SCENE IN THE BELFAST RIOTS. (See p. [350].)
In Ireland, the unhappy consequences which result from the secular oppression of one race or religion by another were painfully illustrated this year by the riots at Belfast. Earlier in the year a significant event had occurred in Dublin, which first disclosed the strength and wide extension of the Fenian conspiracy. A Fenian convention had met the year before in America, but that the society numbered thousands and tens of thousands of enthusiastic supporters in Ireland itself was not generally known before the Rotunda meeting, on the 23rd of February, 1864. This meeting—having been called by The O'Donoghue, Mr. A. M. Sullivan, and other leaders of the National party, to testify their indignation at the proposal to erect a monument in Dublin to the memory of the Prince Consort—was mobbed, soon after the proceedings began, by a preconcerted attack of Fenians, and after a good deal of fighting vanquished and dispersed.
But the desperate riots which took place at Belfast, in the autumn, threw all minor scuffles into the shade. There had been a great demonstration at Dublin, on the 8th of August, in honour of Daniel O'Connell, and a monument had been inaugurated to his memory. The demonstration itself went off quietly. But the Protestants of Belfast felt, when the accounts of the Dublin proceedings reached them through the newspapers, extremely annoyed. Accordingly they eagerly prepared a counter-demonstration. An insulting effigy of O'Connell was made and carried through the streets, attended by thousands of mill-workers; and in the evening it was publicly burnt. Nor was this all. Next day the Protestants announced that having burnt O'Connell, they must now proceed to bury him. A coffin was prepared and borne solemnly to the gate of the Friar's Bush Cemetery, where it was, of course, refused admittance; after which it suffered the same fate as the effigy, and the ashes were thrown into the river running through the town. The bonfire, however, was still blazing, and the crowds around it were still engaged in hooting the "Liberator," when it became known that the Catholics were out in the Protestant quarters of the town, smashing windows and breaking furniture.
Night put an end to the disturbance for the time, but on the following day matters became serious. Between five and six o'clock in the morning, affrays occurred between various bodies of mill-workers going to work. The day passed off quietly, but in the evening an encounter took place between the Catholics and the inhabitants of Brown Square. The Catholics were for the time beaten off; but returning, armed with brickbats and other missiles, they fell upon the constabulary, who had by this time arrived upon the scene, leaving five or six severely wounded. All through the night the fray continued. The police made some captures, but nothing damped the spirit of the Catholic mob, and the rioting continued unabated during the whole of the following day, and throughout Friday and Saturday. Sunday was quiet, but Monday brought with it fresh scenes of disorder. A body of Roman Catholic navvies attacked the Protestant houses in Brown Street and the national school, wrecking both the buildings and their contents. While thus engaged, they were set upon by a party of exasperated Orangemen, and a regular fight ensued. The authorities saw that it was high time extreme measures were taken. The military were called out, under Mr. Lyons, J.P., and posted in the Protestant districts. But the Irish blood was up, and the sight of the soldiers produced none of the hoped-for effect upon the reckless mob. Next day, both soldiers and police fired upon the people. Two were shot dead in the mêlée, and between fifty and sixty seriously injured. There was a fearful rumour in the course of the day that the ship-carpenters, mostly Orangemen, had seized upon the gunpowder stores. The gunpowder, however, was saved by the prompt action of the authorities. On the 17th the ship-carpenters vowed vengeance upon the navvies, who had wrought such havoc at the outset of the riots, and having forced their enemies into the mudbanks in the harbour, they fired upon them from the shore, killing one and wounding nine or ten. It being quite evident that the Belfast authorities had no adequate force at hand, large reinforcements were sent to the number of about 4,000 men. These troops, encamped in the city, succeeded in preventing any further violence on a large scale. At length, on the 24th, Belfast was reported tranquil, and the bruised and sobered rioters began to look forward uneasily to the reckoning to come. Unfortunately, the mischief did not end with Belfast; other parts of Ireland caught the spirit of the rioters. But the authorities had been put on their guard, and the prompt despatch of troops to Dundalk and Newry nipped the disturbances there in the bud. At the spring assizes in the following year, 1865, many persons concerned in the riots were brought up for trial. The judge dwelt on the serious nature of the disturbances. According to the report of Dr. Murney, surgeon to the General Hospital, 316 persons had received more or less severe injuries, 219 had recovered, 11 died; while at the time the report was presented (November 6, 1864) there were 98 cases of gun-shot wounds still under treatment. "This," said Baron Deasy, "reads more like the Gazette after a very serious military or naval engagement, than the return presented to a judge of assize at the assizes in this country." In most cases a verdict of guilty was returned, and the sentences varied from two years' imprisonment with hard labour to three months'.
