list of candidates agreeable to England. He was defeated; the marriage, contrary to his declared wish, took place. But to make war upon us for that never occurred to England, not even to Lord Palmerston himself. They were, however, much displeased, both people, queen, and ministers, but all was limited to a long and animated discussion of the two negotiations. To-day a candidature formally made by Spain offends us; we say so to Prussia, patron of the candidate; the candidate withdraws, with his patron's permission; Spain accepts his withdrawal. We do not stop at this, but require of the patron to forbid for the future, in any case, absolutely, the withdrawn candidate from being again proposed. Upon this astonishing demand, the patron suddenly, without hearing a word, breaks off diplomatic relations and enters upon war. And in both countries, multitudes applaud. Which of the two nations is most destitute of good judgment and of moral sense? Verily I am at a loss to say. It is a case when one agrees with Chancellor Oxenstiern.” *

*"Go, my son," said the great minister of Gustavus Adolphus, sending his son to travel in foreign countries, "go and see with what small wisdom the world is governed."

CHAPTER VI.

EUROPEAN DISTURBANCES. - DOMESTIC PEACE.

T has been my wish to relate with considerable detail negotiations which at the time occupied the attention of all Europe, and very specially affected the relations of England with France and Spain. I now return to the important affairs at home. which soon absorbed all thoughts and occupied all hearts. Hardly had the ministry of Sir Robert Peel fallen when famine broke out anew in Ireland with an unheard-of violence, demanding unheard-of efforts, to which England devoted herself courageously and generously. Once more the interior condition of Ireland necessitated the presentation of a law repressive of the multiplied disorders and criminal attempts which desolated the country. Upon a proposition of this nature had ensued the debate which was followed by the overthrow of the Tory ministry. Sir Robert Peel permitted himself the satisfaction of referring to this. "I should be unwilling," he said, "to let the first night of the debate on the proposal of her Majesty's government pass, without publicly declaring that it is my intention to give to that proposal a cordial support. I will quarrel

with none of the details of the measure. I cannot resist the force of the appeal which the right honorable gentleman has made to the House, because it is precisely the same appeal which some two years since I myself made, and made in vain." Sir Robert Peel, in fact, supported the Whig ministry against his own former friends, now eager in the attack upon the government. All the great questions with which he had

himself been obliged to deal-those that had been settled as well as those that had remained undecided-reappeared successively before the Houses: the income tax, the monetary system and the organization of the Bank of England, the state of the Colonies, the tax upon sugars, the distinction between sugars grown by free labor and those grown by slave labor, the number of hours' work in factories, etc. England was in one of those periods of transformation and of social crisis, when the old system, everywhere and necessarily antagonistic to the modern spirit, makes an obstinate, though almost hopeless defence, each day trying to ward off the morrow's peril or repair the disaster of yesterday, and keeping its intrepid but useless defenders forever in the various breaches which have been made.

The reputation and the talent of Lord George Bentinck and Mr. Disraeli increased daily in this incessant warfare, often violent and unjust, but never seriously endangering the existence of the ministry, much less the tranquillity of England, in the midst of the agitations of Europe. On the 24th of February, 1848, the monarchy of July had fallen before the impatient and inconsiderate attacks of an opposition which did not itself. measure the abyss into which it was plunging the country. Following upon this fall, which was as surprising as a peal of thunder from a clear sky, all Europe saw her thrones shaken, and the revolutionary ferment reappear upon the surface of social organizations beneath which it had been secretly working. At many points, the disturbance was serious, and its effects durable. In England it was limited to a Chartist procession on Kennington Common and the presentation of a petition to the House of Commons. The parliamentary commission appointed to examine this petition discovered a multitude of false signatures, often repeated in the same hand writings, or reproduced as a foolish joke. The public mind, for the moment disquieted at the Chartist manifestation, soon turned it into ridicule, and

Chartism expired in England at the moment when revolution was shaking anew the larger number of the thrones of Europe. The agitation could not, however, fail to gain ground in Ireland. The death of O'Connell had left "Young Ireland" mistress of the position. Standing alone at the head of the popular fermentation, the party at once became divided; Smith O'Brien and Meagher found a rival in John Mitchel, more violent than they, and more deeply involved in rebellion. The new organ of the "Young Ireland" party, the "United Irishmen," stimulated revolutionary passions. The English government resolved to put an end to so many outrages. Mitchel was arrested, tried, and condemned to banishment. Smith O'Brien and Meagher made no effort to save him; the population of Dublin remained quiet, and Mitchel in a few hours was out of the country and on his way to Bermuda. Many years later he returned to Ireland, became a candidate for an Irish county and was elected to Parliament; the election being declared void, he was again elected, but died before he could take his seat.

The depths of the Irish nation had not been moved, and the revolutionary movement was not serious, when, after Mitchel's condemnation, Smith O'Brien and Meagher sought to revive it anew. Warrants for their arrest were issued by government, and a rebellion broke out in their defence. Some collisions occurred at different points between the partisans of “ Young Ireland" and the police. Smith O'Brien and Meagher were shortly captured, both were condemned to death, but the sentence was at once commuted to transportation. Meagher escaped, in company with John Mitchel; but Smith O'Brien remained faithful to his parole, and his sentence being remitted in consideration of his fidelity, he quietly returned to England, and died in Wales in 1861. Meagher, who served in the American army during the war of secession, was drowned by falling from the deck of a steamer on the river Missouri. With the

condemnation and dispersion of its principal leaders, the party of "Young Ireland" disappeared as Chartism had already done. Revolutionary attempts had failed before the peaceful strength of a free country, governed with order and liberality. The English nation was able to follow a path more and more liberal every year. It inclined constantly more and more towards democracy, but it desired to advance with even step, without undue haste or violence. With a compassion that was slightly contemptuous, England gazed upon the ruins that covered so many of the countries of Europe, forgetful sometimes of the fierce and prolonged struggles that had brought her to this height of well-ordered liberty, the supreme object to which the generous hopes of all nations aspire.

The English government had, however, the wisdom to understand that the condition of Ireland presented a constant menace to the tranquillity of England. It weighed like a nightmare upon all thoughtful minds, upon that of Sir Robert Peel in particular. Three years' continuance of the potato disease had produced a permanent famine; the Poor Law had been imposed on landed property, and landed property, crushed with debt, deprived of capital, blasted with sterility, was falling into a condition of impotence and ruin. What was to become of this people, growing daily more numerous and more wretched? What was to become of England, laden with this burden which was ever increasing and ever on the point of ending in a great danger?

"It is in vain for England," said Sir Robert Peel, on the 30th of March, 1849, "to hope that by indifference or neglect she can free herself from the burden-if there be no remedy for Irish distress and disorder - which will press upon her with intense force. At the moment at which I am speaking, you have a military force of not less than 47,000 men in Ireland; and the whole of the charge for that force is borne, not locally