sirdar’s troops. Cabbot Abbot, the political agent in the Hazareh,
joined Lieutenant Nicholson, and their position was very precarious.
Major Lawrence, whose comprehensive mind was prepared for every
emergency, had troops moved to their assistance from Peshawur and
Jullundur. The revolt, however, spread in every direction. Peshawur was
begirt, with disciplined and fanatical enemies, and at last, early in
November, Major Lawrence and family had to fly for their lives from that
place, the troops in the garrison having mutinied on the approach of
Chuttur Singh and his army. Major and Mrs. Lawrence, with Lieutenant
Bowie, found refuge at Kohat, under the protection of Mahomed Khan.
Mahomed, either through fear or treachery, or both, gave them up as
prisoners to Chuttur Singh. The sirdar treated them with kindness, and
frequently conversed with them on the prospects of restoring the Sikh
ascendancy in the Punjaub; nor were the dissuasions of Major Lawrence of
any effect, for Chuttur believed in the Khâlsa confederacy.

On the 18th of December, when Shere Singh was at the head of a numerous
force, Major Lawrence was brought to his camp with the object of using
him for negotiations with the governor-general. It is necessary, in
order to preserve the collateral relation of events, to return to the
army of Whish before the besieged city.

SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF MOOLTAN.

General Whish pressed his operations against Mooltan with skill and
energy. He was ably aided by Edwardes, Courtlandt, Brigadier-general
Markham, and other officers. During the first ten days of September
skirmishes were frequent, and some of these were sharp and spirited. On
the 12th Whish determined to attack certain posts, the capture of which
was essential to the execution of his plans. The enenry had established
an extensive and formidable outpost in a village and garden near the
walls. To capture this a body of the besiegers, numbering two thousand
five hundred, were told off. They began the attack at break of day,
under the command of Brigadier-general Harvey. The contest was very
severe, but ended in the accomplishment of General Whish’s design. The
slaughter of the Mooltanese was signal, and the heroism of the European
regiments extraordinary. The loss on the part of the British was heavy.
Major Montazambert, of the 10th foot, Colonel Pattoun, of the 32nd,
Quartermaster Taylor, also of that regiment, were the officers of the
royal regiments which fell. Lieutenant Cubit and Ensign Lloyd, of the
Company’s service, also fell. The latter officer was treacherously
cut down while parleying with the enemy. The 10th regiment fought
desperately, making havoc of the Mooltanese with the bayonet.

The next day the besieged made a sortie against the camp of Lieutenant
Edwardes, but were beaten back, the pursuit issuing in the capture of
another important outpost. The defence had arrived at its crisis, but
Sikh treachery averted from the city the impending blow. On the morn-,
ing of the 14th, Shere Singh, with the whole of the Lahore troops,
five thousand in number, went over to the enemy. This event, at
once lessening the army of the besiegers, and increasing that of the
besieged, made their relative numbers so disproportionate, that the
siege was raised, the army withdrawing to a position a few miles
distant, where they intrenched. Soon after the British took up this
position, Shere Singh left Mooltan and marched along the banks of the
Chenab, forming a junction with Chuttur Singh, which placed the former
at the head of thirty thousand men. It became necessary for another
British army to encounter this enemy, while Whish and his troops could
do nothing against Mooltan until strongly reinforced. On the 21st
of December, a strong division of the Bombay army arrived at General
Whish’s camp, and thus strengthened, the general resolved upon active
operations. His army now numbered about seventeen thousand Sikhs,
Beloochees, Affghans, and other contingents, about fifteen thousand
more Queen’s and Company’s troops, and one hundred and fifty pieces
of cannon. On the 27th General Whish resolved upon a grand attack, and
moved his army forward in four columns. The enemy falling back from
their outposts, the British took a position in the suburbs within
five hundred yards of the walls. That day and night batteries were
constructed on all appropriate points, and early on the 28th a terrible
bombardment began. By the 29th, the works were carried forward to within
eighty yards of the place, breaches began to be effected, the granary
was fired, and the batteries and buildings of the enemy suffered much
under the heavy cannonade of the besiegers. On the 30th a shell blew up
the principal magazine of the city. The shock was felt for two miles,
and the camp of the besiegers literally rocked above the convulsive
throes of the earth. The magazine contained sixteen thousand pounds
of powder. The explosion was instant; with one fierce crash and a
long-continued roar, the smoke and flame gushed upwards--one of the most
grandly terrible sights upon which human eye could look. Eight hundred
men perished, their charred limbs and whole carcasses were cast far
beyond. The houses of the chief persons, the public buildings and
temples, were shaken down by the vibrations; yet the walls of the fort
endured, and the bulk of the city was intact. A fire was communicated,
which raged through several streets, but was extinguished. It was
supposed that this event would lead to the surrender of the place, but
next day Moolraj sent word to General Whish that he had still powder
enough for a twelvemonth’s siege, and that he would hold out while one
stone remained upon another. This was supposed to be mere bravado, and a
summon was sent to surrender. Moolraj, with perfect _sang froid_, rammed
the letter down one of the longest guns, and fired it at the British.
During the following night a distinct breach was effected in the Delhi
gate of the city, and the next day another at the Bohan gate. The fire
of the besiegers was plied hotly for the two following days and nights,
the city blazing like a hell, amidst the crash of falling buildings, and
the outcry of wounded women and children. On the 81st the Sikhs made
a sortie from the south-west gate against the camp of Edwardes. That
officer, ever vigilant, and ably seconded by the engineer officer,
Lieutenant Lake, repulsed the sortie, inflicting heavy loss. The
cannonade continued for fifty-six hours longer, and on the 2nd of
January the assault was made. The Bengal and Bombay divisions were
formed into separate columns, and precipitated upon the two breaches.
These columns moved forward with great daring and under a heavy fire.
The Bengal column found the breach impracticable, with an open drop in
front, and strong defences in the rear. While the Bengal Sepoys were
obstructed by obstacles which they could not surmount, the Bombay column
gained an entrance. The sergeant-major of the Bombay Fusileers boldly
planted the British flag above the breach. The Bengal column turned
and followed their more fortunate comrades of the other presidency. The
enemy resisted at every step, receding only before superior force,
and it was not until the sun went down over the blackened ruins and
blood-stained streets of Mooltan that the city was completely in the
hands of the conquerors. The troops of Moolraj retreated to the citadel,
which was a place of surpassing strength, and could only be taken by
regular approaches. Parallels were opened, and a fierce cannonade was
directed against it on the 4th; but it was not until the 18th that
any decided impression was made. By that date the intrenchments were
carried up to the very walls, but such was their extraordinary strength
that they were proof against artillery--at all events, any artillery of
the calibre possessed by the besiegers. Whish resolved to effect their
destruction by mines. On the 18th three mines were exploded, and the
counterscarp was blown into the ditch. A shaft was then sunk under the
trench, and a gallery cut towards the wall. At the same time a battery
was placed on a level higher than the citadel itself; another carrying
eighteen and twenty-four pounders was placed close up to the wall.
From this battery the most extraordinary cannonade and bombardment was
conducted. Eight-inch howitzers discharged live shells into the wall,
which buried themselves in the mud and brickwork of which it was built,
and, exploding, tore away large portions. On the 19th the sap reached
the crest of the glacis, and on the 21st the engineer officer in charge
announced that there were two practicable breaches. General Whish gave
prompt orders for the storm on the following morning. Moolraj had been
seriously alarmed during the progress of the works for the few days
previous, and repeatedly offered to surrender if his life would
be spared. The answer returned informed him that no terms but an
unconditional surrender would be conceded. On the 22nd, the British
columns were forming for the assault, when the garrison hauled down its
flag, and Moolraj surrendered at discretion.

The scenes which followed were at once picturesque and painful. The
discomfited troops marched forth as prisoners of war. First came a few
hundreds of the most miserable, dispirited looking men, ill clothed,
and wan with fatigue. These were fanatics who had under a vow devoted
themselves to especial peril and labour in the defence, and as is so
frequently the case with men under the influence of fanaticism, defeat
brings reaction in the form of despair. A column of about three thousand
five hundred soldiery, stern looking men, next came. With such troops
it was no wonder that Moolraj made so glorious a defence. This splendid
body of men laid down their arms with reluctance, and looked back upon
the breaches as if they fain would return and die there, with their arms
in their hands. The body-guard of Moolraj followed, a splendid body of
soldiers, whose equipment in arms and uniform was superb. The chiefs,
friends, and family of the governor next came. They were deeply
dejected, and uttered words of expressive anguish and shame. Moolraj
himself was the last man of the Khalsa host who left the citadel. He
was gorgeously appareled in silks, and decorations expressive of
Khalsa religious or military associations. He wore jewels, carried arms
superbly ornamented and of superior make, and rode a beautiful Arab
charger, covered with a scarlet saddle-cloth, with gilt or golden
trappings. His personal appearance was impressive, his countenance manly
and well formed, with quick, fiery, expressive eyes. Above the middle
height, his form was strong, muscular, and yet elegant. His bearing
was manly and gallant; there was no assumed or insolent defiance, no
fanatical contempt expressed by it, nor did he allow dejection to betray
itself. He and his followers became prisoners of war, and were placed
at the disposal of the governor-general. It was alleged that the
British army was guilty of plunder, and that officers of engineers were
discovered appropriating to themselves prizes, which belonged either to
the custody of the prize agents, or were sacred as private property. It
would appear that these allegations were circulated by certain agents of
persons in England having interests adverse to the Honourable East India
Company, and were utterly unfounded. Lord Ellenborough, more than eight
years afterwards, confuted the calumny.

Mooltan, and the territory of which it was the capital, was now
completely subjugated, and our ally, the khan, returned to his own
province a wiser if not a better man, his further services being
confined to the maintenance of peace in his own territory, and to the
exercise of a certain degree of vigilance in reference to surrounding
provinces. The fall of Mooltan was received over all British India and
the neighbouring independent states as one of the grandest events in
Indian history, and filled the petty chieftains with awe, while it
excited exultation in the presidencies. Far different were the feelings
created in the minds of the Sikh soldiery and people; they were
exasperated, and determined to hazard all upon a single throw. To avenge
past disasters, and expel the British from the country of the five
rivers became the passionate purpose and ambition of chieftain and
soldier, and everywhere desultory bands made war, as they pressed onward
to join the great chiefs, Shere Singh and Chuttur Singh who were now at
the head of a powerful army.

CAMPAIGN IN THE PUNJAUB UNDER LORD GOUGH.

It has been already related that Shere Singh quitted Mooltan with a
strong division of Khalsa troops, on the 9th of October, and formed a
junction with Chuttur Singh.

The latter returned to the territory of Hazareh, leaving the bulk of
his forces under the command of Shere Singh, who was gradually joined by
other chiefs and sirdars, whose followers augmented his army,--that army
consisted of men inured to combat, the flower of the Sikh nation. Lord
Gough, the commander-in-chief of the army in India, was ordered to
assemble an army at Ferozepore, and act against Shere Singh, and, in
fact, reconquer the Punjaub. Bombay and other troops were ordered to
join the army collecting at Ferozopore, and the victorious troops
of Whish, Courtlandt, and Edwardes were ordered to follow and form a
junction with the grand army. These troops did not join as soon as Lord
Gough expected, and the Bombay division, under the Hon. Major-general
Dundas, was so dilatory as to evoke from the good-natured
general-in-chief a most stinging rebuke. The major-general was urged
by despatches to advance with all possible celerity, but he expressed
himself as not perceiving the necessity of such speed. “Tell him,” said
the gallant commander, “to stay with the native troops if he likes, but
to send on the Europeans!”

