showed themselves in strikes and combination riots of a very violent character both in England and Scotland. In Ireland, again, the condition of things was complicated by circumstances peculiar to the country. What was called agrarian outrage, but was, in plain language, a deliberate system of cold-blooded and cowardly assassination, prevailed to such an extent, that among the miserable facts as to the state of the country brought forward by Mr. Stanley, (afterwards the late Lord Derby) in Parliament in 1839, was this appalling one, that in the year 1838, in eleven counties, exclusive of Tipperary, there were 277 committals for murder, and only three convictions. Amid all this violence and bloodshed the cry for Repeal of the Union was persistently kept up by O'Connell, who, under the profession of claiming no more than equality for Ireland, did not hesitate to support demands, which no one knew better than himself meant dismemberment of the Empire, by menaces of a kind which feeble followers in his footsteps have since made familiar: Speech of Refuse us this,' he had said, and then, in the day of your weakness, dare to go to war with the most insignificant of the Powers of Europe.' O'Connell, 1839, at Meeting in of the Precursor Association. Such a menace had a peculiar significance at the time it was made. Our armaments by sea and land were then notoriously inadequate. Canada had recently been in revolt. Our West India Colonies were a source of pressing anxiety. We had on our hands a formidable war in Affghanistan, and were involved in hostilities with China. A nearer cause of anxiety, however, existed in the uneasy state of our relations with France, with which country a rupture soon afterwards became imminent upon what was called the Eastern Question. Early in 1840 this question had entered upon a phase, that threatened to result in the break-up of the entente cordiale between the two countries, which the government of Louis Philippe had for so many years shown an ostentatious 1840 THE EASTERN QUESTION. 81 See Lord Lord Palmers vol. ii. p. 351. anxiety, and had, no doubt, a real desire, to cultivate and maintain. The point at issue was indeed of the most serious character. On the one hand France, originally under the guidance of Marshal Soult, and subsequently of M. Thiers, aimed at securing, through its support of Mehemet Ali in his revolt against the Sultan, a quasi control and patronage of Egypt. Its purpose was very clear; and, indeed, it was avowed at a late stage of the proceedings by M. de Rémusat in the French Chambers, as being 'to establish a second-rate maritime power in the Mediterranean, whose fleet might unite with that of France, for the purpose of serving as a counterpoise to that of England.' Such a ton, purpose was not likely to escape the penetrating eye of Lord Palmerston, then at the head of Foreign Affairs, and he set himself to defeat it on the broad ground, that 'the Mistress Ibid. p. of India could not permit France to be mistress, directly or indirectly, of the road to her Indian dominions.' The policy of England, with a view to securing not only her own position, but also the peace of Europe, was directed to placing Turkey under the protectorate of the five great European Powers. In this France had all along been invited to join. Instead, however, of doing so, M. Thiers set on foot negotiations having for their object a separate treaty between France and the Ottoman Porte, which would have vested in the former the sole protectorate of Turkey. While still pushing his approaches in this direction, he suddenly found to his discomfiture that he had been countermined. A Treaty signed on the 15th of July, 1840, between the four great Powers of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and England on the one side, and Turkey on the other, for a joint protectorate of the latter country, was the first intimation to the French Minister that the question had passed beyond the region of diplomatic finesse. But, instead of accepting with a good grace a defeat which it was very obvious could not 293. be repaired, M. Thiers afforded a fresh illustration of the familiar truth embodied in Dryden's line, They never pardon, who have done the wrong.' Outwitted in a manœuvre at once selfish and dangerous to the peace of the world, he adopted a tone of indignation for a fancied injury. France had been insulted, a great European question had been settled without her and in spite of her. The position of Mehemet Ali was now a secondary affair, French honour was a primary one, and France would demand, and, if necessary, insist in arms on some satisfaction.' 6 It was in vain to answer, Wherein lay the insult? France had herself to blame, if the Eastern Question had been settled without her. There was no wish to exclude her from the arrangement. It was still open to her to become a party to the Treaty, to the principle of which in the earlier stages of the question she had herself given her adhesion. The mingled tone of grievance and menace continued to be kept up and echoed in the French press; and the countries seemed to be on the very brink of war, when the good sense of Louis Philippe, acted upon by the vigorous representations of his son-in-law King Leopold, averted the catastrophe. M. Thiers retired from office on the 20th of October, 1840. He was succeeded by M. Guizot, and the apprehensions came to an end which had for many months agitated all who were responsible for the protection of English interests. How great these were may be gathered from a few playful words of the Queen in a letter, on the 16th of October, 1840, to King Leopold: 'I think our child ought to have, besides its other names, those of Turko-Egypto, as we think of nothing else.' The anxiety consequent upon this state of things at home and abroad was aggravated by the fact, that since 1836 the revenue had shown an annual deficit, which in 1840 had risen to over 1,500,000l. When the accounts of 1841 showed a 1840 STATE OF PARTIES. 83 still larger balance against revenue, the growing dissatisfaction of the country with a Ministry which had for some time been unable to command the hearty support even of its own party, became manifest in dwindling majorities, and other unmistakeable symptoms, that the reins of government must soon pass into other hands. However willing Lord Melbourne might be to do the best for his party, and to go all reasonable lengths for the purpose of maintaining it in power, he was too clear-sighted not to be fully aware, that the days of his Administration were numbered, and too candid and loyal not to feel it to be his duty to prepare the way for the event by diminishing as far as possible the long-standing estrangement between the Court and the leaders of the Tory party, still further embittered as it was by the incidents attending Sir Robert Peel's failure to form a government in 1839. He knew from what had passed on the occasion of Mr. Anson's appointment, how determined the Prince was to maintain an attitude of absolute neutrality between Whig and Tory. Here was precisely the spirit, which Lord Melbourne must have seen had not been hitherto sufficiently cultivated, and he sought an early opportunity of intimating that it had his cordial concurrence. On the 20th of February, 1840, Stockmar writes, Melbourne told me that he had already expressed to the Prince his opinion, that the Court ought to take advantage of the present moment to treat all parties, especially the Tories, in the spirit of a general amnesty' (Denkwürdigkeiten, p. 351). To the Queen his language was the same-You should now hold out the olive branch a little.' 84 CHAPTER VI. It will thus be seen, that amid the festivities, the levees, drawing-rooms, presentations, addresses, and other public ceremonials which followed closely upon the Royal Marriage, and were the means of introducing the Prince to the public life of the Court, there was a multitude of subjects of the gravest national importance, which called urgently for his attention, and were likely to engage his most anxious study. The strain upon him in all ways during these first months was necessarily great, coming as he did from a life of comparative quiet and seclusion to one where every moment was crowded with an ever-shifting variety of novel objects, and where the early hours and simple habits of his past life were an impossibility. "I find it very difficult,' he writes (27th February, 1840), 'to acclimatise myself completely. The late hours are what I find it most difficult to bear.' Again, writing a few days afterwards (9th March), he says, It is not to be told what a quantity of presentations I have' (he had received and personally answered no fewer than twenty-seven two days before), and how many people I must become acquainted with. I cannot yet remember the faces, but this will come right.' The impression produced by his appearances in public was most favourable. The Prince is liked,' writes Stockmar on the 14th of February, and again on the 26th, Those who are not carried away by party feelings like him greatly. He behaves in his difficult position extremely well' (Denkwürdigkeiten, p. 351). |