vigorous Dost Mohammed; besides sending a fleet into the Persian Gulf to draw off the Shah from Herat. An army was accordingly equipped at immense expense. Runjeet Singh refused to allow it a passage through Lahore; it had, therefore, to pass through Scinde, more to the south, and though the Ameers of that country had engaged to furnish supplies, the troops had to fight their way. Ghuznee was taken by storm; Dost Mohammed then quitted his capital; and on the 7th of August, 1839, Shah Sujah was borne into Cabul in triumph. The greater part of our army presently returned; but 8,000 Europeans and sepoys were left to winter in a cold and inhospitable region, and so irreconcilable were the population to the Shah and his protectors that continual reinforcements were necessary. By the end of 1840, we had 16,000 men in the country, and it had cost us £3,000,000 for a single year's occupation. The Governor-general, the Commander-inchief, and all concerned, received thanks and honours from the Government at home; but the Duke of Wellington warned them that our difficulties had but commenced with conquest-sagacious journalists pointed out that we had but shown the dreaded Russians the way into our dominions-men of peace and of morality were protesting against these incessant wars, and these unscrupulous annexations. The event was about too well to justify these predictions-but the most apprehensive could not foresee the severity of the retribution that was just impending.

The miscellanea of this first Parliament of Victoria's reign, must now be enumerated.—The contested returns gave rise to such tumultuous scenes in the House of Commons that the Speaker threatened to resign; and Mr. O'Connell, having charged the Tory members of the committees with "foul perjury," was reprimanded on a vote of 226 to 197.-A motion by Sir W. Molesworth, condemning the Colonial policy of Lord Glenelg, was strenuously resisted by Ministers, but was defeated by a majority of only 29.An important measure of Church-reform was carried in 1838-an act to correct the abuse of non-residence, by compelling the absentee (if not on professional duties, or sick) to forfeit certain proportions of his income. Two years later, an act was passed abolishing self-elected deans and chapters, and other sinecures; the revenues to be applied by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to spiritual purposes.-A bill for giving the custody of children to their mothers, in cases of domestic dispute, at the discretion of the Equity judges, was passed after several rejections by the Lords. It was characterised by Lord Brougham as the first laying of the finger of improvement upon an edifice (the laws affecting women) which would not bear a touch.-Lord Denman introduced a liberal measure in respect to the administration of oaths; but was able to carry only the first clause, relieving Quakers and Moravians. -Numerous motions were made indirectly to enlarge the Reform Act, and others to mitigate the stringency of the Poor-law; but without success.→→

Lord Brougham introduced two measures for the establishment of a system of national education; but neither got beyond the first reading. In 1839, the annual grant was raised to £3,000. The management of the fund was then vested in a Committee of Privy Council; which, with the mode of distribution, was the subject of long debates. The Primate carried in the Peers, and Lord Stanley proposed in the Commons, an address to the Queen, complaining that Dissenters were admitted to participation in the grant, and asking that the appointment of the Board be rescinded. Her Majesty's reply expressed a belief that the grants were expended without prejudice to the rights of conscience and the security of the Established Church. The affair of Hansard and Stockdale occupied a great part of several sessions; the sheriffs of London were compelled by the courts to levy an execution on the defendants, and were imprisoned by the House for contempt. Ultimately, a declaratory bill was passed.-The murder of the Earl of Norbury, an Irish landlord, and the incidental declaration of Mr. Drummond, the Assistant Secretary, "property has duties as well as rights," created much excitement, and long debates on the state of Ireland; in consequence of which Lord Normanby resigned, and was succeeded by Lord Ebrington (afterwards Earl Fortescue). Lord Stanley introduced a bill for the better registration of voters, which was resisted with great violence by O'Connell as designed to diminish the suffrage; but was carried through several stages by small majorities. Ministers introduced a rival measure; but could not carry it, and the matter was in suspense when the Parliament was dissolved. - Mr. Abercrombie retired from the office of Speaker in the middle of the summer of 1839, on account of his declining strength, and was created Baron Dunfermline. Mr. Shaw Lefevre was elected to the vacant chair by a majority of 17 over Mr. Goulburn.-The slavetrade was kept before Parliament by Lords Brougham and Palmerston ; and they succeeded in carrying a bill for the suppression of the traffic carried on under the Portuguese and Brazilian flags.—In 1839, Rowland Hill's Penny Postage scheme was adopted by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on the report of a committee, supported by multitudinous memorials from mercantile bodies, and carried through Parliament after many objections. For some weeks a fourpenny rate was charged, to permit the Post-office to extend its machinery; the uniform penny rate came into operation on the 10th of January following.-During the recess, the Cabinet was reconstructed. The principal changes were, that Lord Normanby took the Home, and Lord John Russell the Colonial, Office; Mr. Spring Rice was made Baron Monteagle, and Mr. T. Baring became Chancellor of the Exchequer.-The Queen's choice of a husband, in the person of Albert, second son of Ernest, Duke of Saxe Coburg, was heartily approved by Parliament and people; but the Radicals and Conservatives in the Commons united in reducing the proposed allowance