It can seldom happen in a vast Empire that a year should pass without some hostile collision taking place, either in one of its outlying colonies, or in one of the semi-civilised yet wealthy communities which its merchants frequent. In 1864 little wars raged at the Cape Coast in Africa, and in New Zealand, at that time Britain's youngest and fairest colony; while both in China and Japan hostilities, in which we were more or less engaged, were carried on. The Governor of Cape Coast Castle having refused to give up to the King of Ashantee two of his slaves who had taken refuge within British territory, the King made an incursion into the lands of the Fantees, a friendly tribe inhabiting that portion of the coast which adjoins our settlement. Thereupon Governor Pim ordered a force to proceed on an expedition into the Ashantee country, which, however, produced no coercive effect on the barbarian, and resulted in a heavy loss in officers and men, owing to the pestiferous nature of the climate. The matter was of no great consequence, yet, when it came to be debated in the House of Commons, it nearly upset the Government. Sir John Hay moved a resolution of censure, and, while acquitting the inferior authorities of blame, endeavoured to fix it all on the Cabinet. Sir John Hay's resolution, in a rather full House, was rejected by the narrow majority of seven.
In New Zealand, where a native war had existed since 1860, some decided advantages were gained this year by General Cameron, and certain native tribes gave in their unconditional submission. The war arose out of a quarrel respecting what was known in the colony as "the Waitara purchase." An individual Maori, named Teira, belonging to the tribe of Wiremu Kingi (Anglicè, William King), offered to the Government for sale, in 1859, a block of land on the river Waitara, near Taranaki. The Government, believing that no other rights over the land existed except those of the vendor, agreed to purchase it; but this decision was vehemently protested against by Wiremu Kingi. Troops were sent to Taranaki in 1860, by the aid of whom the block of land was occupied; and thus commenced a harassing and inglorious Maori war, in the course of which the town of Taranaki was seized and plundered, and the entire settlement ravaged by the native insurgents. To Major-General Pratt, who did little more than hold his ground against the Maoris, succeeded Major-General Cameron, an officer of great vigour and ability; but still the resistance of the Maoris, favoured by the wooded nature of the country, and the sparseness of the European population, continued. In 1861 the Duke of Newcastle summoned Sir George Grey (formerly Governor of New Zealand for several years at a most critical period) from the Cape Colony, and entrusted him with the government of New Zealand. After a careful investigation into the original cause of quarrel, Sir George Grey wrote to the Duke of Newcastle (April, 1863) that it was his settled conviction "that the natives are, in the main, right in their allegations regarding the Waitara purchase, and that it ought not to be gone on with." Proclamation was accordingly made to the natives that the purchase was abandoned. But the passions of the Maoris had been roused by the long continuance of a state of war; the proclamation, therefore, produced little effect. On the part of the natives, the war chiefly consisted in the surprise and murder of scattered settlers, or in a guerilla warfare against outposts and small detachments of the troops; on our part, it consisted in a series of attacks on their fortified pahs, or stockades, and in the securing of our flanks and rear by the construction of good military roads. In some cases pahs were stormed with little loss; but the troops were not always so fortunate. The Maori position of Orakau (April, 1864) cost us a loss of sixteen killed and fifty-two wounded to storm; and in an attack on a strong pah at Tauranga, on the north coast, the troops were actually repulsed, with a loss of ten officers and twenty-five rank and file killed, and four officers and seventy-two rank and file wounded. The pah was evacuated by the Maories on the following night, and they were soon after routed with heavy loss while endeavouring to entrench themselves near Tauranga. The Maoris of this district soon afterwards (August, 1864) submitted themselves unconditionally to the Governor, who expressed his intention of dealing leniently with them. The war was thus at an end on the north coast, but lingered on for some time longer in the Waikato country and around Taranaki.
