CHAPTER V

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WAR AND FAMINE.

Outbreak of Civil War in the United States--Origin of the Dispute--The Missouri Compromise--Effect of the “Gold Rush” on the Extension of Slavery--Colonising Nebraska--The Struggle in “Bleeding Kansas”--Assault on Senator Sumner--The Wyandotte Constitution--The Dred Scott Case--Election of Mr. Lincoln as President--Secession of South Carolina--Organisation of the Southern Confederacy--The Firing of the First Shot--Capture of Fort Sumter--Lincoln’s Call to Arms--Opinion in England--The _Trent_ Affair--The Queen and the Prince Consort avert War--Opening of Parliament--Bitter Controversy over the Education Code--Parliament and the Civil War--The Cotton Famine--A Relief Bill--War Expenditure--Mr. Disraeli denounces Lord Palmerston’s “Bloated Armaments”--A Budget without a Surplus--The Fortifications at Spithead--Floating versus Fixed Forts--A Mexican Adventure--Revolution in Greece--Bismarck’s Visit to London--Anecdote of Bismarck and Mr. Disraeli--Progress of the American War--Mr. Peabody’s Benefactions--The Exhibition of 1862--The Prince of Wales’s Tour in the East--The Hartley Colliery Accident--Marriage of the Princess Alice--The Queen’s Visit to Belgium--Her Meeting with the Princess Alexandra of Denmark--The Queen’s Visit to Gotha--Removal of the Prince Consort’s Remains to the Mausoleum at Frogmore 111

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