CHAPTER VII

.

LORD PALMERSTON’S LAST CONTEST WITH THE QUEEN.

The Sleswig-Holstein Question--The Danish Succession--Palmerston’s

## Partisanship--The “Danification” of the Duchies--The Letters-Patent

of Christian VIII.--The Revolution of ’48--The Sleswig-Holstein Treaty of Berlin--Salic Law in the Duchies--Palmerston’s Intrigue with the Russian Ambassador--The Protocol of 1850--The Queen’s Objections to it--Prince Albert’s Advice to the Prince of Noër--The Treaty of London--Lord Malmesbury’s Fatal Blunder--His Mistake as to the Mandate of the Diet--Letters-Patent of Frederick VII.--His Death--Accession of Christian IX.--Revolt of the Duchies--Proclamation of the Duke of Augustenburg as Sovereign--Mr. Gladstone’s Popular Budget--Death of Sir George Cornewall Lewis--The Queen’s Letter to Lady Theresa Lewis--The Dispute with Brazil--The Prison Ministers Bill--A South Kensington Job--Hoodwinking the Commons--A “Scene” in the House of Commons--A Ministerial Defeat--Sir George Grey and the City Police--The Civil War in America--Escape of the _Alabama_--Illegal Seizure of the _Alexandra_--Blockade Running--Proclamation Abolishing Slavery--Progress of the War--Net Results of the Campaigns.

Lord Palmerston is said to have declared that only one man in Europe knew all the history and details of the Sleswig-Holstein Question, and that his opinion about it seemed to be contrary to common sense. Since 1846 the problem had engaged the subtlest of European diplomatists and Jurisconsults in chronic controversy. The Kings of Denmark were also Sovereign Dukes of Sleswig-Holstein, and when they were absolute monarchs, the Germans in the Duchies were on the same footing as the Danes. They were equally in bondage. On the death of Frederick VI., in 1839, his great-nephew, Christian VIII., succeeded him as King of Denmark, and all the subsequent trouble rose from the fact that his only son, the Prince Frederick, was not likely to have an heir. The question of the succession was further complicated because the Salic Law which existed in the German Empire obtained in the Duchies of Sleswig and in Holstein--the latter, indeed, being actually one of the States of the Germanic Confederation. The Landgravine Louise of Hesse would, on the death of Prince Frederick, be the nearest heir to the Danish throne. But as the Salic Law excluded a woman from the Sovereignty of the Duchies, her succession must destroy the integrity of Denmark. It was of the utmost importance to Russia to preserve this integrity, because, in the first place, the Romanoffs had themselves claims to part of the Duchies, which, on the extinction of the Royal House of Denmark, might be extended over the whole country; and, in the second place, if the Duchies broke away from Denmark they would naturally be absorbed by Germany, which would thus gain not only a valuable seaboard, but the formidable naval station of Kiel, from which she might dispute Russian supremacy in the Baltic. Two leading ideas, therefore, are from this point seen to dominate diplomacy in treating the question of the Duchies. The first is the Teutonic idea, which was, by every legitimate means, to prevent the Duchies from being absorbed by Denmark, and to draw closer and closer their connection with Germany. The

[Illustration: FREDERICK CHARLES, DUKE OF AUGUSTENBURG.]

second is the Slavonic idea, which was to maintain, at all costs, the integrity of Denmark, and as far as possible encourage the policy that promoted a closer union between her and the Duchies. In this conflict of diplomatic forces the policy of England was vacillating and inconsistent, and for an excellent reason. Palmerston committed the fatal blunder of identifying British interests with the veiled designs of Russia, and he became a violent partisan of Denmark, whose policy was solely directed to what was called the “Danification” of the Duchies. On the other hand, the Queen had what Palmerston lacked--patience to master the complicated facts of the Danish question, and she became convinced that law and justice were on the side of the German Party in Sleswig-Holstein. The Prince Consort, again, was perhaps the only eminent man of his time who detected the hand of Russia in the game of intrigue at Copenhagen, from which sprang the policy of absorbing the Duchies against their will. He had the sense to see that British interests could hardly depend on maintaining the integrity of a small State like Denmark against the will of its people, and against the public law of Europe, and with no other practical result than that of preventing Germany from establishing herself as a rival power to Russia in the Baltic. Prince Albert’s death merely strengthened the Queen in her loyalty to his ideas--which in this instance were in harmony with her own conclusions. Hence, in 1863 and 1864, when the Danish Question became acute, the Queen and Lord Palmerston were in irreconcilable conflict, which explains why English policy seemed to the world at the time, a tissue of unintelligible inconsistencies. Happily for the English people, this conflict ended in the humiliating defeat of Palmerston--who, however, fought for his hand to the bitter end, with a courage and an obstinacy worthy of a better cause. No Tudor Sovereign ever strove more unweariedly and with more complete success than did the Queen at this time, to thwart the policy of her Minister, in the interests of peace, progress, and civilisation.

