Prince Albert visited the town and port of Liverpool, on the 30th, for the purpose of opening the Albert Dock, and of laying the first stone of the Sailors’ Home. The reception of his royal highness was worthy of the great commercial community by which he was invited.
August was ushered in by one of the most terrible hailstorms ever witnessed in London. It lasted for more than three hours, and created great devastation. Inundations spread, and the windows of the public buildings were extensively shattered. The glass in the roof of the picture-gallery at Buckingham Palace was totally destroyed; the damage was estimated at £2000. In the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Hall, seven thousand panes of glass were broken; in the head office of police, Scotland Yard, three hundred; in Burford’s panorama, ten thousand. A Citizen steamer on the river was struck by lightning off Battersea. The suburbs of London suffered from floods, hail, and lightning, and the royal parks were much damaged, especially that at Windsor.
Much interest was excited by the marine excursions taken by her majesty during that summer to the Channel Islands, and various places on the southern coast of England.
On the 29th of September, an event occurred in London which attracted much attention. The equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington, by Wyatt, was removed from the artist’s studio, in the Harrow Road, to the Triumphal Arch, at Hyde Park Corner, where it was set upon the pedestal prepared for it. The illustrious spectators in Apsley House were almost as much objects of interest to the multitude below, as the colossal statue erected to the honour of the hero of Waterloo.
The failure of the harvest throughout the British Isles caused in England a profound sensation. Prayers set apart to be used in a time of scarcity were offered up, and subscriptions for the poor were most generously bestowed by those whose means were ample, and by many from limited resources: British benevolence had been seldom seen to such advantage. During the month of November tempestuous weather prevailed along the coasts, causing many wrecks and much loss of life. Early in December, the severity of winter fell upon the British Isles. On the 10th, the mercury was fourteen degrees below the freezing-point in London. This severe weather added to the sufferings of the people, already pressed by scarcity of food. In the Highlands of Scotland, and in Ireland, stern destitution was experienced by the whole peasantry.
During the year many eminent persons died whose names shed a lustre on British history. In January, the Eight Honourable John Hookham Frère, M.A., expired, who had been ambassador to Spain at the beginning of the century. His representations had much influence in inducing the English government to set on foot the expedition to the peninsula, which shed so much glory on the arms of Britain. Earl Granville, whose name is so closely associated with English political and diplomatic history, also died within the month. During the following month, the antiquary, Gaily Knight, and General Sir Henry Clinton, G.C.B., were among the celebrities who passed away. In the month of March, the decease of Mr. Liston, the comedian, attracted public notice. In June, Haydon, the celebrated painter, died by his own hand, impelled by want. He had frequently been indebted to the generous-hearted liberality of Sir Robert and Lady Peel for aid, and the last assistance he ever received was from these compassionate benefactors, the friends of so many artists and literary men, as well as of poor Haydon. The genius of this artist, as well as the record of his misfortunes, will go down to posterity. Soon after Haydon’s melancholy death, in the month of July, “Charlotte Elizabeth,” the writer of so many beautiful religious books, was called to her happy home. The same month, the Eight Honourable Sir George Murray, the friend and companion of Wellington, in both his military and political career, died in London. August witnessed the decease of the veteran anti-reformer, Sir Charles Wetherell. In September Lord Metcalfe died, regretted much by the political world; and Thomas Clarkson, the philanthropist, to whose exertions in the first instance humanity was indebted for the abolition of the slave-trade, also passed into rest. In the last month of the year the Eight Honourable Thomas Grenville died in his ninety-first year, after a political and diplomatic life very eventful.
The year 1846 was replete with transactions of great historical importance; at its close England stood with a crown of many victories upon her brow, but with many cares and anxieties; the chief of these was the distress in England, and wide-spread starvation in the Highlands of Scotland and in Ireland. Another chapter will reveal how evils of such magnitude were encountered.
CHAPTER LIX.
VICTORIA. 1847