Before, however, the army which had acted before Mooltan could render
any assistance to Lord Gough, months before that city had fallen, events
gathered within the Punjaub in gloomy and rapid association. It was on
the 21st of November before General Gough assumed the active command of
the army at Seharun, a central position. The river Chenab is the central
one of the five rivers which give name to the district, and the theatre
of conflict was midway between the Chenab and its confluence with the
Indus. On the left bank of the former, about a mile and a half from the
river, the town of Rumnugger was situated: there Shere Singh had taken
up his quarters. Opposite that town the river bends, and there was an
island in mid-channel; this island was about two acres in area. The main
force of Shere Singh was posted on the right bank of the river, but a
strong brigade of four thousand men occupied the island, and erected
batteries. These batteries commanded the only available ford, or
“nullah,” as it is called in the vocabulary of the country. The opposite
town of Rumnugger was favourably situated for defence; it was flanked
by a grove, and by the bend in the river. This position Shere Singh had
skilfully fortified. On the 22nd, at two o’clock in the morning, Lord
Gough approached the enemy. While the right bank and the island were
occupied by the chief forces of the sirdar, he had a strong body also
posted on the left bank, and it became the first object of Lord Gough
to dislodge them. Between the island and the right bank the passage
was effected by boats, so that the enemy was able to preserve his
communications with tolerable certainty and ease. The nullah or ford
was not difficult, although the descent to it from the left bank of the
river was steep. It was directly commanded by the guns on the island,
and was exposed to a raking cross-fire on either side from batteries
placed on the right bank. The 8th light cavalry (Company’s service)
advanced along the left bank, skirmishing, supported by her majesty’s
3rd Light Dragoons. The horse artillery pushed into the deep sand on the
margin of the river, and commanded the batteries at Rumnugger, but were
obliged to retire before their superior metal, leaving behind one gun
and two ammunition waggons embedded in the sand. The enemy took skilful
and immediate advantage of this reverse, and pushed over a powerful
cavalry division. Orders were given to charge them, and the 14th
(Queen’s) Light Dragoons, and the 3rd light horse of the Company’s army,
in spite of overwhelming numbers and of imperfect supports, cut through
the enemy and dashed after them into the nullah. The passage was
familiar to the latter, who made good their retreat to the island; the
latter were of course ignorant of the ground, and were impeded in their
pursuit by that circumstance, had none other obstructed them. As soon as
the Sikh cavalry cleared the ford, the batteries of the island and the
flanking batteries on the right bank opened with deadly effect. How any
British officer could have been so imprudent as to give the order to
charge into the nullah is almost inconceivable; that the error was not
evident, while the brave men were being mowed down by an artillery fire,
which they could do nothing to silence, is still more marvellous; such,
however, was the case. Colonel Havelock dashed into the ford at the head
of the 14th Light Dragoons, but was never seen again. A native trooper
supposed he saw him in the nullah soon after he entered it, unhorsed,
and several Sikh soldiers “hacking his person.” After much useless
slaughter was thus incurred by Havelock’s gallant brigade, Major-general
Cureton rode up with an order from Lord Gough for the troops to retire.
He had scarcely given the order when he fell dead from two shots, by
which he was instantaneously struck. The troops retired with a loss, in
every corps engaged, of officers and men. Lord Gough considered the
end attained in driving the enemy from the left bank was worth the
sacrifice. The death of General Cureton was severely felt by the army,
and was in some degree irreparable. He had risen from the ranks by his
superior soldiership, and was deemed one of the best, perhaps the best,
officer for outpost duty then in India.

On the 30th of November Lieutenant-general Thackwell was ordered to
cross the Chenab above Rumnugger, where an indifferent ford had been
discovered, and where Captain Nicholson had provided boats. Thackwell
was to take the Sikhs in the flank and rear, while Lord Gough observed
them from his old position, ready to take advantage of any favourable
opportunity for attack which the manouvre of General Thackwell might
create. That gallant and skilful officer performed well the part
assigned to him. He gained the right bank of the river; but Shere Singh
was also a skilful commander, and did not allow Thackwell even to
menace his rear or flank, for he detached a strong force to attack the
intruder, as soon as he saw that the river had been forded. It was the
3rd of December before Thackwell secured the passage, and on the fourth
he began his march along the right bank towards the lines at Rumnugger.
He soon discovered that a strong body of Sikhs were marching in a
north-west direction. They threatened his flank with cavalry, and
cannonaded him severely. Thackwell’s orders did not allow of his taking
any measure for attack, and the enemy drew off after a sharp and heavy
cannonade. As soon as this officer’s artillery was allowed to open upon
them, they marched towards the Jhelum. Perhaps the enemy were decided
in abandoning their strong positions, not only from fear of their left
flank being turned by General Thackwell, but also by the energetic
proceedings of Lord Gough, after the force detached to observe Thackwell
had departed. Lord Gough opened a heavy cannonade upon the island, and
upon the batteries on the right bank of the Chenab. On the morning of
the 3rd a brigade of infantry, under Brigadier Godby, passed by a ford
not far from Rumnugger, his passage being covered by the approach of
General Thackwell, who had by that time been advancing from the passage
at Wuzerabad. Shortly after, the 9th Lancers and 14th Light Dragoons,
under General Gilbert, were ordered to cross the river, and harass as
much as possible the retreating enemy. The British generals seem to have
believed that the Khalsa army would abandon their chiefs and disperse
to their homes, and this impression influenced their proceedings; for
although Gilbert with his cavalry followed the enemy briskly, there
was not that celerity in the movements of the British which actual
circumstances demanded.

On the 28th of December Lord Gough, with his whole army, crossed the
river and encamped. The right bank was now clear of the enemy, Shere
Singh having followed the previous division of his army to the Jhelum,
where he ultimately took post in the formidable position of Russool,
with a force which was augmented to forty thousand men, and a powerful
artillery, estimated variously from sixty-two to ninety guns.

While these events were passing, Chuttur Singh, who, as before noticed,
had retired to his own province, pressed the fort of Attock, which had
been long and gallantly maintained by Major Herbert. When it fell the
major contrived to send tidings to Lord Gough, and to warn him that
Chuttur Singh had repaired with his army to the upper Jhelum, to form a
junction with the army of Shere Singh. Lord Gough determined at once
to follow the Sikh forces, and bring them to a decisive action. On the
morning of the 12th of January he marched from Loah Tibbah to Dingee.
The sirdar was represented by the British commander-in-chief in his
despatch as holding with his right the village of Lukhneewalla and
Futteh Shah-ke-Chuck, having the great body of his force at the village
of Lollianwalla, with his left at Eussool, on the Jhelum. This position
lay on the southern extremity of a low range of hills, intersected by
ravines, and difficult of access to assailants. The post was well chosen
by the sirdar, who showed a subtle generalship throughout the war. The
information furnished by Lord Gough’s spies was not always faithful, and
his lordship, therefore, was not accurately in possession of the forces
of the sirdar, nor of the topographical peculiarities of his position.
The British commander directed his march upon the village of Bussool,
and there reconnoitred.

The advance to the ground chosen by the sirdar was impeded by a jungle,
to avoid which, and to distract the enemy’s attention, Lord Gough took
a considerable _détour_ to the right. He succeeded in avoiding the
intricacies of the jungle, but not in distracting the attention of
Shere Singh. That general moved from his encampment, and took ground in
advance, a manouvre calculated to hide the strength of his position, and
to disconcert any previous arrangements of the British commander.

About noon on the 13th, Lord Gough was before the village of Bussool,
and finding a very strong picket of the enemy on a mound close to that
place, his lordship, after some fighting, dislodged it. Ascending the
mound, the general and his staff beheld the Khalsa army ranged along the
furrowed hills in all the majestic array of war. The British officers
gazed with admiration and professional ardour upon the long lines of
compact infantry and the well-marshalled cavalry, mustered in their
relative proportions and positions with scientific exactness. The
sirdar’s batteries were chiefly masked by jungle. The scene was striking
in its aspect, from the magnitude of the events associated with it, and
the excitement it stirred up within the hearts of the brave. Alas, how
many noble hearts were necessarily to bleed before victory crowned the
arms of England, and that fine Khalsa army succumbed to the destiny of
England’s Asiatic foes!

Lord Gough found that he could not turn the flanks of the sirdar’s
army, they were so protected by jungle, unless he detached a portion of
his army to a considerable distance, which he deemed unsafe. The day
was too far advanced to begin any operations. The engineer officers were
ordered to examine the country in front, and the quartermaster-general
was about to take up ground for the encampment, when the enemy advanced
some horse artillery, and opened a fire upon the skirmishers in front
of Bussool. Lord Gough ordered his heavy guns to open upon the enemy’s
artillery, and for this purpose they were advanced to an open space
in front of the village. Shere Singh did not act with his usual good
strategy, in exposing the positions of so many of his cannon, which
the jungle had concealed, and which might have remained hidden until
an attack upon his line would have afforded him opportunity to use them
with sudden and terrible advantage, as he afterwards was enabled to use
those on his right. As it was, he replied to the British cannonade with
such a powerful field-artillery as constrained Lord Gough to draw up
in order of battle, lest in the night the sirdar’s guns should be moved
still more forward, and open on his camp. His lordship, keeping the
heavy guns on his centre, placed Sir Walter Gilbert’s division on his
right, flanked by Brigadier Pope’s brigade of cavalry, strengthened by
her majesty’s 14th Light Dragoons, and three troops of horse artillery,
under Colonel Grant. This arrangement was necessitated by the large
force of cavalry observed upon the enemy’s left. On the left of the
British line, Brigadier-general Campbell’s division was formed, flanked
by Brigadier White’s cavalry, and three troops of horse artillery under
Colonel Brind.

The demonstrations of the enemy were such that, late as was the hour,
and weary as the troops were with marching, Lord Gough determined to
attack at once. His lordship’s critics, influenced by the events
which followed, have severely censured him for attacking under such
circumstances, more especially as the ground was unknown to his
lordship. It was true that sufficient time had not been obtained to
reconnoitre the enemy’s positions, but it was not correct to allege
that Lord Gough was entirely unacquainted with the ground, as he had
previously known it, especially the country to the left of the enemy. It
was generally supposed by his lordship’s censors that the attack was a
wanton waste of life, and arose from the brave, rash, and unreflecting
temperament of the general, and the irritation caused by the sudden and
severe artillery fire opened upon him. On the other hand, the Duke of
Wellington declared that he would, in Lord Gough’s place, have acted as
he had done; and so full of confidence were the Sikhs in their numbers
and resolution, that had not the general given battle, he would have
been obliged to defend himself from a desperate night attack under
circumstances far less favourable. There can be no doubt, on the part of
any who know the noble old soldier, that he acted from his sense of duty
to his army and his country, and not from personal irritation.

The battle began, or, it may be said, was resumed, by a heavy cannonade
which lasted for more than an hour when Lord Gough ordered his left to
advance, making a flank movement. In executing this manouvre, the troops
exposed their own flank to a galling fire from heavy guns, the positions
of which had remained covered by jungle, and the Sikh batteries were so
placed as to pour a most destructive cross-fire upon the British. When
the 3rd and 4th brigades reached the enemy’s guns, they were received by
a cannonade so overwhelming that they were obliged to retire. As soon
as it was known that these two brigades were engaged, the 5th, under
Brigadier Mountain, was ordered to storm the centre. They were received
with round-shot the moment they moved; with grape and canister as they
advanced through the jungle; and, finally, with musketry within close
and deadly range. Many of the Sikh soldiers, at the cost of their own
life, advanced and shot down the British officers. Brigadier Mountain
had distinguished himself in China, and had the entire confidence of
Lord Gough, under whom he had served there. Under his able guidance, the
British stormed the batteries and spiked the guns, under a flank fire
from other guns which they also spiked, while the enemy, without
giving way, poured upon them musket balls thick as hail. Detachments of
musketeers took them on each flank, and some getting to their rear
among the jungle, fired upon them with deadly aim. The British were
thus compelled to cut their way back to their own lines through hosts
of encircling foes. While this was going on upon the centre, Sir Walter
Gilbert advanced against the enemy’s left. That general occupied the
extreme right of his division, and Brigadier Godby the extreme left.
They marched through a dense jungle almost unmolested, and then were
confronted by infantry. Had the British at once charged with the
bayonet, the result might for them have been less sanguinary; they,
however, opened fire, and the Sikhs, more numerous, returned the fire
and outflanked them. Two companies of the 2nd (or Queen’s) British
regiment charged with the bayonet, but were surrounded. These gallant
and skilful soldiers immediately faced about, and after some file-firing
charged, rear-rank in front. At this critical moment, Deane’s battery
arrived, and drove back the enemy by the precision of their fire.
Several guns were here captured by the British. The heroism and losses
of the 2nd regiment were very great. While the infantry had thus been
engaged in close and deadly battle, the cavalry also were occupied both
on the left and right. On the former flank of the British, Brigadier
White’s brigade charged the enemy, covering the retreat of the infantry.
On the extreme right Brigadier Pope’s brigade, strengthened, as has been
already shown, by the temporary attachment of the 14th Light Dragoons of
the Queen’s army, was ordered to charge a body of the enemy’s cavalry,
the numbers of which were much superior. Instead of obeying the orders
given, they wheeled right about, and galloped off the field, breaking
through the artillery, upsetting artillerymen, drivers, and waggons in
their course, until they reached the field hospital. According to some
narrations of this transaction, the men galloped away under a mistake of
orders; other accounts represent this to have been impossible, because
their own officers and officers of the artillery endeavoured to stop
and rally them without success, except so far as a portion of the 9th
Lancers was concerned. The enemy was not slow to take advantage of
this extraordinary flight; they pursued--dashed in among the horse
artillery--cut down seventy-five gunners, and took six guns. The arrival
of artillery reserves, the rallying of a portion of the 9th Lancers, and
the steadiness of the infantry, prevented the destruction of the whole
right wing. The fresh artillery which came up opened upon the Sikh
cavalry with grape and canister, with such precision and fury that they
retreated. Two of the captured guns were recovered in the retreat. The
Sikhs gradually withdrew, leaving the field of battle in possession of
the British, who, on this account, claimed the victory. The enemy, in
the night, carried away all the guns which the British had spiked during
the action, the four pieces of horse artillery which they took on the
British right, and five stand of colours, and on these grounds also
claimed the victory; and a salute of twenty-one guns in honour of the
triumph was, as the English thought, most impudently fired. This was
also done at Attock, in the capital of Chuttur Singh, and wherever the
Sikh troops held a position. The Sikhs also claimed the victory for the
same reason as the English did--being left in possession of the field.
It was, in truth, a drawn battle. The Sikhs having began the engagement,
and the English having retained the ground on which they fought, while
the former retired their line, the battle may more correctly be said to
have been won by the British; but the advantages gained were altogether
on the part of the Sikhs, who continued to occupy for a month positions
from which the British did not attempt to dislodge them. During that
time Lord Gough waited for reinforcements, and felt the tardy arrival of
some of the troops whose presence had been detained before Mooltan, as
has already been shown.