The first sign of trouble in the Duchies was given in 1846, when Christian VIII., as the Queen and Prince Consort knew, acting at the instigation of Russia, issued letters-patent extending the Danish law of female succession to all his dominions. These letters were a flagrant outrage on the public law of Europe, which excluded female sovereignty from his German provinces. Still Germany could only interfere on behalf of Holstein, which, as one of the States of the Germanic Confederation, was--as we have seen--under Salic Law. On the other hand, the German Party in the Duchies agitated against the letters-patent as an infringement of their autonomy; they demanded the union of the two Duchies, and their full and final absorption by the German Bund or Diet. The Diet, however, merely promised to defend their rights in Holstein, and vindicate the claims of all legal agnates in the succession to the Sovereignty of the Duchies. The death of Christian VIII. on the 20th of January, 1848, gave the German Party an opportunity for revolt. A Provisional Government was formed for the Duchies, and Prussia helped the Germans in Sleswig-Holstein to expel their Danish masters. The dispute dragged on till the 2nd of July, 1850, when a Treaty between Denmark and Prussia was signed at Berlin, vesting the Danish succession in Prince Christian of Sleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, and on his issue in the male line by his marriage with Louise, Princess of Hesse, heiress of the Crown of Denmark, who ceded to him all her rights. But the rights of the German Federation as regards Holstein and Lauenburg were not prejudiced by this Treaty. As for the heir to the Sovereignty of the Duchies under Salic Law--the Duke of Augustenburg--he sold his claims for 3,500,000 dollars. But obviously such a Treaty had no validity till it was sanctioned by the German Diet, inasmuch as it changed the legal succession in Holstein. An acknowledgment of the principle of maintaining at all hazards the integrity of Denmark, to be of use, must therefore have European sanction. To pave the way for a Treaty embodying this sanction Russian diplomacy at once set to work, and, unfortunately, Palmerston’s indiscretion at this juncture put him at the mercy of Baron Brunnow, the Russian Minister in London. It will be remembered that Palmerston’s policy of coercing Greece to recover Don Pacifico’s bad debts, had caused France to withdraw her Minister from London. But Russia took up the quarrel quite as fiercely as France, and Baron Brunnow not only absented himself from the official dinner at the Foreign Office on the Queen’s birthday, but finding that, through Lady Palmerston’s agency, means were taken to persuade the Queen that he meant to insult her personally, Brunnow called on Prince Albert privately and told him why he could not be present. It need hardly be said that this explanation did not soften her Majesty’s feeling towards Palmerston. Then came the censure which the House of Lords passed on him on the 17th of June. It was morally certain that if Russia followed France in withdrawing her Minister, the House of Commons would have confirmed the censure of the Lords, whereupon--condemned alike by the Crown and by both Houses of Parliament, by the Tories, the Radicals, and the Peace Party--Palmerston’s career must have ended. And every moment Brunnow’s demand for his passports was expected. At this crisis Palmerston, says Count Vitzthum, “turned to the Russian Minister with the inquiry whether there were no means of reconciling the Cabinet of St. Petersburg. After some consideration, Brunnow proposed a bargain: ‘Give us Denmark,’ he said, ‘and then we will give you Greece and forget the past.’ Of course it was not a question of ceding the Danish Kingdom, but of converting it into a Russian dependency, and giving the Emperor Nicholas a prospect of obtaining the harbour of Kiel.”[163] But how was this to be done? The first step was to get the integrity of Denmark affirmed as a European interest. Playing on Palmerston’s ignorance, Brunnow invented Russian claims to the Duchies based on those rights to the Gottorp portion, which the Emperor Paul had surrendered. These claims, Brunnow said, would be revived by the Czar Nicholas when the Danish line of kings became extinct with the death of Frederick VII. At such a suggestion Palmerston entered quite eagerly into the project of settling the succession to the Danish Crown on the basis (1), of recognising the integrity of Denmark as a European interest; (2), of passing over all male heirs to the sovereignty of the whole Danish Kingdom, in favour of Prince Christian of Glücksburg, the husband of the female heir. The points in the game which Russian diplomacy scored were three. The bargain kept Kiel out of German hands, which were alone strong enough to hold it against Russia. By getting the integrity of Denmark recognised, Russia rendered it easy for her to demand the whole kingdom whenever the time came to revive the Czar’s so-called claims to the Duchies as heir to the House of Gottorp. By getting the sovereignty of Denmark vested in Christian of Glücksburg, Russia contrived to seat on the Danish throne a Prince whose line of succession was not unlikely to fail.

[Illustration: THE EXCHANGE, COPENHAGEN.]

When the bargain was struck France and Sweden recognised it. The Czar, as usual, “answered” for Prussia and Austria, and it was embodied in the Protocol of the 4th of July, 1850. The Queen, however, objected most strenuously to the whole arrangement. She warned her Ministers that it arbitrarily set aside the legal rights of nineteen agnates nearer in succession to the childless Frederick VII. than Christian of Sleswig-Holstein-Glücksburg. The Prince Consort declared in one of his letters to Stockmar that it violated law, equity, and honour, and predicted that trouble would spring from it. “But,” writes Count Vitzthum, “though he alone saw through the Russian game, he shrank from bringing the direct pressure of his influence to bear on the English Ministry in a matter which might expose him to the charge of sympathising too strongly with his Fatherland.” Yet he seems to have taken very strong means privately to neutralise the policy of Palmerston and Brunnow. He advised the Prince of Noër, one of the nineteen agnates who were set aside, to protest formally against the settlement of the Danish succession, so that the idea of challenging it was at all events kept alive in

[Illustration: THE HARBOUR, COPENHAGEN.]

