The "Great Eastern" was designed by Mr. Isambard K. Brunel, and built by Mr. Scott Russell of Millwall, at a cost of 732,000. Her keel was laid in May 1854 and she was launched on January 31, 1858. Her length was 692 feet; width between bulwarks, 83 feet; height, 60 feet; tonnage, 22,500; displacement when loaded, 27,384 tons; horse-power, 11,000. 30,000 wrought-iron plates were used in her hulk. She was built on the "cellular" principle, with two skins 2 feet apart, and driven by both paddle wheels and screw. As a pa.s.senger steamer she did not succeed; but she laid the first successful Atlantic cable (1866) and picked up and repaired the earlier one which had parted in mid-ocean. She was afterwards purchased for public exhibition and finally broken up in 1891.]

[Sidenote: Peel and Repeal.]

[Sidenote: Rupture of the Tory Party.]

The immediate effect of Russell's conversion, coming on the top of alarming news from Ireland, was to send Peel forward on a course he had been contemplating for years. He read a memorandum to the Cabinet on December 2 recommending that Parliament should be summoned early in January, and that he should submit a Bill for the practical and immediate repeal of the Corn Laws. Lord Stanley and the Duke of Buccleuch refused their support to this policy. The Duke of Wellington said he was still in favour of maintaining the Corn Laws, but that if Peel considered that their repeal was necessary for the maintenance of his position "in Parliament and in the public view," he would support the measure. The Cabinet adjourned till next day. By some accident--it was said that a lady was the means of it--the _Times_ became possessed of the secret, and on December 4 the startling announcement appeared in its columns that the Cabinet had resolved on the Repeal of the Corn Laws. The only modern parallel to the consternation ensuing in the clubs and the country may be found in that which took place when, in 1886, it was made known that Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet had decided to give Home Rule to Ireland. Many refused to believe the statement in the _Times_, alleging that it was impossible that a Cabinet secret could have leaked out in this way. The _Standard_ published an emphatic, though not authoritative, contradiction of the story. Excitement and dismay, delight and disgust, contended for mastery wheresoever a few men gathered together: in a few days all was known. Lord Stanley--the "Rupert of debate," as Disraeli afterwards called him--and the Duke of Buccleuch resigned their seats in the Cabinet. Peel would not consent to proceed without the unanimous consent of his colleagues; on December 5 he went to Osborne and tendered his resignation to the Queen. Lord John Russell was at once sent for to form a Ministry: he attempted to do so, but failed: Lord Grey's distrust of Lord Palmerston's foreign policy proving a fatal obstacle to it. Peel, on being required to do so by the Queen, withdrew his resignation and resumed the duties of office. The Duke of Buccleuch returned as Privy Seal, but Lord Stanley was not to be reconciled, and Mr. Gladstone entered the Cabinet for the first time as Colonial Secretary.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _J. Doyle_ ("_H. B._").} {_Political Sketches._

A CONTRAST BETWEEN THE CARES OF OFFICE AND THE EASE OF OPPOSITION.

Lord Aberdeen. Lord Palmerston.]

[Sidenote: The Corn Duties repealed.]

Parliament met on January 22, 1846. Expectation was at the boiling point; it was one of those rare occasions, happening not more than once or twice in an ordinary reign, when the ears of the whole country await an announcement of interest to every cla.s.s in it. Adopting an unusual, almost unprecedented, course, the Prime Minister rose immediately after the speeches of the mover and seconder of the Address: he entered into no details of the measure foreshadowed in the Queen's Speech, but he removed all shadow of doubt that the Ministry had resolved on the total repeal of the corn duties. Those who know the ways of the House of Commons will best understand the significance of a comment made by one who was present. "He did not get a solitary cheer from the people behind him except when he said that Stanley had always been against him ... and then the whole of those benches rung with cheers." Perhaps nothing in his speech gave deeper offence to his Party than the concluding sentence, in which he declared that he found it "no easy task to ensure the harmonious and united action of an ancient monarchy, a proud aristocracy, and a reformed House of Commons."

[Ill.u.s.tration: _J. Doyle._ ("_H. B._").} {_Political Sketches, 1846._

AN AWKWARD SITUATION.

The Irish Famine of 1845 caused Sir Robert Peel to embrace the principle of Free Trade; and his party, incensed at what they considered his "treason," rejected his Coercion Bill, and brought about the fall of his ministry.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE GROWTH OF MAIL STEAMERS REPRESENTED BY THE CUNARD LINE FLEET FROM 1840 TO THE PRESENT DAY.