The loss sustained by the Sikhs it is impossible to calculate; according
to themselves it was much less than that of the English; and this is
credible when the strength of their position is considered, and the
losses to which the unaccountable flight of Pope’s brigade exposed the
British light. The English loss, according to the official returns,
was three thousand men in killed and wounded, nearly one-third of whom
belonged to the former class; this, however, did not comprehend all
the slain, for many were so horribly wounded by the close discharge of
artillery that they died in a few days. The proportion of the wounded
who were hit mortally was beyond that which usually occurs in battle.
There were also many desertions of Sepoy soldiers to Shere Singh, but
more especially of Sikh soldiery under Lord Gough’s command.

The flight of the large body of cavalry under Brigadier Pope was the
subject of much investigation and of shame. The brigadier was too old
for the duties imposed upon him; he had no experience in war, and was
placed in the command from seniority. This gave occasion, in England,
to denounce the substitution of seniority for fitness, so common in the
British army. Unhappily, the officer himself who was so much concerned
in the responsibility of the event, and who had been much respected
by his brother officers and his commander, was placed beyond all human
accountability, for he fell in front of his fugitive soldiers. Colonel
King, of the 14th Light Dragoons, who succeeded Colonel Havelock, who
fell at Rumnugger, was also much censured. His defence was, that he
did his utmost to rally his men in vain; that they were generally
light small men, mounted upon light small horses; whereas the cavalry
immediately opposed to them were not only much more numerous, but
cuirassiers--powerful, heavy men, with long and superior swords, and
admirably mounted. The colonel complained of the bad manufacture of the
English weapons, which bent or broke against the swords and cuirasses of
the Sikh cavalry, When Sir Charles Napier arrived to command the forces
in India late in the spring, he inspected the 14th, and addressed them,
referring to the allegations of their colonel, and telling them that
they were fine, stalwart, broad-chested fellows, that would follow
anywhere that they were led. Colonel King took this so much to heart,
that he retired from the field of inspection and shot himself. Sir
William Napier (brother to Sir Charles) afterwards denied in the London
newspapers that his brother intended to cast any reflection upon Colonel
King. It was, however, generally believed in the army, that Sir Charles
levelled a censure at the unfortunate officer, whose sensitive honour
could not endure such a reflection from so high an authority. His
fate excited deep commisseration, and the address of Sir Charles was
disapproved of indignantly by the whole army.

The generalship of Lord Gough became the subject of anonymous criticism
in India, and open attack in England; but the brave and skilful general
proved at the subsequent battle of Goojerat that he knew how to gain
victory at as little cost of blood as it was possible for military
knowledge to ensure. The late drawn battle--if such it may be
called--was designated the battle of Chillianwallah, after a village in
the immediate neighbourhood of which the British had encamped. The Sikhs
know it as the battle of Russool, the more appropriate name to give it,
as it was in its vicinity the chief strength of the Sikh position was
found.

Leaving the movements of the two armies confronting one another to
the narrative of another chapter, it is now necessary to turn to other
scenes of interest.

CANADA.

This fine colony continued prosperous and powerful, yet the
dissatisfaction of previous years with the imperial administration
was not removed. On the 28th of February the first session of the new
parliament was opened by the governor-general, who delivered a speech
which was intended to be concilatory, but which did not accomplish its
purpose. An amendment was proposed to the address, which was carried
against the government by a majority of fifty-four to twenty. In this
amendment the legislature plainly declared its want of confidence in the
governor’s advisers; the ministry therefore resigned.

THE WEST INDIES.

During this year the West India colonists were discontented, and
complained of distress, while at home they were regarded with suspicion
by the religious and antislavery public, as designing, if possible, to
restore slavery.

The immigration of hill Coolies from India into several of the colonies,
which was promoted by the West India legislative bodies at the public
expense, increased this jealousy towards the planters. The taxes to meet
the expenses incidental to the immigration were levied in such a manner
as to fall especially upon the emancipated negro, to compete with whose
labour the Coolie was imported. This irritated the classes in England
whose dispositions were unfavourable to the planter. The press, the
pulpit, and missionary meetings denounced the Coolie trade and traders,
and, in terms of eloquent indignation, represented the negro inhabitants
of the West Indies as still subjected to the plunder and persecution
of a tyrant race. The Coolie immigration was depicted as rivaling the
slave-trade in atrocity, and its failure was boldly predicted on every
religious platform. These predictions certainly were fulfilled--the
Coolie speculation was a failure. A writer of that date, well acquainted
with the facts of the case, thus noticed them:--“One of the most recent
efforts made to substitute free for slave labour in the West Indies, it
will be recollected, was the bringing of a number of hill Coolies
from India for this purpose. The experiment has miserably failed, as
acknowledged by the chancellor of the exchequer in his speech on
the introduction of the sugar duties bill, now in progress through
parliament. The Coolies were conveyed to Demerara from Madras in
ship-loads to supply the labour market in British Guiana, at the expense
of that colony; and, as our correspondent learned, at a rate which
even reached the Negro himself, against whom they came to compete.
Many agents were employed in their importation, and large bounties were
given; such temptations led parties to crowd the colony with numbers of
miserable persons, quite unable to perform any laborious employment. It
was the general opinion that, owing to physical inability, scarcely one
in a hundred of these Coolies was fit for manual labour; and whilst our
correspondent was at Demerara a law was issued by the governor granting
permission for labourers to enter Guiana from certain countries only,
omitting the East Indies. The wretchedness of these immigrant Coolies
was truly distressing; numbers of them might be seen wandering about,
and living in the open air on charity, in George Town, congregating
about the market-house and elsewhere, many of them covered with sores,
and all but naked. Hospitals were subsequently provided for them in
different places, in which they were maintained at the public expense;
and by this means they were removed from about the town and frontier of
the colony. Mr. Stocqueler, in his very useful ‘Oriental Interpreter,’
refers to the Coolies in connection with the Bheels, a race of people
who inhabit the northern part of the chain of Ghauts, running inland
parallel with the coast of Malabar. On one side they are bordered by the
Coolies, and on another by the Goands of Goandwana. They are considered
to have been the aborigines of Central India, and, with the
Coolies, Goands, and Ramooses, are bold, daring, and predatory
marauders--occasionally mercenaries, but invariably plunderers.
There are, however, many shades of difference in the extent of the
depredations of these several people, in which the balance of enormity
is said to be considerably on the side of the Bheels. They are,
nevertheless, described as faithful when employed and trusted; and the
travellers who pay them their _choute_, or tribute, may leave untold
treasure in their hands, and may consider themselves as safe with
them as in the streets of London. Their word is sacred, their promise
unimpeachable.’”

There was another class of immigrants who were found more useful,
the Portuguese, from Madeira. They were highly prized by the Demerara
planters; but even among them the mortality was very considerable.

FOREIGN RELATIONS.

In the East the only hostile acts required from the British government,
during the year 1848, was the suppression of Chinese piracy. During
the year, also, the Rif pirates gave trouble on the shores of northern
Africa. Employment was also given to British cruisers in various other
parts of the world in the suppression of piracy and the protection of
British commerce.

THE UNITED STATES.

The measures of Sir Robert Peel’s late government in the disputes which
arose between England and the United States, whatever their demerits,
had the effect of preserving peace between the two countries, which,
during the tumults of continental Europe, the disturbances in Ireland,
and the agitations in England during 1848, was of the utmost consequence
to Great Britain. The discovery of gold in California, although an
American event, exercised much influence upon the commerce and monetary
affairs of the British Isles, and tended still more to draw the bonds of
amity close between the two great British nations.

SPAIN: DIPLOMATIC DISAGREEMENT WITH THAT COUNTRY; DISMISSION OF THE
ENGLISH AMBASSADOR.

Spain, ever fruitful of internal discord, was not less so in 1848. The
history of the court was one of scandal, and of the government one of
weakness, fickleness, and incapacity. The year 1847 closed by a change
of ministry, when the infamous Narvaez was in the ascendant, and his
creatures were gathered around him in the guise of a cabinet. The
queen-mother, it was declared, had been married in December, 1833, to
her paramour, Munoz, within three months of the decease of the king her
husband, and this was kept secret for fifteen years from the Spanish
people, until, under the auspices of the new government of Narvaez, it
was at last brought to light, for purposes at once venal and revolting.
This disclosure incensed the Spanish people, and revived the hopes of
both the republican and Carlist parties. The corrupt practices of Senor
Salamanca also coming before the public, disgusted the nation with
its public men. As will be seen on another page, France effected a new
revolution in February. Louis Philipp was dethroned, and the republic
was once more proclaimed. From the immediate contiguity of the two
countries it was feared that the French republic would find some cause
of quarrel with the imprudent and despotic government of Spain. England,
alarmed lest she should be once more involved in a war with France for
the protection of the Iberian peninsula, looked with concern upon the
tyrannical and profligate conduct of the Spanish court and government;
and Lord Palmerston, therefore, addressed a note to Sir H. Bulwer,
the British representative at Madrid, requesting him to make such
representations to the government, and offer such advice as would tend
to consolidate the independence and preserve the peace of Spain. This
Sir H. Bulwer performed; but the Spanish minister, the Duc de Soto
Mayer, resented this interference as an insult to Spain, and the British
minister was dismissed from Madrid. In England Lord Palmerston was
denounced as a meddler, and a minister whose policy was provocative of
foreign discord. The course of policy, however, adopted by the noble
viscount was customary with all British ministers, did not exceed the
right which one friendly nation has to advise another, and was based
upon the actual and recognised relations of Spain and Great Britain. It
afforded, however, an opportunity to ignorant declaimers, in and out
of parliament, to oppose the astute yet direct and manly policy of the
great English foreign minister. The interruption of diplomatic relations
between the two countries continued throughout the year.

THE CONTINENTAL REVOLUTIONS.

Although not strictly forming a portion of the history of England,
it would be impossible to relate the events in which the interests of
England were involved, without some extended reference to the mighty
moral earthquakes of continental Europe. France was the centre of these
terrible upheavings of human passion and power. Her government, under
the base king Louis Philippe, whom the revolution of 1830 had placed
upon the throne, was the most corrupt which France had ever known.
Tyranny infinitely more oppressive than that which he was permitted to
wield had often cursed France, but never before were such efforts made
as by him to corrupt the whole people. The unprincipled conduct of every
department of the government directed by Guizot, the treacherous and
subservient tool of his bad master, utterly disgusted all honourable
men; and even those who were willing to sell themselves and their
country, despised and hated the purchasers. Even the correct manners of
Louis Philippe’s court, and the strict domestic morality observed there,
at last increased the public indignation and contempt, for it left the
universal impression that he was a cold and heartless hypocrite. During
1847 a desire for electoral reform, which had existed for many years
among the more thoughtful politicians of France, became more thoroughly
developed among most classes of citizens, and agitations to accomplish
this object were set on foot. The tyrant king opposed this feeling and
these movements, at first by corrupt means, and, ultimately, by the
hands of his unscrupulous minister, he resorted to coercion. Public
meetings were suppressed, and the liberty of the press was invaded. The
insulted citizens of Paris rose in arms, barricades were erected, and
the king, as cowardly as he was corrupt, had not the manhood to stand
by his own measures, but fled, with craven spirit, to take refuge in the
country whose queen and people he had betrayed. Under the common English
name of Smith this proud prince found means of escaping from the country
he had deceived, pillaged, and oppressed, and which allowed him to
pass away without pursuit, and without malediction, because of its own
magnanimity and the contempt with which it regarded him. Louis Philippe
found a home in England, at first at Claremont, and then in Abingdon
House, Kensington, where he lived for some time in apparently tranquil
enjoyment, the delightful and salubrious vicinity affording to his
family means of retired and pleasurable recreation.

