Russia repudiates her pledges made at the Treaty of Peace in 1856, with regard to the Black Sea clause. Suppression of the Red River Rebellion (Aug.). Loss of H.M.S. “Captain” and 523 hands (Sep.). Half-penny Postcards came into use.
1871. Serious illness of the Prince of Wales. Army purchase abolished. Treaty of Washington, between Great Britain and the United States, providing for the settlement, by arbitration, of the “Alabama” claims, which resulted in the United States receiving 15,000,000 dollars (about £3,000,000), awarded by the Tribunal of Arbitration, which met at Geneva in the following year.
1872. The Queen and royal family attend a public thanksgiving service at St. Paul’s Cathedral, for the recovery of the Prince of Wales. The Ballot Act passed. Assassination of Lord Mayo, Viceroy of India.
1873. Death of Napoleon III. at Chislehurst, Kent (Jan.). Ashantee War commenced. Constitution of the Supreme Court of Judicature.
1874. End of the first Gladstone Ministry. Disraeli became premier. Capture of Coomassie, and termination of the Ashantee War. Annexation of the Fiji Islands.
1875. The postal union ratified.
1876. The Queen proclaimed “Empress of India.” Disraeli created Earl of Beaconsfield. Purchase of the Khedive’s share of the Suez Canal for £4,000,000. Terrible famine in Southern India.
1877. Lord Salisbury represented England at the Conference held at Constantinople to discuss the Eastern question. War between Russia and Turkey.
1878. The Berlin Congress on the Eastern question, at which England was represented by Lords Beaconsfield and Salisbury, brought to a successful issue. Treaty of Berlin. Cyprus ceded to England by Turkey. Shere Ali, of Cabul, having refused to receive a British ambassador, the SECOND AFGHAN WAR commenced (Sep.). Death of Prince Alice (Dec. 14).