PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS.
There was little in the session of 1856 to demand attention from the historian, except the debates upon the three great wars in which the nation was engaged. The wars with Russia and Persia excited party debates of long duration and fierce conflict. The war with China occurred too late in the year for parliamentary disputation, until the session of 1857. The terms of the peace agreed on at Paris with Russia caused very prolonged discussions, but in these, and in the opposition sustained in connection with the Persian war, the ministry was successful.
The differences with the United States afforded another opportunity for the parliamentary opposition to attack the government. A debate was opened by a motion, introduced by Mr. G. H. Moore, “a member of the Irish independent opposition,” which was badly managed by the introducer and the parties who supported him; the government was victorious.
Education, especially in Ireland; life peerages; civil service appointments; the use of torture in India; law reform; difficulties in the execution of the treaty of Paris; the questions connected with the Isle of Serpents and Bulgrad, on the new Russo-Bessarabian frontier; the disposal of the Aland Islands conquered by the allies during the war in the Baltic; the Turkish firman in favour of the Christians in fulfilment of the treaty of Paris; annexation of Oude; and maritime international law,—were the subjects which engaged the attention of the members of both houses. The men who were most prominent in these debates were Lords Lyndhurst, Brougham, Campbell, Derby, and the Duke of Argyle in the lords; Lords Palmerston and Russell, Sir James Graham, Sir Charles Napier, and Benjamin Disraeli, in the commons.
The eventful year of 1856 commenced and closed in war. War with Russia and Persia existed at its commencement: war with China was waging at its close.
England, always victorious in the East, won there fresh laurels; always embroiled in India, she had made for herself fresh complications; always bold and enterprising in her industry, she had, in spite of war and warlike expenses, increased marvellously her prosperity, material resources, the comfort of her people, and the real conditions of her power.