The expulsion of the nefarious old man, who had for eighteen years ruled
France on a system of false pretences, was followed by the appointment
of a provisional government, consisting of Dupont (de l’Eure),
Lamartine, Arago, Marie, Armand Marrast, Garnier Pages, Albert, Ledru
Rollin, Ferdinand Flocon, Louis Blanc, Cremieux. No sooner was the
provisional government appointed, than it was discovered that harmony
among its members was impossible. The republican party was divided into
two great sections--the old republicans and the “reds.” The former, like
those of the United States of America, contended for self-government
and equal political rights, for civil and religious liberty. The latter
declared for what they called “a republic, democratic, and social,” and
their aim was to establish socialism by subverting all rights, civil and
religious, fusing all interests in a communal equality, no longer being
subject to individual claims. The unknown of Paris were ignorant, and
many of them suffered much from low wages and irregular employment;
these madly grasped at a theory which promised to them a maintenance at
the public expense. The state ought, in their opinion, to provide them
with wages sufficient for their support, they being themselves the
judges of the requisite amount, and the state should find employment,
if it could, for those who were so requited, the amount of labour to
be rendered was also to be decided by the workers. The theory was
substantially that which prevailed among the English Chartists. The
whole subject of this division of feeling and opinion in the provisional
government and in the nation, with the practical results, was thus
clearly set forth by a writer of that day:--“In this conflict of opinion
upon the question of labour, or of communism, is the _resumé_ of all the
great events that have taken place in France since the declaration of
the republic on the 24th of February last. This key unlocks them all,
and the efforts of this principle to establish itself, and to overthrow
its opponents, explain events otherwise inexplicable, and show us in the
clearest possible manner what are and what are not the great opposing
forces that have since been at feud. All other forces in France have
been as nothing compared with these two. The friends of monarchy,
whether of the Orleans or the old Bourbon dynasty, and the friends of
Napoleon, have, it is true, endeavoured to make themselves heard; but
their voices have been mere whispers in comparison with the shouts
and hubbub of the communists and anti-communists--of the tricolor
republicans and the republicans of the _drapeau rouge_. Without this
clue to the character of the revolution, the remark of Milton that the
wars of the Saxon heptarchy were as unintelligible as those of kites in
a neighbouring wood, would apply to the proceedings of the Parisians.
Almost each day, after the 24th of February, brought tidings of change
in all the relations betwixt man and man. There was fighting one
day, embracing the next; every rotation of the hand brought to view
a wonderful and unexpected change of figures in the political
kaleidoscope. Day after day, in endless succession, there were mouthings
of tumid, florid, and often unintelligible speeches, and of still more
unintelligible and mysterious theories for the regeneration of mankind.
Every speech and newspaper article breathed only peace and goodwill
towards all men, yet almost every ordinance of the government was
directed towards the organisation of armed men. There were assemblings
of the people, reviews, marchings, and counter-marchings, hasty
summonings at all hours, the beating of the _rappel_, and the
sounding of the tocsin, in the dead of night and the early dawn. The
‘Marseillaise Hymn’ and the ‘Mourir pour la Patrie,’ were sung in
every street, court, and alley, and were heard on the pillow of every
recumbent citizen. Journalism became a power of tremendous magnitude and
extent. People read leading articles by torchlight, and shouted out to
the moon apostrophes to liberty, ay, ‘liberty, equality, fraternity.’
These three talismanic words, too often devoid of meaning in the
apprehension of those who shouted them with a fervour sufficient to
split the ears of the groundlings. Liberty? every man doing what he
deemed best, seemed to be the interpretation of the mob. Equality?
every man trying to get above every other man, seemed its natural
consequences. Fraternity? every man knocking down every other man who
happened to be of a different way of thinking from himself, was the
manner in which the men of the _faubourgs_ seemed to construe it. Such
seemed to be the epitome of the French revolution; but it was not so.
There was order amid disorder; two principles were at work; and the
revolution--so frivolous in its details, so momentous in its results;
exhibiting so much talent and energy, so much vanity and folly, so much
honesty and treachery, such kind feelings and such malignant passions,
such planting of trees and cutting of throats, such recommendations
of order, such instances of disorder, so much wisdom producing so much
folly, so much goodness mingled with so much wickedness, so much
gravity combined with so much levity, such long speeches and such brief
epigrams--was quite explainable wherever the mind was able to grasp
it as a whole, and see the operation of the two great and all pervading
principles which we have mentioned.”

The party of the communists in the provisional government comprised
three members--Ledru Rollin, Louis Blanc, and Albert. This number, being
small in proportion to the whole, offended the socialists; but Lamartine
and Arago possessed such influence with the three “reds,” that they were
for a time induced to co-operate with the rest for the general good, and
in a system of rational government. To those two great men France was
deeply indebted; their appearance was at times sufficient to still a
tumult.

The three communist members of the government gradually became more
exacting, and at last the influence of the philosophical republicans and
statesmen, who were associated with them, failed to keep within bounds
the communist sympathies of these hot-headed and imprudent men. In an
evil hour, Lamartine and some of his colleagues, who, like him, had
just notions of state affairs, and correct views of political economy,
conceded to Ledru Roll in and his brothers of the _drapeau rouge_ a
certain organisation for the employment of labour. From that hour the
doom of the new republic was sealed--it was the beginning of the end.
Men of property and sagacity stood aloof. M. Goodcheaux resigned, and
many official persons of eminent knowledge and experience followed his
example. Meanwhile Paris was kept in continual apprehension by popular
demonstrations, and commercial failures shook the public credit. The
working population became more and more dissatisfied, and menaced public
order and the existence of all rational government.

The provisional government called a constituent assembly, and the
representatives of the people were to assemble in Paris on a certain day
in April, but the assemblage was afterwards deferred to the 4th of May.
Ledru Rollin addressed a circular to the prefects and other departmental
and commercial authorities, urging upon them the support of republican
candidates at the elections. This measure Ledru Rollin and some of his
colleagues justified on the ground that there were already parties
whose reactionary efforts might be successful in returning Orleanist,
Buonapartist, or ultramontane representatives, who might form a majority
in the assembly, or, at all events, a minority large enough to embarrass
the republic. By republican members, however, Rollin and Louis Blanc
meant socialists, and this effort on their part to influence by official
means the returns of the constituent assembly, destroyed all confidence
in their justice, impartiality, and toleration. Rollin defended the
measures he had adopted in terms, if possible, more imprudent than the
measures themselves, and Albert and Blanc went still further in their
indiscreet words, as well as excited zeal. The result was that moderate
men not only lost confidence in them personally, but became apprehensive
of the designs and tendency of their party, and the elections were
much less favourable to the views and wishes of the “reds” than would
otherwise have been the case. While Ledru Rollin and his communist
colleagues in office were mismanaging everything connected with home
interests, Lamartine was conducting the foreign affairs of France
with surpassing judgment. At first all European governments saw the
proclamation of a French republic with awe, and their thoughts were
only how most effectually to arm and combine against French republic
propagandism. Lamartine soothed this alarm. He addressed a diplomatic
circular to all the agents of France through Europe, expounding the
principles upon which the French republic was founded. His policy might
be summed up in a single sentence of this manifesto,--“The republic is
the will of a great people; it derives its title from itself. Its policy
is peace.”

The government adopted the plan of large workshops, and workmen were
employed at the rate of a million and a half sterling a year. Louis
Blanc admitted that unless the work produced should prove remunerative
in the market, it would be impossible for the government to continue
so enormous an outlay. The operatives, perceiving the hesitation of the
government, prepared to carry their communistic views into operation
themselves, without having the trouble of using the provisional
government for their execution.

On the appointed day the assembly met, and the republic was proclaimed.
The real feelings and opinions of the assembly were soon seen; they were
elicited by the ministerial reports. The following description of the
scene presented on the occasion is quoted from the contemporary press:--

“All the preliminaries having been gone through, powers verified, a
president (M. Bûchez) and vice-presidents, secretaries, &c, appointed,
the members of the government proceed to lay before the assembly an
account of their ministries since the establishment of the republic.

“On Saturday, May 6, the president announced that the citizen minister,
Lamartine, was about to make a communication from the government, when
that gentleman ascended the tribune, and proceeded to read a document,
which purported to be a report of the acts of the provisional government
in their _ensemble_--the restoration of order, organisation of the
national guard, _mobile garde_, the army, &c.--enumerating what had been
done in the midst of two months of a crisis during which not a drop of
blood had been shed. Many portions of this report were much applauded,
and at the close there was great enthusiasm.

“He was succeeded by Ledru Rollin, the minister of the interior, who
read a report of the acts of his administration, which he read with
great vehemence, but without exciting applause, except of a very partial
kind from a small minority.

“The minister of justice (M. Crémieux) next ascended the tribune, and
proceeded to read a report of his official acts, in which he recounted
all the ameliorations applied to the administration of justice, the
abolition of capital punishment for capital offences, abolition of the
pillory, &c.

“The next member of the government who ascended the tribune was M. Louis
Blanc, who excited a smile by his first act, which was to stoop and
arrange a _tabouret_, or footstool, on which to raise himself high
enough to be seen. The voice that came from this small form was firm,
clear, and loud; and he, instead of reading, delivered an extempore
oration in favour of his _Organisation du Travail_, to which he said
the government stood committed by its promises to the people assembled
before the Hôtel de Ville the day after the revolution. The assembly
received his oration with a coldness which augured ill.

“M. Carnot, the minister of public instruction, was afterwards heard,
and was succeeded by M. Bethmont, the minister of commerce, who
deposited on the table the _exposé_ of the state of his department. M.
Gamier Pages, minister of finance, concluded his report on the financial
condition of the country.

“M. Arago, the minister of war and marine, and M. Marie, the minister
of public works, next presented the situation of their departments; and
were succeeded by M. Lamartine, minister for foreign affairs, who took
a short review of the aspect of affairs throughout Europe. The general
tone of his remarks was pacific, and in accordance with the principles
of his address some time before to the diplomatic agents of France.

“In the course of the sitting a note from Béranger, the poet, resigning
his seat for Paris, was read; but the assembly unanimously refused to
accept the resignation.

“A stormy discussion then arose on the motion of M. Domes, offering the
thanks of the assembly to the provisional government for their conduct
in the administration of affairs, and nominating a committee of five to
act as a government _ad interim_, until the permanent government of the
country had been constituted. Subsequently, after fearful uproar, the
motion was modified by the withdrawal of the latter part of it, and the
assembly voted that the provisional government had deserved well of
the country. The vote was almost unanimous, M. Barbes, M. Durrien, and
another rising alone against it.

“On Tuesday, at eleven o’clock, M. Bûchez, the president, took the
chair.

“Some apprehensions were entertained that the result of this sitting
would occasion disturbances. The workmen met in several quarters of
Paris, and in the wood of Boulogne, and were understood to have declared
that if M. Ledru Rollin was excluded from the government, they would
take arms. Extraordinary precautions had accordingly been adopted around
the hall. A large force was stationed in the adjoining garden, and
invitations had been sent to the national guards to hold themselves in
readiness to march at the first signal.

“On the following Wednesday, the appointment of an executive committee,
in lieu of the provisional government, was announced. The result of the
ballot was--

     Arago.......................................    725

     Gamier Pages................................    715

     Marie  .....................................    702

     Lamartine ..................................    643

     Ledru Rollin..........,.....................    598

“Those five members having obtained the required majority, were
proclaimed members of the executive committee. M. Louis Blanc, M.
Albert, and M. Flocon were entirely excluded--a fact which the _peuple_
and the ‘communists’ cherished in vindictive remembrance. M. Ledru
Rollin, whose violence had alarmed the majority, though not excluded,
was at the bottom of the list; and M. de Lamartine, who had lent his
high name and great popularity to support M. Ledru Rollin, was placed
next lowest--all of them being most significant facts to show the
spirit of the assembly, and the probable policy to be hereafter expected
from it.”

The discontent of the _ouvriers_ gathered strength, and on the 15th of
May they rose in insurrection. After much severe fighting the insurgents
were defeated, the loyalty of the troops, national guards, and _garde
mobile_ to the republic sustaining the cause of order. The _garde
mobile_ had been organised from the very lowest classes in Paris--
classes below the workmen--and was composed of mere youths, who
distinguished themselves beyond all other forces by their heroic
courage throughout that eventful day. The result to the leaders of
the socialists was that many of them, such as Albert, Barbes, Blanqui,
Raspail, and Sobrier were consigned to prison. Louis Blanc had a very
narrow escape of being numbered among them.