Germany. The Prince of Noër warned the Powers that he would only acquiesce in the new order of succession on condition of its being stipulated by an International Treaty, similar in principle to that of Utrecht, that the Czar of Russia should in no case be permitted to wear the Danish Crown. After the intrigue between Palmerston and the Russian Minister, it was of course impossible to put this condition, which would alone have protected British interests, into the Protocol, which was subsequently expanded into the Treaty of 1852 and signed by Lord Malmesbury. This Treaty was known as the Treaty of London (8th of May, 1852), and so completely did Palmerston in 1863-64 feel that his policy and prestige were bound up with it, that he dragged the country to the verge of war to uphold its provisions. When the Treaty of London was signed, an inexplicable blunder was made by the Tory Government. The document was legally worthless unless ratified by the German Diet. But Lord Malmesbury permitted himself to believe that Austria and Prussia signed it as mandatories of the Diet, whereas, as a matter of fact, they took care merely to sign it in their individual capacities, as independent States. Other German States afterwards gave their sanction to it, but most of them with the reservation that the ratification of the Diet--that is, of Germany in her corporate capacity--should be obtained. Thus Palmerston’s settlement of the Danish succession was a Treaty which settled nothing, because he and Lord Malmesbury had been reckless enough to take it for granted that Austria and Prussia, in signing it, acted on a mandate from Germany, which they had neither sought nor obtained.

The arrangement of 1852 not only changed the Danish succession, but before it was made Denmark pledged herself to fulfil all her obligations to the Diet in regard to Holstein, to respect the old autonomy and privileges of both Duchies, to maintain their union, and never to incorporate them into Denmark proper. Frederick VII., under the influence of the Democratic party and a meddlesome mistress, repeatedly violated these engagements. He was perpetually attempting to undermine the independence of the Duchies, and the Diet was perpetually protesting against his policy.[164] At last, in March, 1863, he issued decrees dissolving the union of Sleswig and Holstein, and practically incorporating them in Denmark. Frederick VII. died on the 15th of November, 1863, and the father of the Princess of Wales succeeded him as Christian IX. His first act, done under Democratic menaces at Copenhagen, was to decree that legislative power in respect to the common affairs of Sleswig and Denmark, was to be vested in the King and the Danish Rigsraad, and that no law passed by the Rigsraad was to be dependent upon the passing of a similar law by the legislatures of either Sleswig or Holstein. This completed the subjection of the Germans in the Duchies to the Danes, and the very day after Christian IX. ascended the throne they accordingly retaliated by disputing his right to rule over them. The young Duke of Augustenburg thereupon claimed the sovereignty of the Duchies. True, his father had surrendered his rights. But, it was argued, a hereditary sovereign cannot surrender hereditary rights without the consent of his heir-apparent--just as the owner of an entailed estate cannot sell it, without the consent of his heirs in tail. On the 21st of November the Holstein Legislature refused to swear allegiance to Christian IX., after which Saxony, Bavaria, Hesse, and other German States resolved to support the claim of the Duke of Augustenburg to Holstein, and the Prussian Chambers passed a resolution in favour of vindicating the rights of the Duchies and of the Augustenburg family. On the 27th of December the Duke of Augustenburg was proclaimed Sovereign of Sleswig-Holstein, and on the 30th he made his entry into Kiel. On the 31st the Danish Cabinet resigned, and a new Ministry was formed by Bishop Monrad. The question of the Succession, so far as the German Diet was concerned, was simple enough. For the Diet the Treaty of London had no existence. Therefore the Landgravine Louise of Hesse was Queen of Denmark. As the Salic Law excluded her from the sovereignty of the Duchies, it was for the Diet purely an open question who had the best right to them.[165]

The domestic policy of the Government was not of much interest in 1863. Very early in the Session Mr. Gladstone introduced his Budget. The American War had sent the price of cotton up from 7d. to 2s. 1d. a pound, and trade was prostrate and stagnant in Lancashire. The agricultural wealth of Ireland from 1856 to 1860 had been, on the average, about £39,437,000[166] a year. But in 1863 it had fallen to £27,327,000--a decrease of £12,000,000, a sum not far short of the established annual valuation of the country, which was but £13,000,000. Ireland and Lancashire ought therefore to have made havoc with Mr. Gladstone’s estimates for the past year. So far from that being the case, the revenue, under the expansive influence of Free Trade, had risen to £67,790,000, or £805,000 over the estimates.[167] The expenditure had been £69,302,000, or £806,000 less than the estimates. For the coming year Mr. Gladstone accordingly estimated a revenue of £71,490,000 on the existing basis. Hence he had in view a surplus of £3,741,000, so that he saw his way to lessen the pressure of taxation on the people. He therefore reduced the Income Tax from 9d. to 7d. in the pound, readjusting its incidence so as to give more relief to small incomes. He reduced the tea duty to 1s. in the pound, and equalised the duties on chicory and coffee, but his attempts to levy Income Tax on public charities and trust corporations were defeated[168] after a somewhat acrid controversy. Mr. Gladstone’s argument was that their corrupt management really deprived most of the rich incorporated charities of a right to an appeal _ad misericordium_. He, however, pressed his point too far. His lurid picture of their administrative abuses tempted people to doubt whether the penal imposition of a sevenpenny Income Tax was the best means of dealing with such gigantic evils.

