.' (Parl. Deb. July 31, 1844.) Happily the Sovereigns and Ministers of both countries were too deeply impressed with the importance of peace to suffer themselves to be led into hostilities either by the imprudence of their officials in Tahiti, or by the heated temper of their countrymen at home. But it was only after months of negotiation and anxiety that Sir Robert Peel was able to announce to Parliament on the 5th of September, that the questions in dispute had been arranged amicably by satisfactory explanations and the concession of a moderate indemnity to Mr. Pritchard. In the midst of these anxieties the Queen and Prince were made happy by the birth of a second son at Windsor Castle on the 6th of August. How serious these anxieties had been and still were is apparent from an expression in Her Majesty's first letter to King Leopold after her confinement. The only thing almost to mar our happiness is the heavy and threatening cloud which hangs over our relations with France, and which, I assure you, distresses and alarms us sadly. The whole nation here are very angry. . . God grant all may A few days before (31st July) the Prince's favourite greyhound Eos was found dead. She had to all appearance been quite well an hour before. 'I am sure,' the Prince writes next day to the Dowager Duchess of Coburg, you will share my sorrow at this loss. She was a singularly clever creature, and had been for eleven years faithfully devoted to me. How many recollections are linked with her! She was my companion from my fourtenth to my twenty-fifth year, a symbol, therefore, of the best and fairest section of my life.' The exquisite proportions of this beautiful animal are familiar to all lovers of art in more than one of Sir E. Landseer's pictures. |