The suppression of the clubs and of the _atteliers nationaux_, followed
this success on the part of the government, but still more exasperated
the workmen. In this condition of affairs Prince Louis Napoleon was
elected for Paris, as representative in the room of one of the double
returns made in the general election. He was also elected for three
departmental vacancies, caused also by double returns in the general
election. It at once became the fashion to laud the prince. All
parties, except the “republicans pure and simple,” seemed to think that
Napoleonism offered a refuge from anarchy. The “reds” favoured him from
hatred to the party of the executive committee, or rather the majority
of that party; but in reality no faction hated Louis Napoleon at heart
so much as they. At all events, his name became a rallying word for
nearly all the lovers of order, who were not believers in the theory of
philosophical republicanism. The most ominous thing connected with
these demonstrations was the appearance of a journal entitled _Le
Napoléonien_. Placards also appeared with the words “_Louis Napoleon!
Vive l’Empereur! A bas la République!_” and crowds, shouting the name of
Buonaparte, collected in various parts of Paris, the _générale_ and the
_rappel_ were beaten, troops assembled, and the guards, _sédentaires_
and _mobile_, were frequently assembled to protect the government and
the representatives. Shots were fired, some lives were lost, and the
panic became general throughout Paris. Lamartine took advantage of this,
and proposed to the assembly that the laws of 1816 and 1832 should be
enforced, forbidding the entrance of any of the Buonaparte family into
France. This motion was received by the assembly with loud shouts of
“_Vive la République!_” Many who joined in that shout would have shouted
still more cordially for Louis Philippe or the representative of the
older branch of the Bourbon family. The cry of the republic answered
their present purpose of committing the executive committee to imprudent
measures, and of excluding the Buonapartists, who were regarded as more
formidable rivals to the Bourbons than the republicans, old or new. The
assembly was not able to carry out its own resolution; after coquetting
with public opinion and persisting for a time, the exclusion of the
Buonapartes was given up as impracticable; and the prince, again
elected for Corsica and other electoral districts, took his place in the
legislative assembly, accepted the oaths to the republic, and before
the year expired was president. Before that was accomplished France
was doomed to undergo fresh trials, and Paris to witness still more
sanguinary scenes.

The question of labour-regulation continued, under every improvement and
modification that was devised, to embarrass the government; and it was
at last resolved to remove from Paris great numbers of the workmen to
distant parts of the country, to be engaged there on various public
works. This the men determined to resist, and to subvert a government
which dared to suggest such a measure. The government was, however,
forced to adopt at once some plan to rid itself of the peril and
imminent ruin of the _atteliers_. In the National Assembly, Victor Hugo,
M. Léon Faucher, and others, denounced the connivance of the executive
committee with a state of things that must speedily destroy France. The
number of workmen then engaged in the government workshops of Paris was
one hundred and twenty thousand. On the night of the 22nd of June,
cries of “Down with the Assembly!” were raised by the _ouvriers_ in the
streets. In the morning, signs of disturbance were indicated in many
quarters. In the course of a few hours the workmen began to erect
barricades. Fighting began between the national guards and the
constructors of the barricades at the Porte Saint-Denis. Throughout
the day barricades were demolished by the national guards and _gardes
mobiles_, but only after fierce and deadly conflict. During the night of
the 23rd new barricades were raised as if by magic, and on the morning
of the 24th, a system of ingenious and powerful defences existed through
a large extent of Paris, behind which and commanding which, from the
windows and house-tops, well-armed and determined men were placed.
Happily the government consigned to General Cavaignac, minister of
war, all the functions of a dictator. He was ably seconded by General
Lamoricière, and other officers of rank, several of whom sealed their
fidelity in death. During the 24th, terrible battle raged in the streets
of Paris, but the troops and civic soldiery stormed the barricades
and conquered. Mortars were used, from which showers of shells were
discharged, which bursting behind the barricades shattered these
defences, ponderous although they were, scattering them, and the bodies
of the brave men who defended them to the last. Shells also were thrown
into the houses, whence a fire was kept up upon the military in the
streets: many of these houses were torn to pieces, burying the defenders
in their ruins. In some streets the troops had to cut their way from
house to house, the sappers knocking down the party-walls: the contest
in these directions resembled that at Saragossa, where, amidst crumbling
walls and blazing roofs, men fought foot to foot, in the agonies of
valour, fanaticism, and despair. Throughout the 25th and 26th the
conflict raged, but was terminated on the evening of that day. Twenty
thousand men were killed or wounded. General Cavaignac was elected by
the assembly president of the council. The gallant general conducted his
administration with justice and wisdom.

During the month of June, a committee appointed by the assembly was
engaged in drawing up a constitution; they presented a report to the
following effect:--They proposed that there should be a president
elected by universal suffrage for a period of four years; he was to be
a French citizen, not less than thirty years of age. The legislature
to consist of one chamber; that chamber to consist of seven hundred
and thirty members. The ministers to be appointed and dismissed at the
pleasure of the president. A council of state to be appointed out of the
assembly, forty in number, and chosen by the assembly itself; that body
to draw up the projects of law which the government might think fit
to bring in. The punishment of death for political offences was
interdicted. Slavery to be abolished in all French colonies. The press
to be free. All religions to be allowed, and their ministers to be
paid by the state. Public instruction to be free, subject to the
superintendence of the state. Substitutes for the army and navy to be
disallowed. The national debt to be deemed sacred. Property inviolable.
Algeria, and all other French colonies, to be integral parts of the
French soil, but to be governed by laws peculiar to themselves. Trials
to be public, and the office of judge to be permanent.

This project of constitution was accepted as a base for further
consideration. Subsequently it was modified, but not in any way
essentially to alter its principles. The resolution regarding colonial
slavery roused the whole colonial interest of France against the
republic. That which forbid substitutes for the army and navy created
wide-spread dissatisfaction. The former of these provisions of the
constitution was so just and humane, that it deserved to be carried out
at any cost; the other was impolitic, as it deprived large numbers who
would not serve in the army or navy of the opportunity of avoiding
that service, if they fell under the ballot, by nominating a substitute
willing to serve if remunerated.

The question of the adoption of the constitution was finally put on
the 4th of November, and carried, thirty voices being dissident. In the
evening of the same day, one hundred and one cannon shots announced to
Paris and its environs that the work of preparing the constitution had
been completed. The public made no manifestation of feeling. Only the
old republican party valued so free a constitution. The _ouvriers_ cared
not for it, nor for anything short of socialism. The Absolutists hated
liberty in every form. The Buonapartists regarded it as an instrument
that might be made available for reconstituting the empire. The
Orleanists received it with more malignant hostility than any other
class. They professed the theory of a constitutional monarchy; but
the free and just and noble constitution of the republic contrasted so
advantageously with the corrupt practices and _doctrinaire_ theories of
Louis Philippe and his favourites, that the Orleans party betrayed the
most malevolent feelings to the republican leaders, such as Cavaignac
and Lamartine, and the uttermost repugnance to the republic itself.
Louis Philippe, in England, entertained his friends with garrulous
accounts of his own wisdom in all the measures he had adopted,
predicting that France, enamoured of the glory of his reign, would
repent and return to him again! His queen, equally incapable of
appreciating France, dwelt only upon the injury inflicted upon religion
by the conduct of the French people in dethroning their king, and
making an indiscriminate establishment of all churches a feature of the
constitution. Her silence, gravity, and the religious view she took
of the event were strangely in contrast to the vanity, levity, and
self-gratulation with which the king talked of his temporarily humbled
fortunes.

The proclamation of the constitution failed in quieting enemies,
restoring public confidence in the state of affairs, or reviving
material prosperity, notwithstanding all that so many eloquent orators
of the old republican party predicted to that effect. The _Presse_ at
this juncture gave a most melancholy account of the sufferings of the
poor, and the distress of the commercial classes:--“It will be necessary
to feed at the public expense two hundred and sixty-three thousand
persons during the present month, two hundred and eighty thousand
during the month of December, three hundred thousand during the month
of January, three hundred thousand during the month of February, three
hundred thousand during the month of March, and two hundred and eighty
thousand during the month of April next; and the sum granted by the
assembly will not afford each individual more than 12 centimes (1d. and
2/5ths) per day each to exist upon. At the same time the revenue of
the city of Paris has fallen off by a sum of 16,000,000 fr. (£640,000),
which must be made good by an addition to the assessed taxes of more
than 50 per cent.”

The Socialists were not without hope that matters would turn to their
account; and although they did not dare to defy the republic in action,
they became more resentful in language than ever. They continued to
hold meetings, in which opinions at variance with all morality and civil
order were expressed, and which would have alarmed every government
in Europe, had not recent events been of a character to confine the
attention of these governments to domestic affairs. A banquet, under the
title of “The Confederation of the People of Europe,” was held, at
which eight hundred men, French, Poles, Belgians, Germans, and Italians
assembled; the most furious threats to kings, governments, persons of
property, and to all persons everywhere not favourable to communistic
projects, were uttered. One blasphemous toast will show the _animus_
of the assembly, and of its orators. It was delivered by M. Saint
Just:--“To the men strong, courageous, and valiant in the cause of
humanity. To those whose names serve as a guide, a support, and an
example to the degenerate beings--to all those whom history calls
heroes!... To Brutus, to Catiline, to Jesus Christ, to Julian the
Apostate, to Attila!... To all the thinkers of the middle age....
To unfortunate thinkers!... To Jean Jacques Rousseau, and his pupil,
Maximilian Robespierre!” This enumeration of names was received with a
triple salvo of applause, and was encored, with which request M. Saint
Just complied. The banquet concluded with the “Marseillaise” and the
“Chant du Départ” sung by the entire company.

The great work of electing a president proceeded without interruption or
disturbance, and the result was the election of Prince Louis Napoleon
by an overwhelming majority. The following, by an eye-witness, is a
condensed account of the transactions in the assembly upon the occasion
of formally announcing this result. The letter was dated November 20th,
and referred to the previous Wednesday, as selected for the ceremony by
the executive government, instead of Thursday, which had been publicly
announced; the change of the day arising from the apprehension of
disturbances consequent upon an attempt which was expected to be made
to greet Napoleon as emperor. The prince himself acquiesced in the
arrangement, to prevent unnecessary bloodshed:--

“At two o’clock orders were forwarded by the government to the colonels
of the 24th regiment of infantry and of two regiments of dragoons to
march their corps towards the National Assembly. At three o’clock two
battalions of the former, and a battalion of _garde mobile_, preceded
by a detachment of national guards, entered the Garden of the Tuileries,
and advanced to the gate of the Place de la Concorde, a general,
accompanied by his aide-de-camp, and escorted by a few lancers, taking
his station close to the obelisk. In the meantime, the quays adjoining
the palace were lined with dragoons. The presence of these troops, which
nobody could account for, created much uneasiness, though in some
groups a report circulated that the assembly was about to proclaim the
president of the republic.

“At half-past three o’clock M. Marrast, president, took the chair. The
assembly was extremely numerous, and animated groups were to be seen
here and there through the hall. Prince Louis Napoleon was not present
at the opening of the sitting, but his cousin, Jerome Buonaparte,
occupied his seat. The public galleries were crowded. In one of them we
remarked Princess Mathilda, sister of Jerome, and next to her M. Emile
de Girardin. Two aides-de-camp appointed in the morning by the prince,
M. Edgar Ney, and a son of General Pajol, were also present. No serious
discussion could take place in the state of excitement of the assembly,
and most of the orders of the day were adjourned. Two applications for
leave to prosecute Messrs. Caussidière and Turk, representatives of the
people, were rejected.

“The committee charged with examining the electoral returns for the
presidency entered the chamber at four o’clock, when the president
immediately called to the tribune M. Waldeck Rousseau, the reporter of
the committee, who read the report. It stated that seven million three
hundred and forty-nine thousand citizens of the republic had voted at
the presidential election, and that the votes had been divided in the
following proportion over the surface of the country:--

     M. Louis Napoloen had obtained ... 5,434,226  suffrages.

     General Cavaignac  ............... 1,448,107     ”

     M. Ledru-Rollin  .................   370,119     ”

     M. Raspail........................    36,900     ”

     M. Lamartine   ...................    17,910     ”

     General Changamier   .............     4,790     ”

     Votes lost........................    12,600     ”

Among the latter were many containing unconstitutional denominations,
and the committee had besides denounced to the minister of the interior
for prosecution a few individuals guilty of acts of violence. At
Grenoble, in particular, public tranquillity was slightly disturbed.
The committee had, moreover, examined several protests addressed to it
against the election of M. Buonaparte. In one of them he was declared
ineligible, because he had forfeited his rights as a Frenchman by his
naturalisation in Switzerland. The members of the committee however
had, by a unanimous decision, passed to the order of the day on that
difficulty. By the number of the votes, and the regularity of the
operation, M. Louis Napoleon was the real elect of the nation, and the
assembly had only to order that the executive power be transferred to
his hands. After paying a tribute of praise and gratitude to General
Cavaignac, which was ratified by the loud acclamations of the entire
assembly, M. Rousseau concluded by calling upon it to proclaim the
president, and exclaimed, ‘Have confidence, God protects France.’

“General Cavaignac, having then ascended the tribune, said, ‘I have
the honour of informing the National Assembly that the members of the
cabinet have just sent me their collective resignation; and I now come
forward to surrender the powers with which it had invested me. You will
understand, better than I can express, the sentiments of gratitude which
the recollection of the confidence placed in me by the assembly, and
of its kindness to me, will leave in my heart.’ This short address was
received with deafening cries of ‘Vive la République!’