The year 1838 was the starting point of Atlantic Ocean racing. In that year the _Great Western_ and the _Sirius_ crossed in 18 days and 15 days respectively. The first Cunarder, the _Britannia_, appeared in 1840, and made the westward pa.s.sage in 14 days. The following year she crossed eastward in 10 days. In 1851 the record was reduced to 9 days 18 hours westward by the _Baltic_, and 9 days 20 hours 16 min. eastward by the _Pacific_. In 1863 the _Scotia_, of the Cunard line, crossed eastward in 8 days 3 hours, and in the following year returned in 8 days 15 hours 45 min. Five years later the _City of Brussels_, of the Inman Line, travelled between New York and Liverpool in 7 days 22 hours 3 min., but the _Baltic_, of the White Star Line, lowered this by 2 hours four years later. The _Arizona_ and _Alaska_ improved the speed between 1880 and 1885, the latter making the pa.s.sage eastward in 6 days 22 hours. The ill-fated _Oregon_ came eastward in 6 days 11 hours 9 min. in 1884, while the _Etruria_ went westward in 6 days 1 hour 55 min. In 1889 the _City of Paris_ lowered the eastward and westward journeys to 5 days 22 hours 50 min., and 5 days 19 hours 18 min., respectively, while two years later the _Teutonic_ reduced this still further by 3 hours each way. Finally the _Campania_ and _Lucania_ appeared in 1893, the latter establishing the record eastwards of 5 days 8 hours 38 min. and westwards of 5 days 7 hours 23 min. Mails have been carried per the _Lucania_ between New York Post Office and the London Central Office in 1567 hours.]

The spokesman of the angry Tories was one of whom much was to be heard in coming years. Benjamin Disraeli had done nothing as yet to redeem the apparently hopeless failure of his maiden speech in 1837. Outwardly, a remarkable figure enough, in a Parliamentary sense he was no more than obscure when he rose from his seat on the Government benches to lead the first attack on the new policy. He was bitter, he was personal, but he was adroitly opportune; and his fame as a statesman dates from that day.

[Sidenote: Defeat and Resignation of the Government.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _G. F. Watts, R.A._} {_In the National Portrait Gallery._

THE SEVENTH EARL OF SHAFTESBURY,

1801-1885.

The Rt. Hon. Anthony Ashley-Cooper entered Parliament, as M.P. for Woodstock, in 1826. He was then known as Lord Ashley. In 1842 he secured the exclusion of women and children from mines, and in 1844 the pa.s.sing of the Ten Hours Bill. He succeeded to the Earldom in 1851. His life was devoted to practical philanthropy.]

The immediate result was a split--a secession. The House of Commons ratified Peel's policy by a majority of ninety-seven, but Disraeli himself has put on record the feelings which animated Peel's ancient supporters. "Vengeance had succeeded in most b.r.e.a.s.t.s to the more sanguine sentiment: the field was lost, but at any rate there should be retribution for those who had betrayed it."

The opportunity for vengeance was not long delayed. The Corn Bill left the House of Commons on May 15. On June 25 it pa.s.sed the third reading in the House of Lords, and the most momentous measure of Queen Victoria's reign awaited only the Royal a.s.sent to complete it. On that very night the House of Commons were to divide on one of those Bills conferring extraordinary powers on the Executive in Ireland which it has been the fate of successive Governments to introduce--Coercion Bills, as they are called for short. The Protectionists perceived what lay in their power: if they threw their weight in with the regular Opposition and O'Connell's Irish Catholics, they could defeat their lost leader.

About eighty of them did so: the rest stayed away and Ministers were left in a minority of seventy-three.

Peel resigned: "he had lost a party but won a nation." He never returned to office, but, though he did not live to see it, the principles for which he fought and fell became those of the Conservative party.

[Sidenote: Review of Peel's Administration.]

During the five years of his last Administration he had restored equilibrium to the national finances. He turned the deficit of two millions to which he succeeded to a surplus of five millions in 1845. He carried the grant to the Roman Catholic College of Maynooth against the votes of half his own party, though it cost him the loss of his colleague, Mr. W. E. Gladstone. Mr. Gladstone himself lived to abolish the grant, for it was he who ruled the whirlwind that swept away the Irish State Church in 1866, and the Maynooth grants disappeared with it.

