[80] [Lord Macaulay's 'History,' or at least the first two volumes of it, had just been published.]
[81] [The Hon. Frederic Lamb, raised to the peerage as Lord Beauvale for his diplomatic services, succeeded his brother William as Viscount Melbourne. He was married to Mdlle. de Maltzahn, daughter of the Prussian Minister at Vienna, but left no offspring, and with him both titles expired.]
[82] [On December 20 Louis Charles Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed President of the French Republic. He was elected by 5,534,520 votes, General Cavaignac having 1,448,302 votes. From this moment the Prince becomes one of the most important personages in the political world, and virtually the master of the French nation.]
[83] [It was not Austria, but Naples, which had reason to complain of Lord Palmerston. He had allowed stores to be sent from Woolwich to the Sicilian insurgents, and for this breach of neutrality Lord John Russell insisted that an apology should be made to the King of Naples, and it was made. The transaction was first discovered and disclosed by the 'Times' newspaper. Till then Lord John Russell knew nothing of it.]
[84] [A Bill for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland for a period of six months had been passed in the previous summer. It now became necessary to renew it, and it was originally intended to renew it for twelve months, as Lord Clarendon, the Lord-Lieutenant, thought it expedient to do.]
[85] [Mr. Trevelyan, afterwards Sir Charles Trevelyan, Bart. and K.C.B., was at this time Secretary of the Treasury.]
[86] [Henry Baillie, Esq., of Redcastle, was then Member for Inverness-shire, and a considerable West Indian proprietor. He was assisted in organising this attack on the Colonial Department by Mr. Matthew Higgins, better known as 'Jacob Omnium,' a man of great wit and intelligence.]
[87] [Viscount Torrington was Governor of Ceylon during a formidable insurrection which had occurred in that island in the preceding year. He was violently attacked for the measures he had taken to suppress it, but he eventually defended himself, on his return to England, with complete success. Lord Torrington died in 1884.]
[88] [It is curious that Mr. Greville should not have remembered and stated exactly how this affair of the Sicilian arms transpired. Mr. Delane knew Hood, the arms contractor—a man who used to hunt with the Old Surrey Hounds—and by mere accident learnt from Hood all this story. The 'Times' perceived the importance of it, and soon afterwards charged the Government with having connived at a supply of arms from the Queen's stores to the Sicilian insurgents. No notice was taken of this first charge. It was therefore repeated in stronger language. Upon this, Lord John Russell (who knew nothing of the matter) took it up, said he must enquire into it, and that the charge must be contradicted or the practice stopped. On enquiry, he found it was all perfectly true, and then it was that he compelled Lord Palmerston, sorely against his will, to make a formal official apology to the King of Naples, the man whom he most hated and despised in the whole world.]
[89] [Hudson had made a large fortune in railway contracts and speculations, which he afterwards lost. He was known as the 'Railway King,' and had been the object of a most servile and contemptible homage in the days of his prosperity.]