“M. Marrast then rose and said, ‘In the name of the French people!
Whereas Citizen Charles Louis Napoleon Buonaparte, born in Paris,
possesses all the qualifications of eligibility required by the 44th
article of the constitution; whereas the ballot gave him the absolute
majority of suffrages for the presidency: by virtue of the powers
conferred on the assembly by the 47th and 48th articles of the
constitution, I proclaim him President of the French Republic, from this
day until the second Sunday of May, 1852, and I now invite him to ascend
the tribune and take the oath required by the constitution.’

“M. Louis Napoleon, who was seated near M. Odilon Barrot, then rose
and advanced towards the tribune. He was dressed in black; on his left
breast was a _crachat_ set with diamonds, and under his coat he wore the
grand cordon of the Legion of Honour. Having mounted the tribune, the
president read to him the oath of fidelity to the constitution, to which
M. Louis Napoleon replied, ‘Je le jure.’ He then asked leave to address
a few words to the assembly. The suffrages of the nation and his
personal sentiments, he said, commanded his future conduct, and imposed
upon him duties which he would fulfil as a man of honour. He would
treat as enemies of the country whoever should attempt to subvert the
constitution, and between him and the assembly would exist the most
perfect harmony of views. He would exert himself to place society on its
real basis, and to relieve the sufferings of a people who had borne such
generous and intelligent testimony. He would endeavour to restore to the
government the moral force of which it stood in need, and to maintain
peace and order. He had called around him men distinguished for talent
and patriotism, who, notwithstanding the differences of their political
origin, would assist him in consolidating the new institutions of the
country. He then eulogised the becoming conduct and loyalty of which
General Cavaignac had given so many and such signal proofs, and pledged
himself strenuously to labour to accomplish the great mission of
founding the republic, without recurring to reactionary or Utopian
means; and, with the assistance of God, he trusted to achieve useful if
not great things.

“This speech was received with unanimous cries of ‘Vive la République!’
and M. Louis Buonaparte, having descended the tribune, went up to the
seat of General Cavaignac, and cordially shook him by the hand. The new
president was then met by M. Odilon Barrot and his friends of the right,
who escorted him out of the hall. In leaving the hall the president was
accompanied by a great number of the members of the assembly, and passed
between a double line of soldiers and national guards, which extended
through the Salle des Pas Perdus to the gate upon the quay facing the
Place de la Concorde. There was no manifestation of enthusiasm at this
moment. A carriage waited for the president at the gate, in which he
left for the palace of the Elysée Bourbon, escorted by a squadron of
dragoons and lancers. The cannon of the Invalides were discharged as a
salute at the moment. General Changarnier attended on the occasion, and
directed the proceedings. It was remarked that, on the occasion of
this solemnity, all the enthusiasm of the assembly was shown to General
Cavaignac, and the utmost coldness towards Prince Louis.

“M. Marrast next announced that M. Odilon Barrot was charged with
the construction of the new cabinet, which would be communicated by a
message to the assembly. The house afterwards adjourned.”

Such were the great events in France during the year 1818, events which
too nearly affected the connection of England with that country to be
given here in less detail.

During the progress of these transactions the relations of Great
Britain and France became delicate and critical; but the wisdom of the
provisional government on the one hand, and of the British government
on the other, prevented any collision. Diplomatic relations were
necessarily interrupted for a time by the revolution, and the flight
of the king; but her Britannic majesty, in her speech proroguing
parliament, expressed her satisfaction that she had been enabled to
resume the usual intercourse between the two governments. Several
occasions arose when even a slight deviation from international equity
on the part of the French provisional government might have involved the
two countries in war. In England the Chartists continued the agitations
already recorded, and made a grand demonstration, which will be related
in another section of this chapter. While they were preparing to put
forth this exhibition of strength, a correspondence was kept up by many
of their leaders with those of the French Communists, and the excitement
of the latter was intense as the hour approached for the grand
_denouement_. Indeed, all classes of the French, except the most
intelligent, especially in Paris, regarded a revolution in England as
inevitable. They were under the delusion that Fergus O’Connor and his
colleagues and followers were, politically speaking, the English people.
The following account of this impression was given by a gentleman then
resident in Paris:--“Never, during the many years I have resided in
Paris, did any event in England excite such universal interest among all
classes of the French as the great chartist demonstration has done. For
days and days it was a leading topic in the newspapers, and for days the
general subject of conversation. Both newspapers and talkers, relying
on the big swagger of the Chartists, and the undisguised alarm of the
government, confidently expected a stern and terrible straggle, with
barricades, and bayonets, and pikes, and deluges of blood, and awful
slaughter. To this expectation many added the hope of seeing a complete
revolution effected--a revolution which would overthrow throne,
aristocracy, and middle class, leaving the people and the republic
triumphant. So deeply had this hope taken possession of the more
sanguine, that they could not bear to hear the slightest doubt of its
realisation expressed.”

Strange as it may seem to English readers, the chartist proceedings in
England, and those of the Irish repeal party, had considerable influence
not only in sustaining unreasonable expectation among the French
workmen, but even on their modes of procedure. It was not until the
speeches of O’Connor and other Chartists claiming “the land for the
people,” and the articles of Mitchell and others in Ireland demanding
for the farmers a right in the soil, were circulated in Paris, that
the workmen there began an agitation against rent. This they maintained
until the restoration of order restored to the house-owners the means
of asserting the rights of property. The following graphic and
lively description of the agitation, incited and fostered under such
circumstances, is no exaggeration:--“The past week has been the
calmest which we have had since the revolution. We have had no forced
illuminations, no planting of trees of liberty, no physical-force
demonstrations, no great display of any kind; in fact, we have been
decidedly dull. But in some parts of the city, our sovereign lord and
master, the Mob, has been graciously pleased to afford us a little
interesting excitement by bullying the landlords into giving receipts
for their rents, without the usual preliminary ceremony of fingering
the cash. ‘Base is the slave that pays his rent’ is now the motto of
the mob, and his mobship chalks it up along with ‘liberty, equality,
fraternity!’ To show, however, that he is really a good fellow at heart,
the said mob no sooner swindles (I am afraid it amounts to swindling in
English) the landlord out of his rent, than he invests a small portion
of the coin in the purchase of a tricolor flag, with which he decorates
the landlord’s house. And such is the worthy fellow’s moderation, that
even when the landlord has refused to be victimised, the mob has not
inflicted summary vengeance on him; he has only stuck a black flag
before the offender’s door, or playfully made his effigy dangle by the
neck from the nearest lamp-post.”

In Ireland the progress of sedition afforded a much more favourable
opportunity for displaying the equity and prudence of the French
provisional government. An address was voted to the republic of France
by the Young Irelanders, who styled themselves the people of Ireland,
although they well knew that millions of Irishmen, numbering among them
her most intelligent and influential citizens, repudiated the principles
and proceedings of the party. A deputation, consisting of Mr. Smith
O’Brien and several other gentlemen, were sent to Paris to express the
sympathy and congratulation of the Irish people on the new-born liberty
of the citizens of France. It was well understood in England, and much
better understood in Ireland, that the deputation were expected to sound
the French government as to any hope of assistance in case of a rising
in Ireland; and also to stir up the minds of the French people generally
to more decided interest for Ireland, and a greater willingness to
identify the French republic with Irish hopes and aspirations. On
the 3rd of April the young Ireland deputation was received by the
provisional government at the Hôtel de Ville, and there presented an
address in the spirit of their mission. The following reply was read by
Lamartine:--

“_Citizens of Ireland_,--If we required a fresh proof of the pacific
influence of the proclamation of the great democratic principle,--this
new Christianity, bursting forth at the opportune moment, and dividing
the world, as formerly, into a Pagan and Christian community,--we should
assuredly discern this proof of the omnipotent action of an idea, in
the visits spontaneously paid in this city to republican France, and
the principles which animate her, by the nations, or by fractions of the
nations, of Europe.

“We are not astonished to see to-day a deputation from Ireland. Ireland
knows how deeply her destinies, her sufferings, and her successive
advances in the path of religious liberty, of unity, and of
constitutional equality with the other parts of the United Kingdom, have
at all times moved the heart of Europe. We said as much, a few days ago,
to another deputation of your fellow-citizens. We said as much to all
the children of that glorious Isle of Erin, which the natural genius of
its inhabitants, and the striking events of its history, render equally
symbolical of the poetry and the heroism of the nations of the north.
Rest assured, therefore, that you will find in France, under the
republic, a response to all the sentiments which you express towards it.

“Tell your fellow-citizens that the name of Ireland is synonymous with
the name of liberty courageously defended against privilege--that it is
one common name to every French citizen. Tell them that this reciprocity
which they invoke--that this hospitality of which they are not
oblivious--the republic will be proud to remember and to practise
invariably towards the Irish. Tell them, above all, that the French
republic is not, and never will be, an aristocratic republic, in which
liberty is merely abused as the mask of privilege; but a republic
embracing the entire community, and securing to all the same rights and
the same benefits. As regards other encouragements, it would be neither
expedient for us to hold them out, nor for you to receive them. I have
already expressed the same opinion with reference to Germany, Belgium,
and Italy; and I repeat it with reference to every nation which is
involved in internal disputes--which is either divided against itself
or at variance with its government. When there is a difference of
race--when nations are aliens in blood--intervention is not allowable.
We belong to no party in Ireland or elsewhere, except to that which
contends for justice, for liberty, and for the happiness of the Irish
people. No other part would be acceptable to us, in the time of peace,
in the interests and the passions of foreign nations. France is desirous
of reserving herself free for the maintenance of the rights of all.

“We are at peace, and we are desirous of remaining on good terms of
equality, not with this or that part of Great Britain, but with Great
Britain entire. We believe this peace to be useful and honourable, not
only to Great Britain and the French republic, but to the human race. We
will not commit an act--we will not utter a word--we will not breathe
an insinuation at variance with the principles of the reciprocal
inviolability of nations which we have proclaimed, and of which the
continent of Europe is already gathering the fruits. The fallen monarchy
had treaties and diplomatists. Our diplomatists are nations, our
treaties are sympathies. We should be insane were we openly to exchange
such a diplomacy for unmeaning and partial alliances with even the
most legitimate parties in the countries which surround us. We are not
competent either to judge them or to prefer some of them to others; by
announcing our partizanship on the one side, we should declare ourselves
the enemies of the other. We do not wish to be the enemies of any
of your fellow-countrymen. We wish, on the contrary, by a faithful
observance of the republican pledges, to remove all the prejudices which
may mutually exist between our neighbours and ourselves. This course,
however painful it may be, is imposed on us by the law of nations, as
well as by our historical remembrances.

“Do you know what it was which most served to irritate France and
estrange her from England during the first republic? It was the civil
war in a portion of our territory, supported, subsidised, and assisted
by Mr. Pitt. It was the encouragement and the arms given to Frenchmen,
as heroical as yourselves, but Frenchmen fighting against their
fellow-citizens. This was not honourable warfare; it was a royalist
propagandism waged with French blood against the republic. This policy
is not yet, in spite of all our efforts, entirely effaced from the
memory of the nation. Well, this cause of dissension between Great
Britain and us, we will never renew by taking any similar course. We
accept with gratitude expressions of friendship from the different
nationalities included in the British empire. We ardently wish that
justice may found and strengthen the friendship of races; that equity
may become more and more its basis; but while proclaiming with you,
with her (England), and with all, the holy dogma of fraternity, we will
perform only acts of brotherhood, in conformity with our principles and
our feelings towards the Irish nation.”

At the conclusion of this reply some present exclaimed, “Vive la
République!” others “Vive le Gouvernement Provisore!” and a few
cried out, “Vive Lamartine!” but the general impression was one of
dissatisfaction. Smith O’Brien and his companions retired discomfited.
The British government and people received the intelligence of this
reply with the greatest satisfaction, and their confidence in the
provisional government, and in Lamartine, more especially, was much
increased. There was already more reliance upon the friendly policy of
the republic than there had been upon the monarchy and the monarchial
ministry of Louis Philippe. In Ireland the reply of Lamartine gave
satisfaction also to the Protestants, and such of the Roman Catholic
citizens as were opposed to the O’Brien movement; but the Young
Irelanders, and most of the Old Irelanders, were exasperated, and
in their speeches and newspapers denounced Lamartine as the enemy
of liberty, the sycophant of England, and the incubus of the French
provisional government. It was said that he had married an English lady,
and was more English at heart than French--that he would betray the
republic to England or to monarchy. Those persons who had been foremost
in holding him up as a demi-god, now abused him not only as a traitor,
but as weak in purpose, policy, and intellectual grasp. John Mitchell
denounced him as the great obstruction to the development of
European freedom, which no doubt he was to such freedom as Mitchell
advocated--the plunder and tyranny of a modified communism; for while
essentially holding that theory, he in some way, not very intelligible
to others, repudiated it. Lamartine began his career of power by
emancipating the negro race; Mitchell commenced his career as a free
exile in America, some years after, by the most violent advocacy of the
fetter and the whip for the coloured population of that country. The
_Nation_ newspaper, week after week, informed its readers that Lamartine
was an idle dreamer, a mere theoretical politician; that his mind was
only constituted for the regions of romance; and that his opinion on the
affairs of Ireland, England, France, or Europe was worthless. A week or
two before the same paper held him up as the very Achilles of freedom,
and the hope of Ireland--for it was the habit of both the parties
claiming nationality in Ireland, to hope for liberty from the courage
and efforts of others rather than from their own. The reply of Lamartine
caused as much despondency in Ireland among the seditious, as it
inspired confidence among the loyal, and among all the intelligent
citizens in Great Britain. Throughout the year the conduct of the French
government was internationally just and courteous, and England had no
cause for complaint, but every reason to be thankful that Louis Philippe
and Guizot had given place to such men as Lamartine and Cavaignac.