The lamented death of Sir George Cornewall Lewis in April not only brought confusion into the Cabinet, but it deprived the Queen of a valued

[Illustration: GENERAL GRANT.]

friend, whose services she could ill afford to lose. “To me, dear Lady Theresa,” the Queen says in a letter to Sir George’s widow (15th April), “this is a heavy loss, a severe blow! My own darling had the very highest esteem, regard, and respect for dear Sir Cornewall Lewis; we delighted in his society; we admired his great honesty and fearless straightforwardness. We had the greatest confidence in him, and since my terrible misfortune, I clung particularly to characters like his, which are so rare. I felt he was a friend, and I looked to him as a support, and a wise and safe counsellor. He is snatched away, and his loss to me and to the country is irreparable. How little did I think, when I talked to him the last time here, and he spoke so kindly of my popularity, as he so kindly expressed it, that I should never see his kind face again.”[169] He was leader of “the Court Party” in the Cabinet, and was succeeded at the War Office by Earl de Grey.

[Illustration: CHRISTIANSBORG CASTLE, COPENHAGEN.]

Only one question provoked anything resembling a party division during the Session, and that was the Prison Ministers Bill. The object of the measure was to allow prisoners to be attended by clergy of their own denominations and persuasions. As the Roman Catholics would derive most benefit from the Bill, it was opposed warmly by a powerful body of the Tory Party. The Liberals naturally supported the measure, and on this occasion they were joined by a few of the more enlightened Conservatives, such as Lord Derby, Mr. Disraeli, Mr. Henley, and Sir John Pakington. As Mr. Disraeli was at the time favouring an intrigue for detaching the Roman Catholic Party from the Liberals, it was with ill-concealed chagrin that he listened to the bigoted attacks of his followers on the Bill, which was, however, passed. The suspension of amicable relations with Brazil,[170] the vote for the purchase of the Exhibition Buildings, the reorganisation of the London police, and the attitude of the Government to the belligerents in the American Civil War, were the only other topics that created serious or practical Parliamentary discussion.

The vote for the purchase of the Exhibition Building of 1862 was extremely unpopular, and but for the Queen’s influence it would probably have been rejected by the House of Commons. The country even then viewed with strong suspicion the tendency to centralise all National collections in the distant Court suburb of Kensington. It was also insinuated that the Royal Family had pecuniary interests in building land, the value of which would be enhanced by creating a Science and Art Department in this quarter. That insinuation is contradicted by Sir Theodore Martin, who asserts that Prince Albert never was able to save any money out of his private income to purchase such lands for his heirs.[171] This perhaps accounts for what has long been a popular mystery--the fact that his will was never submitted to Probate. As a matter of course, if he had no money to leave to his heirs, the Prince must have left no will that was worth proving. But in 1863 these insinuations had sunk deep in the public mind, and the manner in which Lord Palmerston managed the question gave colour to them. He knew that the proposal to buy the Exhibition Building of 1862 was hateful to the taxpayers. The edifice was architecturally unfit for the reception of a permanent national collection of paintings, and its distance from London rendered all schemes for transferring to it the pictures from the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square objectionable in the extreme. Palmerston, however, at the outset disarmed his critics by proposing merely to buy from the Exhibition Commissioners, for £67,000, the site of the Exhibition, and it was tolerably cheap for a metropolitan site, in days when land in the City fetched £119,000 an acre. This site, he said, was wanted for a building to house the new Patent Office, some natural history collections from the British Museum, and for a National Portrait Gallery. Then he asked the House of Commons to vote £120,000 for the purchase of another “lot” of seventeen acres belonging to the Commissioners adjacent to the Exhibition site, and, finally, he desired it to vote £80,000 for the building itself. Very artfully he had the votes put separately, and Mr. Gladstone aided him by positively assuring the House that the project of buying the building--which was universally unpopular--was one quite apart from the other projects. By a vote of 267 to 135 the House agreed, but grudgingly, to the purchase of the ground, intending to fight the taxpayers’ battle on the question of buying the building. When, however, they came to the vote for the building, Mr. Gladstone informed them they had no option but to purchase it, for the contractors were under no obligation to remove it--a fact which Lord Palmerston had carefully concealed from the House. Members were thus in possession of a site burdened with a useless building which it was nobody’s business to remove. If the Government pulled it down, and then put up another structure in its place, the operation would cost much more than the £105,000 which were needed to buy and adapt it to public uses. The House was furious at finding itself trapped by Lord Palmerston and Mr. Gladstone. Bitter complaints of Courtly jobbery were heard on all sides, and a Ministerial defeat was the result. Lord Malmesbury, writing on the 5th of July in his “Diary,” says:--“Several people called, who told me that the scene in the House of Commons when the division took place on the vote for the purchase of the Exhibition Building was extraordinary. Sir Stafford Northcote’s speech[172] was the signal for a storm, and he was forced to sit down. Disraeli had canvassed his supporters, telling them that he had a letter in his pocket from the Queen. This had a disastrous effect, and when he got up the hooting was so terrific that he could not be heard. Gladstone’s speech had already excited great indignation, for it showed how completely the Government had deceived the House when Lord Palmerston had induced them to vote for the purchase of the land, leaving them under the delusion that the contractors for the Exhibition were bound to remove the building if it was not sold within a certain time. Gladstone had told them that there was no engagement of the sort, and that he believed they were not obliged to remove it at all. This, whether true or not, was taken as a menace to force them to buy the building, and infuriated the House of Commons the more, as Lord Elcho proved that the purchase would be a most disadvantageous one, entailing an enormous expense. So the House rose _en masse_, and, after a scene of the utmost confusion and excitement, defeated the Government by more than two to one, Gladstone and Disraeli looking equally angry.”[173] It need hardly be said that Mr. Disraeli’s indiscreet use of the Queen’s name in this questionable transaction was unwarranted and unwarrantable.

