THE BUDGET OF 1860 with France was the only sedative. It was, in fact, a counterirritant, and roused the sense of commercial interest to correct the war poison. The choice lay between the Cobden treaty and not the certainty, but the high probability, of a war with France. The treaty was signed on January 23rd, 1860, before the meeting of Parliament, and was announced in the Queen's Speech. One of its principal effects was largely to increase the consumption of claret in Great Britain. Out of the commercial treaty grew the great budget of 1860, A Great the end of a series of treaties which produced the liberation of Budget. commerce. With the French treaty the movement in favour of Free Trade reached its zenith. It was an important financial epoch ; more money than ever was required; more than ever economy was unpopular and difficult. The Estimates now stood at £70,000,000, which seven years before had been £52,000,000. Gladstone made his position more difficult by renouncing £1,000,000 of income by the French treaty, £1,000,000 more by the abolition of a number of minor duties, and a third £1,000,000 by the abolition of the tax on the manufacture of paper. He was able to meet this expenditure by £2,000,000 of large annuities which had fallen to the Exchequer, and by an increase of the income tax. When the time for introducing the budget came, Gladstone The Lords was ill in bed, and the debate had to be adjourned for a week. and the He then spoke for three hours and fifty minutes without suffering, Paper Tax. aided, as he tells us, by a great supply of eggs and milk. The speech was one of the most extraordinary triumphs ever witnessed in the House of Commons. The budget was eventually passed, but the Lords refused to repeal the duty on paper. They held that, although the Upper House had no right to increase taxation, they might constitutionally protect existing taxes from being repealed. Unfortunately Palmerston was against the repeal of the tax, and even wrote to the Queen that if the Lords threw this Bill out he should not be sorry. He was obliged to condemn the action of the Peers in the House of Commons, but spoke in a half-hearted manner, and the brunt of the attack lay upon Gladstone, who was believed by his friends to be nearly killing himself by his exertions. It was, until the momentous crisis of 1910, the sole occasion on which the Peers had ventured to tamper with finance. Concurrently with the budget, to Gladstone's great disgust, A New Russell had introduced a Reform Bill, as he always regarded Reform Bill. Parliamentary Reform as a panacea for all political ills. It proposed to lower the county franchise to £10, the borough franchise Gladstone Gladstone to £6, and make a relative reduction of seats. It also gave members to unrepresented Universities by providing that, in constituencies which had returned three members, electors should only be allowed to vote for two. Russell and the Radicals were heartily in favour of reform, but Palmerston and other members of the Cabinet were lukewarm. Disraeli described the measure as one of a medieval character, without the inspiration of the Feudal System or the genius of the Middle Ages. Attempts were made to talk out the Bill by long speeches, and at last the chances of its passing were so hopeless that it had to be withdrawn. We have before mentioned the affair of the Trent, and the death of the Prince Consort. With regard to the first, Gladstone was strongly in favour of the milder course eventually adopted, although he made what he afterwards confessed to be the serious mistake of saying at Newcastle that the South had constituted themselves into a nation. Prince Albert's death was little short of a calamity to Gladstone, because it removed from the counsels of the Queen a strong sympathiser, who would have made his actions and ideas intelligible to the Sovereign and prevented the friction which sometimes broke out in after years. At the same time the character of the Prince Consort was one which did not specially attract him. Gladstone did not care for the German race as much as he did for the Italian, and he disliked the influence of German education, especially from the religious point of view. The Prince Consort was a firm enemy of Roman Catholicism and all its works, and his opinions were not likely to be appreciated by Gladstone, who also found him cold and ungenial in intellect. This, however, did not prevent his deep feeling for the Queen in her sorrow, and his stay at Balmoral in her early widowhood strengthened the ties between them. The meeting of the Italian Parliament, to which we have already and Italy. referred, renewed Gladstone's enthusiasm for the country for which he had done so much. He wrote, at the end of 1862: "My confidence in the Italian Parliament and people increases from day to day. Their self-command, moderation, patience, firmness and forethought, reaching far into the future, are beyond praise." But he strongly disapproved of the French occupation of Rome. His support of Italy largely evoked the enthusiasm for the cause which characterised all Liberal Britons until their attention was diverted to the American Civil War. It is curious that the generation whose first impressions were formed by the struggle of Italy for liberation from Austria regarded self-government as the paramount principle of liberty, whereas those whose sympathies BRITAIN AND BISMARCK were first stirred by the efforts of the North to preserve the Union laid more stress on the necessity of a strong central government. The two eternal principles of imperium and libertas were thus again beheld in conflict. The strength of British sympathy with Italy was most clearly Garibaldi shown by the warmth of the welcome given to Garibaldi on his ir England. visit to England in 1864. His progress through London, as he passed from Vauxhall Station to Stafford House, lasted for five hours. Those who came into closer contact with him were charmed by the simple nobility of his demeanour, by his manners and his actions, by the union of the most fiery valour with the most profound and tender humanity, by the blending of absolute simplicity with complete self-possession in the presence of the rulers of the earth. One of the most striking incidents of his stay was his visit to Eton College. Three of the masters went over to Cliefden on a Sunday to pay him a visit and to invite him to the school. When he came next morning he was received by the provost and the headmaster, who turned out in their black silk gowns, greatly disgusted at having to meet a revolutionary leader. The carriage drove into the school-yard, which was thronged with boys in the highest excitement, and the hero stood up