The revolution in France was of more importance to England than the
revolutions which took place in Italy and Germany--they require,
therefore, only a comparatively brief notice.

ITALY.

All Italy felt the shock of the French revolution, although, in point
of time, the revolutionary feeling developed itself in Italy before it
burst forth in France. Throughout the year 1847 all Switzerland, and
Austrian and Papal Italy, were uneasy; and in January, six weeks before
the dethronement of Louis Philippe, there were disturbances in Milan.
Indeed, from the moment Pius IX. ascended the papal throne, a change
came over the people of Italy: it was supposed that the pope was a
patriot, and would favour the struggle for Italian liberty, and this
delusion was not dispelled until after the battle of Novara. It was then
found that the pope and the kasir were allies, even while the troops of
the former were marching forth ostensibly to do battle for Italy.

When the tidings of the revolt in Paris reached Italy, the people flew
to arms. General Radetzsky and his Austrian troops were driven from
Milan; a provisional government was formed, and all Italy was called
upon to arm. The King of Sardinia, who had proclaimed a most liberal
constitution for his own kingdom, marched an army into Lombardy; Venice
revolted; and Radetzsky retired upon Verona. The Austrian lines along
the Mincio were forced, and the position of Radetzsky’s forces was
dangerous. Two circumstances, however, favoured him--the supineness of
the papal troops, and the junction of Nugent, an Irish marshal in the
Austrian service, with the troops under his command. After various
fortunes, the allied Italians were beaten; Lombardy and Venice were
entirely subjected to the Austrian arms; and but for English and
French diplomacy, Sardinia also would have fallen before the victorious
Austrian. The English government was desirous to see Italy freed from
Austrian domination, and would not have submitted to see Sardinia
overthrown by an invasion of the kasir’s army. France, also, regarded
events there with views similar to those entertained by England, but
it did not suit the policy of either country to interfere beyond the
diplomatic interposition by which Sardinia was saved. Probably they were
also influenced by the suspicion that the royal house of Sardinia was
more actuated by ambition than by a desire for the liberties of Italy.
The fact of the king having granted a constitution did not altogether
prevent such suspicions, because that was his only hope of gaining
ascendancy in Italy; and the general tone of the Sardinian court and
cabinet gave a colour to the impression that their policy was not
entirely disinterested. His majesty was glad to consent to an armistice
with Radetzsky, and to fall back behind the shields of France and
England for safety. The king, however, was obliged to abdicate; shame,
the defeat of his armies, the failure of his policy, and the certainty
that if he remained upon the throne, the kasir would seize the first
opportunity to make war upon him, determined him to abdicate.

THE PAPAL STATES.

Early in the year the pope published a new plan for the organisation of
the executive government of his dominions, which gave satisfaction to
the liberal friends of the popedom. On the 14th of March he proclaimed
a new constitution. The resistance offered to the national will, in the
case of Austria, caused him to become unpopular. On the 29th of April
he addressed the cardinals in conclave, disavowing the act of the papal
troops proceeding against the Austrian armies in Italy. This caused
a popular tumult; the next day the people took possession of the
post-office and the offices of state, and discovered that the pope and
cardinals had been intriguing with Austria. The result was the entire
sacrifice of the pontiff’s popularity; all confidence in his honour,
and that of his cardinals, was erased from the Roman mind. Under the
pressure of the public demand, he, on the 1st of May, proclaimed war
against Austria, but never intended to adopt such measures as would
carry the declaration into effect. He intended to deceive the people,
seeing that they were determined on war; and he knew that this could be
better done by retaining his authority over the troops, than by allowing
the war to be carried out by a popular and lay administration, which
would be in earnest. Early in May a new ministry of a liberal character
was formed, but the pope’s private advisers counteracted their policy.
The result was a revolution--not against the pope’s ecclesiastical,
but solely against his temporal, authority. Scenes of the most dreadful
nature followed, all of which might have been averted by an honest
course on the part of the pontiff, and the college of cardinals.
The pope was really willing to concede much; but the demand that the
temporal government of the people should be by and for the people,
he was not willing to admit; and by covertly attempting to destroy or
counteract all that he publicly and ostensibly admitted, he filled the
people with incurable resentment against those who surrounded him,
and to whom they attributed, rather than to himself, the faithless and
despotic policy in secret pursued. A chamber of deputies was convoked,
to whom the pope formally surrendered his government, declining to take
any part in their doings, or to afford any sanction. Several of the
high ecclesiastics and lay authorities, by whose agency he sought to
counteract the efforts for constitutional liberty which the people
made, were slain, and others driven from Rome. At last, on the 24th of
November, he disguised himself as a livery servant in attendance upon
the Bavarian ambassador, and mounting the box of that gentleman’s
carriage, beside his coachman, was driven to the house of the Bavarian
embassy; thence, disguised as the chaplain to the embassy, he succeeded
in escaping to Gaeta, a town within the Neapolitan territory. The flight
of the pope was followed by a protest on his part against the liberalism
of his people, who organised a regular government on liberal principles;
their efforts were counteracted by the spies and agents of the pope,
and the embassies of all the Roman Catholic powers: among the foreign
representatives, none was more hostile to the incipient liberties of
Rome than the ambassador of the French republic.

The pope, the kasir, the king of Naples, and the despots of the smaller
Italian states, considered that England was the chief fomenter of
Italian disturbance. This arose from one of those whig _mal àpropos_
movements for which their party had of late years earned a bad
reputation. Lord Minto was dispatched to Italy in a semi-official
capacity; the real object of his mission was to open diplomatic
relations with the pope, who, although very desirous to respond to the
wishes of the English Whigs, thought it a good opportunity to extort
some concessions as to the interests of the Roman Catholic religion in
British territory. The Whigs, knowing that they dare not face the public
opinion of Great Britain, if they made such concessions as the pope’s
demands and their own wishes would prompt, were baulked in their
undertaking. They succeeded, however, in obtaining a certain amount of
influence upon the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland, restraining
the latter from favouring the revolutionary designs existing in that
country. It was remarkable that while the Irish Roman Catholics were
abusing Lamartine and the French provisional government, for not
assisting by arms revolution in Ireland,--that is, a revolution of a
portion of the Irish who followed certain leaders,--they were equally
abusive of the people of Rome for daring, against the will of the pope,
to assert any measure of civil or religious liberty, however modest.
Impudent threats were made of sending an Irish army to the pope’s
assistance, at the very time that the persons so vaunting were afraid of
the Dublin police!

The close of the year saw the pope a fugitive and the people free.

NAPLES AND SICILY.

These countries did not escape the revolutionary contagion. Sicily flew
to arms, and the revolt succeeded. The English government was desirous
to see Sicily separated from Naples; and their emissary, Lord Minto, so
betrayed this feeling to the king of the two Sicilies as to inspire him
with intense hatred to England, and to confirm him in the opinion that
English agency was busy in creating or sustaining the confusion of the
continente, Lord Minto had the preposterous folly to suggest to the
king that Sicily should only be garrisoned by Sicilian troops! This, of
course, was indignantly rejected by both the king and cabinet.

The Sicilians published a manifesto of their free and moderate opinions,
which was very excellent. The document was very deceptive, and designed
to gain support in England and France. One of the false promises of the
manifesto was the entire freedom of religion; one of the first acts of
the Sicilians in their short-lived power was a rigorous establishment
of the Roman Catholic religion, and this was enacted in terms which
disclosed the bigoted feelings of the nation. Sicily wanted to be
independent of Naples, but it had not the same wish to be separated from
the despotic principle. An independent nation, without a free people,
was the highest aspiration of revolted Sicily. England and France left
her to her fate, except so far as Lord Minto’s meddling complicated
her condition. The temporarily vanquished Neapolitans returned to the
contest, and the revolution was ingloriously suppressed.

In Naples the victory of the constitution was as short as the
independence, of Sicily. The king acted without sincerity, and the
deputies without prudence. The king found an opportunity of resistance,
for which he had well prepared himself. He was surrounded by Swiss
guards, recruited from the bigoted Roman Catholic cantons of the
Sonderbund, or what had been so termed before its tyranny was crushed
the previous year. The king had also the lazzaroni on his side; some
thirty thousand thieves, assassins, street beggars, and burglars were
in his majesty’s royal pay and royal favour. They were enthusiastic for
king, church, and plunder. It was alleged that the royal promise was
held out to them that if they conquered the citizens they would be
permitted to sack the city. The event seemed as if such allegation were
true; the united Swiss and lazzaroni conquered, and the city was sacked.
The king permitted, and his minions encouraged, the most infamous
proceedings: riot, robbery, and debauch filled every street and almost
every house, while blood, the blood of the best citizens of Naples,
flowed in torrents. There is no knowing to what extent these horrors
might have been carried by the “faithful lazzaroni,” had not the French
admiral in the bay declared that he would act against the king if these
inhumanities were not at once stopped. The lazzaroni must have been
at the king’s beck, for the moment he was alarmed by threats of the
interference of a French squadron, he called in his bloodhounds, and
held the leash until the threatened danger passed.

BELGIUM.

Much concern was felt in England as to the part which Belgium would take
in the terrible continental tragedy. The king being her majesty’s uncle,
and also the uncle of her consort, the safety of his throne was regarded
anxiously by the English court. As he had by his second marriage
connected himself with the family of Louis Philippe, the French
republicans looked upon him as a very suspicious neighbour; but the
prudent policy of Lamartine prevented any collision, and checked the
propagandism which both sections of French republicans desired to
bring to bear upon Belgium. The “Reds,” perceiving that the provisional
government was not disposed to embroil itself with foreign powers,
organised an _émeute_ in Belgium with a sort of filibustering expedition
of their own. Several hundred socialists made their way into Belgium,
and used every effort to induce the people to join them, but in vain,--a
few only, who like themselves, held extreme and impracticable views of
democracy, made any insurrectionary movement; and the affair exploded as
harmlessly as Smith O’Brien’s abortive attempt at revolution in Ireland.
Had any success, short of a complete revolution, attended the efforts of
the French “sympathisers,” the armed intervention of England might have
been necessitated, and another long war with France have spread its
terrors, havoc, and ruin in Belgium.

GERMANY.

The people of Germany were ripe for revolt when the tidings of the
French revolution came suddenly as a flash along the electric wire. No
people had ever been more basely deceived by princes than the Germans.
Constitutions were promised, and the promises shamefully violated,
sometimes ostensibly conceded, but really never acted upon. The oaths
of kings were synonymous for falsehood throughout the great fatherland.
Schiller has sung--

     “The human being:
     May not be trusted with self-government;”

but the poet and philosopher must have understood that the human
being is as worthy to be trusted with self-government as with the
irresponsible government of other men, no way his inferiors--perhaps,
morally and intellectually, superior to him. The Prussian people could
have governed themselves with as much ability as the king governed them.
The Hanoverians could have managed their own affairs as morally as the
English Duke of Cumberland, or his son George conducted them. Nor did
the wisdom of the Austrian emperor, for matters of government, exceed
the intelligence of the educated citizens of Vienna.

The first vibration of the great French earthquake was felt in the grand
Duchy of Baden. The people, as one man, demanded liberty; the demand was
too unanimously made to be resisted; the victory was won without a shot.
On the 3rd of March the Rhenish provinces of Prussia felt the shock, and
Cologne was in arms; on the 4th, Wisbaden; on the 5th, Dusseldorf; on
the 8th, the Hessians of Cassel barricaded the streets, and flew to
arms--their victory was won without blood. Early in March the people of
Munich demanded their rights, which none but slaves consented to forego;
they were refused; the people responded to the first cry “to arms” that
was raised; the troops would not charge the people, but mingled in the
shouts of “a republic! a republic!” The alarmed king conceded, tampered
with his own concessions, and at last abdicated. His son and successor
made a great flourish of proclamations and promises, throwing himself
upon the popular sympathy until time enabled him to forswear himself.
The credulous people who believed the oaths of kings, generally paid
afterwards the penalty of their credulity in blood or fetters.