The inefficiency displayed by the City Police at the entry of the Princess Alexandra into London tempted Sir George Grey to propose that the Metropolitan and City Forces should be amalgamated under the control of the Home Office. This was hotly opposed. The Lord Mayor and Mr. Alderman Sidney protested against a scheme for giving the Home Secretary control of what might become a large standing army in the City of London.[174] Other members raised the cry of “centralisation,” and denounced the measure as an attack on the principle of local self-government. It was now the turn of London to be assailed, but Manchester and Birmingham and all other powerful cities would soon share the fate of the Metropolis. All over England municipal bodies naturally made common cause with the City of London, and it was soon apparent that the Government must either bend or break. Luckily it was discovered that the Bill was not a public but a private Bill, and, as such, subject in respect of notices to certain Standing Orders which had not been obeyed. This omission gave Sir George Grey a technical excuse for withdrawing it.

Vigorous efforts were made during 1863 to induce the Government to recognise the Southern Confederacy, but they were made in vain. Mr. Roebuck, in the House of Commons, proposed a motion in favour of recognition, alleging that in an interview with Napoleon III. he had discovered that France would co-operate with England for that purpose--nay, he warned Lord Palmerston that France might recognise the South without waiting for our co-operation. The Tory Party, though strongly sympathising with Mr. Roebuck’s views, were restrained by their leaders from harassing the Cabinet, and it was the general feeling that Ministers should be left quite free to act. As for the Government, through Lord Palmerston and Lord Russell, it repeatedly declared that it was bent on adhering to a policy of scrupulous neutrality. But this was a matter of some difficulty. Many Englishmen had engaged in the lucrative trade of blockade-running. When their vessels failed to pass the Federal cordon round the Southern ports, and were seized, their owners, as Lord Russell said, “put on an air of injured innocence, and came to the Foreign Office demanding redress.” In Parliament, too, their friends attacked Ministers for meekly submitting to violations of International Law by officers of the Federal Navy, and the investigation of these cases, especially when the seizures were of doubtful legality, raised many irritating controversies between the two Governments. Swift-armed cruisers were built in English ports for the Confederate States, and then taken out to sea, and fitted with their guns and armaments. The difficulty of preventing their escape--at all times serious--was aggravated by the uncertain state of English law on the subject. One of these cruisers, the _Alabama_, had been allowed to sail from the Mersey, and had committed fearful depredations on Federal commerce. The American Government alleged that her escape was due to Lord Russell’s culpable negligence. The truth was that the Government meant to arrest the _Alabama_, but owing to the temporary mental derangement of the Judge Advocate-General there was delay in going through certain legal formalities, and before this was overcome the ship had put out to sea. On the other hand, when another vessel of the same class--the _Alexandra_--was seized, her seizure was pronounced illegal by the English Law Courts. Lord Russell’s action was either too slow or too quick, and in each case it served to irritate both North and South. But the country gave the Government a generous support, recognising their sincerity in endeavouring to maintain a neutral policy, in spite of the pressure which was put upon them by Southern partisans.

In America the war dragged slowly on. On the 1st of January Mr. Lincoln’s Proclamation abolishing slavery in the rebel States took effect, but without producing a servile insurrection, as was anticipated. After

[Illustration: MEMORIAL OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION IN THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY’S GARDENS, SOUTH KENSINGTON.]