to Prince Albert from £50,000 to £30,000. Neither the Queen nor the Prince was known to express dissatisfaction; and there were well-wishers to the royal nuptials even in the workhouses where husband and wife dwelt apart, and in the gaols where political prisoners pined for the Sovereignty of the People.

CHAPTER VII.

ELECTION OF 1841-RICHARD COBDEN'S FIRST SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT THE NEW MINISTRY—SIE ROBERT PEEL'S RESERVE-THE SLIDING-SCALE, NEW TARIFF, AND INCOME-TAX-SCENE BETWEEN THE PREMIER AND MR, COBDEN-COMPLAINTS IN PARLIAMENT OF THE LEAGUE-ITS REMOVAL TO LONDON-BUDGET OF 1845-THE "ORGANIZED HYPOCRISY "-DISEASE IN POTATOES AND DEFICIENT CORN HARVEST-DECLARATION OF THE WHIGS FOR TOTAL REPEAL-MINISTERIAL CRISISSIR ROBERT PEEL'S LAST BUDGET-HIS TRIUMPH AND FAREWELL TO POWER.

THE response of the constituencies to the appeal of the falling Ministry, was precisely what a dispassionate observer would have predicted. We have seen that the Reform Act gave an increased preponderance of power to the landed interest; and that they were sensitively hostile to the slightest tampering with their monopoly in the production of food. We have seen, too, that the Whigs had so alienated the middle, and angered the working classes, that their confidence could hardly be regained by the mere announcement of a new policy, however approved. But, indeed, the new policy was not universally popular even in the large towns. Several commercial "interests" were as fully persuaded as the agricultural, that every step in the direction of free-trade was a stride in the road to ruin; the working classes very generally believed the assurance of the anti-free-traders, that cheap bread would be accompanied by lower wages; the Chartists of all shades saw in the budget only a diversion of the middle classes from sympathy with their cause; men of all parties saw through the transparently worthless motive of the Ministers; and themselves had the folly to exasperate that feeling by grasping to the last at the fruits of office-even in the short interval between the dissolution and the elections, compelling Lord Plunket to vacate the Chancellorship of Ireland in favour of Sir John Campbeii. The country was heartily a-weary of them; and the anticorn-law leaders took care to let it be known that they supported the new measures quite irrespective of the men.-Under these circumstances, it was courageous in Lord John Russell to consent to stand for the City of London. The result was not very encouraging to his party. At the close of an exciting day, he was fourth upon the poll, coming in beneath two Conservatives and one Liberal, and only by a majority of seven

over another Conservative. thrown out of Northumberland, and Lords Morpeth and Milton rejected by the West Riding of Yorkshire for Messrs. Stuart and Denison. Even Westminster returned a Conservative (Captain Rous) in place of the Radical Sir De Lacy Evans; and O'Connell, the "Member for all Ireland," was defeated by Tories in the Irish capital. When all the returns had been made, it was evident that Ministers would be in a minority of 76.

Worse was to come. Lord Howick was

Mr. Lefevre was unanimously re-elected Speaker. The Queen's speechdelivered, for the first time since her accession, by proxy-was almost controversial; not only commending to the attention of Parliament the laws affecting food, but suggesting reasons for their amendment. The Opposition preserved a respectful silence on this singular characteristic; but carried amendments to the Address-in the Lords by a majority of 72, in the Commons by 91-declaring that Parliament had no confidence in her Majesty's Ministers. The Queen replied that she would take immediate steps for the formation of another Ministry.