In Saxony there was no harmony between the court and people; the former
were Roman Catholic, and the latter Protestant. The prudence of the
monarch, however, prevailed over the solicitations of his court to treat
his people with disdain, and he saved his throne and his honour.

The King of Hanover was less honest, as well as less compliant, but even
he had to recognise, for the time being, a constitution.

Prussia proper was affected, as well as her less homogeneous provinces,
by the grand convulsion. After a series of conflicts in the streets of
Berlin, order was at last restored, and the constitution modified so as
to satisfy a large portion of the people. The Poles in Posen revolted,
and perpetrated the utmost atrocities, but were put down by the Prussian
troops without obtaining any of the objects for which they so wildly
fought, and so vaguely demanded. The people of Posen had been
practised upon by their own nobles, and incited by their priests.
Their insurrection was one of fanaticism, not of freedom; the revolters
carried the symbols and images of their creed, not the banners of
nationhood before them,--they deserved to fail. Their chief oppressors
were the privileged classes of their own countrymen, from whom the
Prussian government derived no aid in its efforts to meliorate the
condition of the province. Education was resisted, industry discouraged,
and the religious rights of minorities assailed by ignorant and
fanatical mobs. The freedom required in Posen was an emancipation of the
people from their own passions and prejudices.

THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE.

The revolutionary history of the Austrian empire during the year
1848 was instructive, and full of the most eventful changes and great
results. On another page the progress of affairs in Austrian Italy was
sketched, and the relation of the kasir’s interests there to contiguous
Italian states pointed out. The whole empire was, however, convulsed,
and the throes of every part communicated its vibrations to the whole.
The revolt in Hungary constituted the most interesting and important
part of the great transactions which occurred within the limits of the
empire. The government of the kasir succeeded, by exciting the jealousy
of Magyar and German, Croat and Hungarian, metropolitan and provincial,
in holding the difficult balance, and in preserving the empire in its
integrity from the flood which flowed over it with such disintegrating
force.

The revolution in Hungary was completely successful, and Vienna itself
was menaced by a Hungarian army. The heroism of an Englishman, General
Guyon, rendered the greatest military services; and the eloquence and
wisdom of a civilian, Louis Kossuth, guided the aspirations and resolves
of armed Hungary. Ultimately, indeed, by the aid of Russian armies,
the Austrian was enabled once more to tread out the fire of Hungarian
liberty; but 1848 saw the gallant Magyars victorious.

The Viennese, notwithstanding their contiguity to the court and their
close dependence upon the kasir, rose in arms, and obtained an extensive
recognition of those rights which the people everywhere claimed. Those
who by extreme measures and views marred the cause of freedom elsewhere,
did so at Vienna. The socialist element was the ruin of the revolution.
The thinking and the morally sound portions of the citizens were
detached from the popular cause, in and out of Vienna, and the arms of
the emperor finally triumphed over the barricades of the capital.

THE GERMAN CONFEDERATION.

Representatives from all the German states, where successful revolutions
had been effected, assembled in Frankfort to form a closer confederacy
of the German states. The ambition of Prussia and Austria found scope in
this new sphere of action. The Prussian king was desirous to be elected
emperor of Germany, and supposed that the Frankfort parliament would
subserve his purpose. Never did an assembly of men utter finer, noble
principles, than that, nor did any display such utter impracticability.
They occupied the time in visionary schemes, which ought to have
been devoted to secure the liberty of each individual state, and they
sacrificed the interests of nations to the German invidiousness of race.
The socialist party tried to force their own especial objects upon the
assembly, and when unsuccessful, deluged Frankfort with blood. They
followed the policy and conduct of their prototypes, the red republicans
of Paris, in their resistance to the provisional government. The
irreconcilable differences of opinion between the advocates of change
gave kings advantage in the reactionary policy which they meditated
before the year was out.

DENMARK.--SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.

The inhabitants of the duchies revolted against the king of Denmark;
this arose partly from that hatred to all other races characteristic of
the German. The Schleswig-Holsteiners could not endure amalgamation,
or even close alliance with the Scandinavian race, much less with the
Sclaves, should the Emperor of Russia inherit the throne of Denmark. The
people of the duchies were desirous to be identified more with Germany,
and this was, notwithstanding other pretences, the main-spring of the
revolt. The King of Prussia, never true to his engagements, violated
treaties, and marched his troops into the duchies. This dispute was one
with which England might have been involved, as she had certain treaty
obligations which rendered the possibility of such a result the subject
of speculation.

RUSSIA.

The empire of the autocrat was undisturbed, but the revolutionary
feeling seemed ready to invade it on all its European frontier. Large
bodies of troops were gathered in Southern Russia for the purpose of
entering the Turkish Danubian provinces, in order to suppress the spirit
of revolution which there manifested itself, and found vent in a fervent
political agitation. In Poland, also, the czar concentrated a great
army. Warsaw bristled with bayonets; and a diplomatic message was sent
to the court of Berlin, assuring it of the czar’s friendly feeling, but
warning it that, in case of any disturbances on the Polish frontier
of Russia, if they were not very promptly suppressed, the Russian
government would take measures to effect the security of its own
frontier. The message amounted to a hint that if a Russian army were
needed by the Prussian monarch, the czar was not unwilling to lend it,
or, if need should exist, he would find a reason, without being asked
for his aid, to cross the frontier, and put down democracy.

The following arrogant presumption of divine right was put forth by the
czar:--

“After the benefits of a long peace, the west of Europe finds itself
at this moment suddenly given over to perturbations which threaten
with ruin and overthrow all legal powers and the whole social system.
Insurrection and anarchy, the offspring of France, soon crossed the
German frontier, and have spread themselves in every direction with an
audacity which has gained new force in proportion to the concessions of
the governments. This devastating plague has at last attacked our allies
the empire of Austria and the kingdom of Prussia, and to-day in its
blind fury menaces even our Russia--that Russia which God has confided
to our care. But Heaven forbid that this should be! Faithful to the
example handed down from our ancestors, having first invoked the aid of
the Omnipotent, we are ready to encounter our enemies from whatever side
they may present themselves, and without sparing our own person we will
know how, indissolubly united to our holy country, to defend the honour
of the Russian name, and the inviolability of our territory. We are
convinced that every Russian, that every one of our faithful subjects,
will respond with joy to the call of his sovereign. Our ancient war-cry,
‘For our faith, our sovereign, and our country!’ will once again lead us
on the path of victory: and then, with sentiments of humble gratitude,
as now with feelings of holy hope, we will all cry with one voice, ‘God
is on our side: understand this, ye peoples, and submit, for God is on
our side.’”

On the whole, England preserved peace with all foreign states during the
rage of this political tempest. Her attitude was morally sublime. The
waves rose, and the hurricane raged around her, but she towered above
the billow and the tempest, her crown bright with the glory which the
sun of liberty shed upon it. The stranger who found a refuge and a home
within her borders, might well offer to her the tribute which the poet
Moore so gracefully inscribed upon the pedestal of her freedom and her
power:--

     “Hail to thee, Albion! that meetest the commotion
     Of Europe, as calm as thy cliffs meet the foam;
     With no bond but the law, and no bound but the ocean,
     Hail, temple of liberty! thou art my home.”

IRELAND.

_Famine and Pestilence_.--Frightful as was the state of Ireland in 1847,
it was still worse in the year 1848. Commercial affairs were embarrassed
by so many disturbing circumstances, that public confidence was not
restored throughout the year. The potato disease, agrarian outrage,
Ribbonism, the repeal agitation, and an insurrectionary combination, all
combined to restrict commerce.

The destitution of the people was terrible. It is unnecessary to go
into the details of the horrid story: numbers perished of famine, and
pestilence went forth with devastating fury where hunger had stricken.
The “famine fever” carried away multitudes to an untimely grave. This
disease extended also to the Irish in England. Many in London died of
it, and great numbers in Manchester, but the affliction fell still more
heavily upon Liverpool. Several Roman Catholic clergymen in those towns
fell victims, nor did medical men escape. Efforts continued to be made
by the government, and by voluntary charity, to mitigate the calamities
which befel the country, but their variety and magnitude set at defiance
all the noble efforts that were made, and the exhaustless compassions of
the noble hearts that made them.

_Continuance of Crime and Outrage_.--The story of the two previous years
was the same of this: crime raged everywhere; the hand of the assassin
was constantly uplifted; and woe to the landlord who expelled a tenant
for whatsoever violation of contract, and to the zealous Protestant, lay
or clerical, who claimed a right to discuss his religious opinions, even
in self-defence, or to circulate thera, even in the most inoffensive
manner.

Much of the crime of Ireland was to be attributed to a secret society
which the government never made any adequate efforts to suppress, and
which was commonly called the “Ribbon Society.” No means were taken by
the respectable Roman Catholics to break up this exclusively Romanist
confederacy, the chief object of which was the extermination of
Protestants, and it was in 1848 that, in this respect, little was to
be then expected from them. No public protest against the worst and the
wildest of the ultramontane proceedings of previous years had been made
by Roman Catholics, clerical or lay, English or Irish, or of any rank
in life; and the “liberal Roman Catholics,” as they liked to be called,
could not be surprised if Protestants began to put no faith in their
liberal professions. Yet this section of the Roman Catholics had gained
much confidence and respect with liberal Protestants in both countries.
It was chiefly on their representations that the once formidable Orange
societies were suppressed, and although these societies changed their
constitution in compliance with the law, yet they never acquired public
confidence after: through the instrumentality of Mr. Hume’s exposure
of the dangerous tendency of the confederacy, the law was put in
force against them. The liberal Romanists were accustomed to say that
Ribbonism was, so to say, but the complement of Orangeism; that if
the latter were made illegal, the other would die of itself. This was
believed by the whig and radical parties of the day; and after a
feeble resistance on the part of the Tories, Orangeism was at last
discountenanced by the state, and literally turned out of doors, after
having been used and misused, petted and pampered, for half a century.
Instead, however, of Ribbonism taking a voluntary departure, as lay and
priestly liberal spouters of the popular Roman Catholic party presumed,
it increased in extent, numbers, and virus. Portions of Ireland where
it had previously no footing became the high places of its power;
every town in England where Irish Roman Catholics lived had affiliated
societies formed; London, Manchester, Liverpool, and Lancashire
generally, counted their tens of thousands of sworn enemies to the
English government and name, and to the toleration and even existence
of Protestants. The oaths of the members were again and again revised,
becoming more relentless and blood-thirsty, just as every concession was
made to Roman Catholic demands. As the system of Ribbonism was in 1848,
nothing more bloody and diabolical was ever conceived by lost human
minds. Nothing like it _could_ exist except amongst a people in whose
hearts bigotry had so uprooted all tolerance and charity, that their
ferocity of zealotism would vie with that which an Irish Romanist
described of others:--

     “Men of the saintly murderous brood.
     To carnage and the Koran given,
     Who think, through unbeliever’s blood,
     Lies the directest path to heaven.”

_Political Agitation_.--The Repeal Association continued its meetings,
and notwithstanding the prevailing distress, considerable sums were
subscribed; some weeks as much as £80 was received. Mr. John O’Connell
presided at those meetings, which were barren of all utility for the
party, and destitute of the eloquence which in the days of O’Connell and
Shiel enlivened and gave importance to public meetings.

The young Ireland party was all activity, and although few of its
orators were really eloquent, there were many of them good speakers,
several who rose to the rank of superior platform address, and one (Mr.
Meagher) of surpassing eloquence. The Young Irelanders, on the whole,
wrote better than they spoke, and very able articles appeared from
their pens in the press, not only in Dublin, but throughout Ireland. The
_Nation_ newspaper, conducted by Charles Gavan Duffy, a man of wonderful
energy and courage, of discriminating literary taste and fine talents,
was perhaps the most ably managed newspaper in the British Isles, so
far as literary claims were concerned. The most passionate and exciting
ballads, full of poetical and patriotic fervour, the most elaborate and
elegantly written dissertations on Ireland, her history, music, poetry,
language, and people, and popularly written and able articles on
politics, filled its columns. Their influence upon the mind of the young
men of Ireland who were of the Roman Catholic persuasion, and of many
Protestants who were too liberal in sentiment to suspect their Roman
Catholic fellow-countrymen of desiring religious ascendancy, was great.
When John Mitchell considered that the _Nation_ had too little sympathy
with red republicanism, he set up a paper called the _Irishman_, which
he made the vehicle of the most outrageous doctrines, political and
social. The leading articles of the _Irishman_ were written by Mr.
Mitchell himself, with a nervous power, eloquence, boldness of thought,
and audacity, which were very extraordinary. These articles were amongst
the ablest specimens of newspaper writing which had ever been known in