the drawn battle of Murfreesborough, with which the year 1862 closed, and the Federal defeat at Fredericksburg, the efforts of the North were chiefly directed against Charleston. In April Admiral Dupont was repulsed in an attack on the harbour, and in summer Admiral Dahlgren resumed siege operations, but without success. In May General Hooker led the Army of the Potomac across the Rappahannock, and took up positions above and below that held by the Confederates at Fredericksburg. Lee, by a rapid movement westward, crushed Hooker’s force at Chancellorsville, and then suddenly doubling back easily defeated Sedgwick’s division which had occupied Fredericksburg. The Army of the Potomac retraced its steps across the Rappahannock, and Richmond was no longer menaced. On the 4th of July Grant captured Vicksburg after a series of brilliant operations, and then Port Hudson surrendered to Banks. This was a great gain for the Federals, for not only did they clear the Mississippi of rebels, but the powerful garrisons, with their material of war, which President Davis had, by an inconceivable blunder, shut up in the river forts, fell into their hands. At the beginning of summer Lee outflanked Hooker, defeated Milroy on the Shenandoah, and then, by a daring movement, crossed the Potomac, and, to the terror of the Government at Washington, carried the war into Maryland and Pennsylvania. Hooker was dismissed, and Meade, summoning all available troops to his standard, marched in haste to arrest Lee’s progress. They met at Gettysburg, where, after terrible slaughter, Lee confessed his failure, and retreated unmolested to Virginia.[175] Beauregard’s successful defence of Charleston consoled the Confederates for the failure of Lee’s invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania, and in September they were further cheered by Longstreet’s victory over Rosecrans at Chickamauga in Tennessee. Though the obstinate valour of General Thomas’s division enabled Rosecrans to rally his troops on Chattanooga heights, the position of the Federals in Tennessee was perilous. Rosecrans at Chattanooga, and Burnside at Knoxville, were separated in the midst of a hostile population, and Lee was hurrying on reinforcements to strengthen General Bragg, who was threatening the Federal Commanders. On the other hand, Grant, who had the chief command in this region, was reinforced by Sherman, and he determined to attack Bragg as the easiest way of relieving Burnside. This he did on the 23rd of November at Missionary Ridge, his plan being to overwhelm Bragg’s right by hurling masses of Sherman’s troops against it till he broke it up. When Sherman was repulsed, the Federals then attacked the left centre of the Confederate position, compelling Bragg to retreat to the frontier of Georgia. Grant then fell back on Chattanooga, Burnside holding his entrenchments at Knoxville, from which Longstreet drew off his forces. Thus, though the Northern campaign in Virginia was unsuccessful, the Federals were masters of the Mississippi and of Tennessee when the year closed. The Confederate Government, failing to induce Lord Russell to recognise the Southern States, withdrew their envoy, Mr. Mason, from London.

In early summer (8th May) the Queen and the Princess Alice paid a visit rather unexpectedly to Netley Hospital, the foundation-stone of which had been laid seven years before by the late Prince Consort. She visited ward after ward, conversed with the invalided soldiers in a soft, low voice, questioning

[Illustration: VISIT OF THE QUEEN TO NETLEY HOSPITAL.]

the officials about their cases, and even penetrated to the married men’s quarters, where she carefully inquired into the comfort of the soldiers’ wives and their families. One of the men, in whose case she had interested herself, was dying, and in broken accents exclaimed, as she went away, “I thank God that He has allowed me to live long enough to see your Majesty with my own eyes.” On the 9th of June the Queen and the younger members of her family came to town from Windsor to inspect privately the memorial of the Great Exhibition--which also took the character of a memorial to the late Prince Consort--in the Royal Horticultural Society’s Gardens at Kensington. It was inaugurated next day by the Prince and Princess of Wales, attended by a company of ladies and gentlemen from the Court.

On the 12th of June the Queen received an extraordinary address on the birthday of the late Prince Consort from the ballast-heavers of the Port of London, which touched her very deeply. In it they said, “Before he (Prince Albert) came to our aid we could only get work through a body of riverside publicans and middlemen, who made us drink before they would give us a job, made us drink while we were at it, and kept us waiting for our wages, and drinking after we had done our work, so that we could only take half our wages home to our families, and that half too often through a drunkard’s hands.” The Prince, it seems, on getting an appeal from them, privately persuaded the Government to insert a clause in the Merchant Shipping Act putting these men under the control of the Corporation of Trinity House. Then he used his influence in the Corporation to pass rules for the employment of ballast-heavers, which met most of their grievances, and he even gave them a house where they might wait for work, supplied it with papers and books, and helped them to start a benefit society. The men said in their address that they were in the habit of celebrating their deliverance from bondage by an annual treat on the Queen’s birthday, and they added, “Your Majesty will not wonder that we then think with equal gratitude of our deliverer. He year by year asked after us, and rejoiced to hear of our improvement while he lived on earth.” They were, however, desirous of having a portrait of the Prince to hang in their room, and begged the Queen to give them one. “We hope,” they said, “your Majesty will excuse our boldness in asking this favour, but we feel we may speak to our Prince’s wife; and, therefore, praying you to grant our humble request, we are your Majesty’s most obedient and faithful servants.” The Queen’s answer came from her heart. It was as follows:--

“WINDSOR CASTLE, _June 12_.

“MY DEAR SIR,--I have had the honour to lay before her Majesty the Queen the address from the ballast-heavers of the Port of London, which you have forwarded to me for presentation. Her Majesty has been deeply touched by this spontaneous testimony to the active benevolence of her beloved husband, and amongst all the tokens of sympathy in her grief, which she has gratefully received from all classes of her people, no one has been more gratifying to the Queen, and no one more in harmony with her feelings, than the simple and unpretending tribute from these honest, hard-working men. I am commanded to request that you will assure the ballast-heavers that the interest in their welfare, so especially displayed by him whose life was employed in endeavouring to benefit the people of this country, is fully shared by her Majesty, and that her Majesty rejoices to hear of the happy change in their moral and social condition. The Queen has the greatest pleasure in complying with the request contained in the address, and has ordered two prints of the Prince Consort, one in uniform and one in ordinary dress, to be framed and presented, to be hung in the room in which the ballast-heavers wait; to these her Majesty has added one of herself, as the Queen would wish, in the remembrance of these grateful men, to be associated with her great and good husband, whose virtues they have so highly and justly appreciated.