in his grey cloak and said with a radiant smile: "I love you all; I love you all dearly." Europe. When Cavour retired from the scene in 1861, Bismarck took Bismarck's his place as the most prominent figure in Europe. Cavour had Position in foreseen to some extent what the character of his career would be. In 1859, when Prussia objected to the Italian invasion of the Marches, Cavour said: "I am sorry that the Radical of Berlin judges so severely the conduct of the King of Italy and his Government. I console myself by thinking that on this occasion I am setting an example which probably, in no long time, Prussia will be very glad to imitate." Denmark. The action of Bismarck against the Danes made it necessary Great for Great Britain to make up her mind whether she should take Britain and part in the contest. The Prime Minister, Palmerston, and the Foreign Secretary, Russell, were eager for war, even though it would have to be fought single-handed, but the Queen was strongly against them, and so were the majority of the Cabinet. Gladstone was opposed to war, especially as the Emperor Napoleon refused to take part in it, but he was indignant at the conduct of Prussia in rejecting the legal rights of the House of Augustenburg. However, the danger was averted, and public opinion was with difficulty appeased. But the action of the Cabinet, The Marriage of the Prince of Wales. Gladstone "Unmuzzled." deemed vacillating and pusillanimous at the time, has since been vindicated. The American War affected Great Britain in two ways. The supply of cotton to the manufacturing districts was cut off, in consequence of which great distress was caused in Lancashire by what was known as the Cotton Famine. The operatives displayed fine self-control under their sufferings, and large subscriptions were raised for their support. But ere the war was over the worst pressure had passed. The second trouble was caused by the steamship Alabama, which was allowed to leave the Mersey on June 29th, 1862. It was protested that she was proceeding on a trial trip, but it was an open secret that she was intended to act as privateer, to assist the South against the North. The American Ambassador had made a strong remonstrance when the event came to his knowledge, and, at the last moment, orders were sent to Liverpool to stop the ship. She was able, however, to go to the island of Terceira, where she took aboard her captain and stores. During her career she captured nearly seventy Northern vessels. She used to hoist the British flag, and thus decoy the victims within her reach, and then display the Confederate colours and capture her prize. She generally burnt the ship she had captured, and attracted fresh booty by the flames. She was at last engaged and burnt by the Kearsarge off Cherbourg on July 10th, 1864. The Americans were deeply hurt at the negligence shown in not stopping the vessel, and when the war was over a feeling of bitterness was left which nearly led to a rupture which was healed with difficulty. On March 10th, 1863, the Prince of Wales was married to Princess Alexandra of Denmark, in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, amid signs of universal rejoicing. Banquets were held in every important town in the kingdom, and in the evening London and other great cities were illuminated, the display in Edinburgh -largely helped by its natural configuration-being of remarkable splendour. Never was a marriage crowned with such happiness and success. The affection between the pair deepened throughout their married life, which endured for more than forty-seven years. On the dissolution of Parliament on July 6th, 1865, Gladstone was defeated by a large majority at the University of Oxford, but immediately stood for South Lancashire, his native county, and was returned third on the poll, defeating one of the Conservative candidates. He was now, as he said himself, "unmuzzled," and was free to fight the battle of a democratic policy. One of the most remarkable candidatures in this election was that of DEATH OF PALMERSTON John Stuart Mill, who was returned for Westminster. He was, in the intellectual world, one of the most influential men in England, through his works on Logic and Political Economy, and the respect with which his opinion on all important questions of the day was received by his countrymen. He was not a popular speaker, but nevertheless secured a majority of some hundreds over his Conservative opponent. He owed his success mainly to the courage and straightforwardness with which he dealt with questions at public meetings, even when his answers might seem to be opposed to his interests. But a great change was at hand, for, ere Parliament met, Death of Lord Palmerston was dead. The collapse of his strength came Palmerston. very suddenly. On his eightieth birthday he was born on October 20th, 1784-he had started at half-past eight from Broadlands, taking his horses with him by train to Fareham, where he was met by engineer officers, and rode along the Portsdown and Hilsea line of forts, getting off his horse and inspecting some of them, crossing over to Anglesey forts and Gosport, and not reaching home till six in the evening. In June of the same year he had gone to Harrow, his old school, to attend the speeches and lay the foundation-stone of the Vaughan Library, trotting down the twelve miles within the hour on a rainy day. But in 1865 a marked change was obvious. He found difficulty in performing his duties in the House, and a balustrade on one of the staircases is shown as having been placed there to assist his movements. He died on October 18th, 1865, and was buried in Westminster Abbey on October 27th. No one since the Duke of Wellington had filled so conspicuous Palmerston's a place in the public eye, or had enjoyed so large an amount of Position in popularity. He was, indeed, a very great Foreign Minister, and Politics. it is probable that the verdict of history will be more favourable to him than was the judgment of his contemporaries. He kept steadily before his eyes the honour and greatness of his country, and was generally favourable to the progress of Liberalism in Europe, in which respect he found himself frequently in conflict with the Prince Consort and the Queen. Like Canning, who was regarded as a god by the Liberals of Europe, he was not a Liberal in domestic policy. His oratory was of a curious character; his speeches, as they were listened to, seemed halting and rough, but when read in the newspapers they appeared admirable. He was a man of the world, and took, in the main, a gay and joyous view of life. When Secretary of War under Wellington, the Iron Duke once made an appointment with him for six in the morning. |