In China, the rebellion of the Taepings was this year almost entirely suppressed, chiefly through the aid of British officers. An Order in Council had been passed authorising British subjects to enter into the service of the Emperor of China; and Colonel Gordon, taking advantage of the order, assisted by other English and American officers, drilled and disciplined a body of Chinese soldiers in the European fashion, and employed them in driving the Taepings and other disorderly characters beyond the thirty-five mile radius which had been stipulated for on behalf of the treaty ports. Following up his advantage, and co-operating with the military mandarins, Gordon, in the summer of 1864, aided them to reduce the town of Soochow, the last stronghold of the Taepings, of whom 30,000, including women and children, were cruelly massacred by the mandarins after the surrender. When the news of the massacre reached the British Government, the Order in Council authorising British subjects to enter the Chinese service was immediately revoked. This, however, did not avert a severe arraignment of their policy in Parliament, in which the Opposition were joined by several non-intervention Radicals. Lord Palmerston's reply was cogent and unanswerable. He pointed out that the general policy of Great Britain towards China was guided by the principle of the extension of commerce, and all the interferences of the Government had been rendered necessary by circumstances connected with the protection of the mercantile interests of Englishmen. As to the cruelty and perfidy of the imperialists, however that might be, the Taepings were infinitely the worse of the two, each of them possessing the normal characteristics of the Chinese.
In Japan several more horrid murders of Englishmen were committed by fanatical natives during the year; and an attempt was made, which was only partially successful, to destroy the batteries of Simonosaki. These batteries commanded the entrance into the inland sea of Japan, and the ruler of the place was in the habit of trying their range on any foreign vessel, of whatever nationality, that attempted to pass. An expedition, consisting of British, French, and Dutch ships-of-war, was organised at Yokohama and, sailing to Simonosaki, subjected the batteries to a heavy cannonade (September 5th), which was, however, vigorously returned and with considerable loss to the expedition. Parties of sailors and marines landed, spiked the guns in some of the batteries, and brought others, to the number of sixty, with three mortars, on board the ships. On the 10th of September a Minister from the ruler of the country, the Prince of Nagato, came off, armed with full powers to conclude a convention, which was ultimately arranged on the following terms:—(1) That the Strait of Simonosaki should be opened to the vessels of all nations; (2) that the shore batteries should neither be armed nor repaired; (3) that the Allied Powers should receive an indemnity, the amount of which was to be fixed by their representatives at Jeddo.
An appalling calamity befell the capital of our Indian empire in the autumn of this year. On the morning of the 5th of October a heavy gale set in from the north-east at Calcutta; gradually it veered round to the eastward, increasing in fury all the time, then to the southward, and finally to the south-west, so as to leave no doubt that it was a true cyclone, or revolving storm. Nearly all the churches and chapels in Calcutta were unroofed or otherwise seriously damaged, and scarcely a house in the city escaped without some injury. The native huts, especially in the suburbs, were nearly all blown down. Except the cocoa-nut and other palms, hardly a tree was anywhere left standing after the storm had passed away. The beautiful avenues in Fort William were entirely destroyed and the Eden Gardens turned into a wilderness. But it was on the river that the storm was attended with the most disastrous consequences. Of more than two hundred ships in the Hooghly, it was said that only ten were left at their moorings after the storm, the rest having been stranded or sunk. The Bengal, one of the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamers, another British steamer, and a French ship were fairly lifted up and deposited on shore. The total loss of life was very considerable, but does not appear to have been accurately ascertained. In the city and suburbs of Calcutta it was reported at forty-one natives, and two Europeans, besides some twenty seriously wounded by the fall of their houses, and some hundreds of lives were lost on the river. Great distress ensued owing to the scarcity of food, and a relief fund was promptly opened in England and the three Presidencies. In one day Bombay subscribed no less than £10,000.