Peel's Administration must also be credited with a marked advance in legislation for the working cla.s.ses. Lord Ashley (better known in later years as Earl of Shaftesbury) had obtained the appointment of a Commission to inquire into the employment of women in collieries: the horrible evils thereby brought to light, the infamous degradation of women and girls, harnessed like beasts of draught with a girdle round their waist--unclothed, unwashed, and sometimes hopelessly crippled--deeply moved the public mind, and the Act of 1842, prohibiting the employment of females in mines, pa.s.sed almost without opposition.

More prolonged was the resistance to the Factory Act of 1844, regulating the hours of labour of youthful persons. This beneficent legislation should not be overlooked in the glare of conflict over the Corn Laws.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Sir E. Landseer, R.A._} {_In the Royal Collection (by permission of Messrs. Graves)._

THE QUEEN, PRINCE CONSORT, AND PRINCESS ROYAL, AT WINDSOR CASTLE, 1843.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _F. Winterhalter._} {_In the Royal Collection._

HER MAJESTY RECEIVING KING LOUIS PHILIPPE AT WINDSOR CASTLE, October 8, 1844.

Louis Philippe was the first French Monarch who ever set foot in the British Islands on a visit of peace. The Prince Consort met him at Portsmouth and accompanied him to Windsor, where the Queen awaited him.

At the banquet "he talked to me," writes the Queen, "of the time when he was in a school in the Grisons, a teacher merely, receiving twenty pence a day, having to brush his own boots, and under the name of Chabot." On the following day he was installed Knight of the Garter. He left England on the 13th.]

CHAPTER IV.

1833-1849.

The Churches of England and Scotland--"Tracts for the Times"--Newman, Keble, and Pusey--"Ten Years' Conflict" in Scotland--Disruption of the Church--Dr. Chalmers--Rise of the Free Church--Affairs of British India--First Sikh War--Battles of Meeanee, Moodkee, Ferozeshah, Aliwal and Sobraon--Second Sikh War--Murder of Vans Agnew and Anderson--Battle of Ramnuggur--Siege and Fall of Mooltan--Battles of Chilianwalla and Goojerat--Annexation of the Punjab.

[Sidenote: The Churches of England and Scotland.]

The upheavals which took place simultaneously in the Established Churches of England and Scotland, during the early years of Victoria's reign, and so profoundly stirred religious sentiment in both countries, can scarcely have arisen from independent centres of disturbance, though the connection between them is not easy to trace. They were the outcome of an awaking from the condition of inactivity and routine into which both these Protestant Churches had pa.s.sed after the agitating events of the seventeenth century, and an attempt on the part of the more active intellects, both in clergy and people, to restore ecclesiastical authority and discipline.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _G. Richmond, R.A._} {_By permission of Mr. McLean._

JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, 1801-1890.

Cardinal-Deacon of the Church of Rome. Was the son of a London Banker.

Took orders in the Anglican Church in 1824; was appointed Inc.u.mbent of St. Mary's, Oxford, in 1828, and held that appointment until 1842. He seceded to the Church of Rome in 1845, and was created a Cardinal in 1879 by Leo XIII.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Miss Rosa Corder._} {_In the Pusey House, Oxford._

Dr. E. B. PUSEY, 1800-1882.

Regius Professor of Hebrew at Christ Church College, Oxford, 1828. He wrote several of the "Tracts for the Times." On the secession of Newman he became the virtual leader of the Tractarian movement.]

[Sidenote: "Tracts for the Times." Newman, Keble, and Pusey.]

The movement in England has been reckoned by the late Cardinal Newman, himself one of the leading spirits in it before his secession to Rome, as beginning with a sermon preached by John Keble in the University pulpit, Oxford, on July 14, 1833, afterwards published under the t.i.tle "National Apostasy." About the same time began the publication of "Tracts for the Times," conducted by a group of earnest, active men, including Newman, Keble, Pusey, and others, advocating a revival of High Church observances as a means of quickening spiritual life and a restoration of the patristic doctrines and practice in Church government and services. From these tracts the movement became known as "Tractarian," till in 1841 their publication came to a sudden end by reason of the famous Tract No. 90, written by Newman, and deeply offensive to Protestant feeling in England. Newman joined the Church of Rome in 1845, and thereafter the term "Puseyite" was popularly used to designate this party.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _G. Richmond, R.A._}