It was in this debate that Richard Cobden made his first speech in Parliament. The son of a Sussex farmer, he had become, while yet a young man, partner in a Manchester calico-printing firm; was conspicuous in the movements of the Anti-corn-law League; and had been returned for the borough of Stockport. He now stood up, on the 25th of August, 1841, to tell precisely the tale he had been sent to Parliament to tell. He intended, he said, to support the Address, because he stood there, not as a party man, but as a simple Free-trader; and the Address expressed hostility to the taxes on food. Those taxes were paid chiefly by the hard-working classes; for while the nobleman paid but a halfpenny in every hundred pounds of his income as a bread-tax, the man earning ten shillings a-week paid twenty per cent. Honourable gentlemen laughed at this—and he repeated it. He told them, further, that a Conference of the Ministers of Religion, 650 in number, of all denominations, had just been held in Manchester; that they had narrated to each other the social deterioration of their flocksthe abandonment of religious and educational institutions—and the misery they witnessed among the poor; that they had adopted a petition for the abolition of the bread-tax; and that they, and 1,500 other ministers, had agreed to pray every Sunday from their pulpits, that God would turn the hearts of the rulers of England to do justice. Some honourable gentlemen laughed again-most of them were half amused and half offended at this unusual style of speech, and tried to put the speaker down; but they were mistaken in their man-Richard Cobden was, from that time, a personal power in the House, and the type of a vast impersonal power in the country.

The new Ministry was quickly formed. There was no difficulty this

time about the Court ladies: the parting with their royal mistress, it is said, was a very affecting scene. Sir Robert Peel was, of course, First Lord of the Treasury. It was hoped he would also be Chancellor of the Exchequer, but that office he confided to Mr. Goulburn. The Duke of Wellington had a seat in the Cabinet; but held no office. Lyndhurst was once more Lord Chancellor. Aberdeen, Stanley, and Graham, were respectively Foreign, Colonial, and Home Secretary. Lord Wharncliffe was President of the Council; the Earl of Haddington, First Lord of the Admiralty; Lord Ellenborough, President of the Board of Control; and Earl Ripon, of the Board of Trade. Surprise and regret were felt that places were found for the Tory Duke of Buckingham, Sir H. Hardinge, and Sir E. Knatchbull. Among the non-Cabinet Ministers were three men of promise-Lord Lincoln, Mr. W. E. Gladstone, and the Hon. Sidney Herbert. Sir F. Pollock was Attorney, and Sir W. Follett, Solicitor-General. The Ministers who were members of the lower House were re-elected without the loss of a single seat.-In the middle of October, the Premier announced that he should reserve his measures for replenishing the finances and relieving the distress of the country, until the next session. The late Ministers objected to this course in a spirit which laid them open to severe retorts. Mr. Cobden spoke of another bad harvest, of 3,000 uninhabited houses in Stockport, hundreds unable to pay poor-rates, bankruptcy and distress everywhere, and demanded immediate relaxation of the corn duties. Mr. Fielden moved for withholding the £2,500,000 asked for as an instalment of supply, until after inquiry into the state of the country. In these discussions, the operation of the Poor-laws was mixed up with that of the Corn-laws; the term for which the Commissioners were originally appointed having expired. Mr. Ferrand now made his appearance, assailing the Poor-law and the manufacturers with more than O'Connell's recklessness of assertion and violence of vituperation. But Sir Robert had a word for all-it was not he who had brought the country into this condition; it was because he felt the solemn responsibility of his position he would not act without deliberation; particular allegations of distress should be inquired into, and relieved where necessary and possible;-so the £2,500,000 was voted, the Commissioners' term of office renewed, and the session closed on the 10th of November.-The League burst immediately into ubiquitous activity. Aggregate, district, and trade meetings were held; more lecturers sent forth, and more tracts distributed; £9,000 was raised by a Bazaar at Manchester; another Conference of Ministers assembled at Edinburgh; and a third Convention fixed to meet in London at the re-opening of Parliament.

The first indication of the Premier's intentions was given, near the end of January [1842], by the secession of the Duke of Buckingham from the Cabinet. The Queen's speech confirmed the expectation thus excited by

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