“Believe me, sincerely yours,

“C. B. PHIPPS.”

“Fredk. J. Furnivall, Esq.”

Nor was this the only occasion during the year on which the Queen manifested her vigilant interest in the lot of her poorer subjects. In July a wretched woman named Geneive had been forced by her husband to walk on a rotten tight rope, suspended thirty yards above the ground, at a Foresters’ Fête in Aston Park, Birmingham. The rope broke, and the poor creature, who was far advanced in pregnancy, was dashed to pieces in the most shocking manner. Yet the fête was continued, the Committee callously determining “to go on with the programme, omitting the dangerous parts.” On the 25th of July the Mayor of Birmingham was somewhat startled to receive from Sir C. B. Phipps a letter in the following terms:--“The Queen has commanded me to express to you the pain with which her Majesty has read the account of a fatal accident which has occurred during a fête at Aston Park, Birmingham. Her Majesty cannot refrain from making known through you her personal feelings of horror that one of her subjects--a female--should have been sacrificed to the gratification of the demoralising taste, unfortunately prevalent, for exhibitions attended with the greatest danger to the performers. Were any proof wanting that such exhibitions are demoralising, I am commanded to remark that it would be at once found in the decision arrived at to continue the festivities, the hilarity, and the sports of the occasion after an event so melancholy. The Queen trusts that you, in common with the rest of the townspeople of Birmingham, will use your influence to prevent in future the degradation to such exhibitions of the Park which was gladly opened by her Majesty and the beloved Prince Consort, in the hope that it would be made serviceable for the healthy exercise and rational recreation of the people.” The Mayor explained that when he became a patron of the fête he did not know that a dangerous exhibition was contemplated, and though Aston Park was outside his jurisdiction, he promised to use his influence to prevent such exhibitions from being held there in future.

On the 11th of August the Queen left London for Antwerp, from which she proceeded to Laeken with the King of the Belgians. From Belgium she went on to Gotha, where she stayed at the Castle of Rosenau till the 7th of September. On the 8th of the month her Majesty journeyed to Kranichstein, near Darmstadt, and spent the day with the Princess Louis of

[Illustration: THE QUEEN UNVEILING THE STATUE OF PRINCE ALBERT AT ABERDEEN.]

Hesse. Leaving at night, the Queen was in Antwerp early next morning (9th), and on the 10th at Greenhithe, whence the _Fairy_, steam tender to the royal yacht, conveyed her to Woolwich. Driving to Nine Elms, she took train to Windsor, greatly pleased by the hearty greetings she received from crowds of people at the chief stations on the way. The autumnal holiday was, as usual, spent at Balmoral, where a kindly and sympathetic family party gathered round the Queen. Prince Louis of Hesse and the Princess (Alice) stayed with her at the Castle. The Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia, with their family, were lodged hard by at Abergeldie. The Princess Louis of Hesse devoted herself to her mother, and with characteristic energy endeavoured to dispel the heaviness of heart which was again settling on her. For this purpose she urged the Queen to resume the old open-air life among the mountains, from which she had derived incalculable benefit in times past. The Princess therefore organised an expedition to Clova, which her mother was induced to join. The party consisted of the Queen, the Princess Louis of Hesse, the Princess Helena, the Queen’s coachman, Smith, and her gillie, John Brown, and “Willem,” a little black page-boy in the service of the Princess Louis. The excursion was marred by an alarming accident which befell the party on the way home. The coachman lost his way in the dark, and about two miles from Altnagiuthasach the carriage was upset--the Queen being flung violently on her face to the ground. “Alice,” writes the Queen in her “Journal,” was “soon helped up, by means of tearing all her clothes to disentangle her; but Lenchen (Princess Helena), who had also got caught in her dress, called out very piteously, which frightened me a good deal, but she was also got out with Brown’s assistance, and neither she nor Alice was at all hurt. I reassured them that I was not hurt, and urged that we should make the best of it, as it was an inevitable misfortune.... Meantime the horses were lying on the ground as if dead, and it was absolutely necessary to get them up again. Alice, whose coolness was admirable, held one of the lamps while Brown cut the traces, to the horror of Smith, and the horses were speedily released, and got up unhurt.” The Queen’s common-sense advice to “make the best of it” was taken, and the Royal party encamped in this desolate mountain solitude, while Smith was sent on to get another carriage. Then the Princesses discovered that their mother had been bruised severely on the face, and that her right thumb was sprained. “A little claret,” the Queen says, “was all we could get either to drink or wash my face and hands.” Luckily, the groom, who had gone on in front with the “shelties,” or rough little mountain ponies, which the Queen and her family use for hill climbing, got alarmed at their long absence, and he very sensibly rode back to see if any accident had happened. When he came up the Queen insisted on mounting at once and riding all the way home, which she reached after ten o’clock at night, to find the Crown Prince of Prussia and Prince Louis of Hesse at the door of the Castle anxiously looking out for her. A week after this accident (13th of October) the Queen was present at the inauguration of Marochetti’s statue to the Prince Consort at Aberdeen. “I could not reconcile it to myself,” she said, in replying to an address from the subscribers, “to remain at Balmoral while such a tribute was being paid to his (Prince Albert’s) memory, without making an exertion to assure you personally of the deep and heartfelt sense I entertain of your kindness and affection, and at the same time to proclaim in public the unbounded reverence and admiration, the devoted love, that fills my heart for him whose loss must throw a lasting gloom over my future life.” It was a mournful ceremony for the Queen, whose emotion was so great that she had to depute Sir George Grey, the Minister in attendance, to read her reply. Dense crowds of people filled the streets, but forbore to cheer, greeting the Royal widow merely with silent and respectful sympathy. In a letter to the Lord Provost of the city, the Queen, on her return to Balmoral, assured him how fully she appreciated the consideration which was shown for her feelings, not only by those who took part in the ceremony, but by the townspeople generally, “on an occasion which was one of severe and painful trial” for her. During the months of September and October the Princess Louis of Hesse was in attendance on the Queen, who was much cheered and benefited by her affectionate companionship. But her visit came to an end in October, when the Princess, in a letter to her Majesty written from Buckingham Palace, on her way to Darmstadt, says of her sojourn, “It was such a happiness to speak to you, and in return to hear all you had to say, to try and soothe you, and try to make your burthen lighter.... I can only say again, trust, hope, and be courageous, and every day will bring something in the fulfilment of your great duties which will bring you peace and make you feel that you are not forsaken, that God has heard your prayer, felt for you as a loving Father would, and that dear papa is not far from you.”[176] The 14th of December--the anniversary of the Prince Consort’s death--was passed in deep seclusion by the Queen at Windsor. As the year closed the country was relieved of all anxiety as to the Cotton Famine in Lancashire. The crisis had, indeed, passed early in summer, and the nation no longer feared that the calamity would prove unmanageable. The history of the Cotton Famine may be termed a history of agreeable disappointments. It was predicted that the prostration of trade in Lancashire would deal a mortal blow at English commerce--that the revenue would dwindle to a vanishing point--that the problem of sustaining vast masses of pauperised labour, whose pauperism must be but the harbinger of general bankruptcy among their employers, would prove insoluble--that their starvation would breed pestilence and lead to outbreaks of violence and crime, ending with seditious attacks on the Government and all institutions that upheld law and order. Already it has been shown that commerce, so far from declining, flourished apace during 1862-63, and that the revenue increased so rapidly that Mr. Gladstone actually remitted taxes.

