Vody carried on so vigorous campaign that in 1842 the Melbourne ministry pro-Bxed duty, while a little later came the osed the repeal of the Corn Laws and a second recantation of Sir Robert Peel. The Tory leader had turned against his party, in'1829, upon the burning question of Catholic emancipation; he now deserted the Land as he had formerly deserted the Church. His change of front has gained him the blessings of Inter generations of his countrymen; in 1845 it brought him the bitterest attacks till then known in the House of Commons. They were delivered by a young litterateur and dandy, Benjamin Disraeli, who won in this way the confidence of the Conservative party, of which he was to be afterwards the most brilliant and successful of leaders. For the next seven years following the repeal of the Corn Laws, Mr. Disraeli was looked upon as the man to re-establish Protection but the task was beyond any political power. Free Trade brought the country industrial prosperity, and made the agri cultural interest a negligeable quanti It must_not be forgotten that in 1842 Si Robert Peel established the income. tax. This direct means of raising revenue has eatly in favour with Chancellors of chequer ever since, but it is from an ideal tax. Its incidence is uni audit involves very un-English inquisition in collecting it. Perhaps it might have been abolished in 1840, as Mr. Gladstone promised 1853, had it not been for the outbreak of the Crimean War and Indian Mutiny. The full triumph of Free Trade did not come till the Treaty of Commerce with France, which Cobden negotiated in 1860. In 1848 the expulsion of Louis Phillippe produced a, revolutionary through europe. We felt it slightly in England in the Chartist demonstration on Kennington Common. The year following, Free Trade was further established by the abolition of discriminating duties upon goods imported in foreign bottoms. In 1850 we had the sensation of a new '"'anti-popery" cry as the result of the Pope's institution of English bishops. In 1854 we went war with Russia in defence of that effete Mussulman power whose presence in Europe to-day is still the chief danger in international politics. The atts upon Sebastopol, including as it did Balsclava and Inkerman, showed again the valour of British soldiers. But it also showed the weakness of our military organisation, and few people to-day believe in the policy of the war. At the time, John Bright was the only leading public man who Taised his voice against the pri ciple of the campaign. But its mismanagement led to the resignation of Lord Aberdeen, and the subsequent government of Lord Palmerston was defeated in Parliament over the war with China in 185% But Palmerston held to his Ministry, appealed to the country, an power to face the horrors of the Indian Mutiny. He did not lose otice until he! tried, in 1858, to attack the principle of Great Britain's free refuge to political con-spiriters. The flight of Orsini provoked this measure, as the French threats excited by his asylum here led to the presen wonderful volunteer organisation. Another wave of popular sentiment in favour of foreign "rebels" was excited by Garibaldi's struggle for the freedom of Italy, and in 1861 England accepted Victor Emmanuel as King of that country in spite of the Pope's protests. Another war with China was ended in 1860 by some substantial concessions to British commerce. In the next few years England had only to avoid being dragged into the quarrels of Italy, Denmark, Prussia, and Austria—quarrels which Bismarck ended in 1866, after a brief war with Austria, As the result Italy and Prussia advanced a step nearer towards their present national ditions. The great American Civil War found us quite astray upon the real issues of the country, and we not only alienated Northern sentiment but suffered more substantial penalties. In 1867 we were at war again in Abyssinia; in 1871 we had to acknowledge William of Prussia as German Emperor. In 1873 we went to war against the Ashantees; and four years later, in connection with the Russo-Turkish struggle, the fiercest throb of war fever that had Deen felt since 1854 swept across the country. Lord Beaconfield's measures were clearly meant towards Russia as saying, "Constantinople—and_ war His determined measures, and Lord Salisbury's famous note, saved us from war, and prevented the absorption of Turkey by Russia. But Russian influence led us into war with Afghanistan, and then followed a series of "'Jictle wars" in Zululand, the Transvaal, Egypt, and the Soudan, which wore big enough to make a considerable demon: upon our small standing army. 5 Apart from foreign polities, Irish affairs have presented the chief difficulty of external statesmanship during the Queen's reign. They represent, indeed, the one black spot on the period. When Victoria came to the throne, Daniel O'Connell was at the height of his power and the "repeal" movement in the fulness of its energy. But his influence over the Irish people declined with the endowment of the Roman Catholic colleges _in 1845, and he died two years later. Irish Politics
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.