The problem of relieving the distress was solved with ease and simplicity. There were no epidemics of pestilence, and, save in Stalybridge, no riotous disturbances. The noble resignation, the heroic patience of the sufferers, and their perfect confidence in the sympathy and the helpfulness of their countrymen, in fact compelled the admiration of the civilised world. In the month of December, 1862, there were 500,000 cotton operatives receiving relief in Lancashire, and the loss in wages from lack of employment was estimated at £168,000. Cotton then came in, though in small quantities, and some mills were able to run. Emigration and the transference of labour to other employments also relieved the pressure, so that in June, 1863, only 256,000 persons were receiving relief in the afflicted districts. At the end of the year this number was reduced to 180,000. So far from the health of the people suffering, it rather improved. There was less infant mortality than usual in the cotton districts, possibly because female operatives, being thrown out of work, were able to devote more attention to their children.[177] Enforced

[Illustration: SIR CHARLES PHIPPS.]

sobriety gave the people more power to resist disease, and sanitary precautions which, at the instance of the Executive Committee in Manchester, were taken by local authorities also tended to keep the villages wholesome. The funds by which distress was relieved came from special local rates levied by consent of Parliament in the unions; from loans raised by local authorities under Parliamentary sanction, and spent on public works which gave employment to the operatives; and, last of all, from voluntary subscriptions, which were sent from all quarters of the world. At first it was thought that little could be expected from the cotton districts themselves. “Lancashire,” said Mr. Cobden to Lady Hatherton, “with its machinery stopped is like a man in a fainting fit. It would be as natural to attempt to draw money from the one as blood from the other.”[178] But in one form or another, in voluntary contributions, rates, loss of wages, depreciation of fixed capital, business losses, Lancashire spent an aggregate of £12,445,000 in coping with the Cotton Famine. Lancashire, indeed, raised £1,400,000 of the voluntary contributions received up to April, 1863, which came to £2,735,000. The work of administration was chiefly centred in the Executive Committee at Manchester, the President of which was the Earl of Derby. The voluntary labour at their command must have been very great, for the cost of administration came only to 15s. for every £100. What was afterwards called “the Conservative reaction” in Lancashire set in after this Fund was distributed, for in time, when the old generation of Radicals died out, their successors in the districts which had been saved from starvation by the almoners of the Fund, who were often zealous Anglicans, nearly all went over to the Tory Party. The Queen did her utmost to contribute to the success of the Fund, and her joy was unalloyed when she saw that its administrators had, in the beginning of 1864, averted the disaster that menaced her Northern Duchy.

[Illustration: THE ALBERT BRIDGE, WINDSOR.]

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