Thus, owing to the Irish famine, the Tory party which had come into power in 1841 with a majority of ninety to support the Corn Laws, was shattered; after Peel's defeat it became clear that no common action could take place between his supporters in the struggle of 1846 and men like Bentinck and Disraeli, who now became leaders of the Protectionist party. For the remainder of the year Peel was on the whole friendly to the Russell Government, his chief care being to maintain them in office as against the Protectionists.
In India the British army was successful in its operations against the Sikhs, Sir Harry Smith defeating them at Aliwal, and Sir Hugh Gough at Sobraon. Our troops crossed the Sutlej, and terms of peace were agreed on between Sir Henry Hardinge (who became a Viscount) and the Sirdars from Lahore, peace being signed on 8th March.
On the continent of Europe the most important events took place in the Peninsula. The selection of husbands for the Queen of Spain and her sister, which had so long been considered an international question, came at last to a crisis; the policy of Great Britain had been to leave the matter to the Spanish people, except in so far as might be necessary to check the undue ambition of Louis Philippe; and neither the Queen, Prince Albert, Peel, nor Aberdeen had in any way supported the candidature of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg.
It was common ground that no son of Louis Philippe should marry the Queen, but both that monarch and Guizot had further solemnly engaged at the Château d'Eu that no son should marry even the Infanta until the Queen was married and had children. The return of Palmerston to the Foreign Office, and his mention of Prince Leopold in a Foreign Office despatch as one of the candidates, gave the King and his Minister the pretext they required for repudiating their solemn undertaking. In defiance of good faith the engagements were simultaneously announced of the Queen to her cousin, Don Francisco de Asis, and of the Infanta to the Duc de Montpensier, Don Francisco being a man of unattractive, even disagreeable qualities, and feeble in physique. By this unscrupulous proceeding Queen Victoria and the English nation were profoundly shocked.
At the same time Queen Maria found some difficulty in maintaining her position in Portugal. She dismissed in a somewhat high-handed manner her Minister the Duc de Palmella, and had to bear the brunt of an insurrection for several months: at the close of the year her arms were victorious at the lines of Torres Vedras, but the Civil War was not entirely brought to an end.
In February a Polish insurrection broke out in Silesia, and the Austrian troops were driven from Cracow; the rising was suppressed by Austria, Russia, and Prussia, who had been constituted the "Protecting Powers" of Cracow by the Treaty of Vienna. This unsuccessful attempt was seized upon as a pretext for destroying the separate nationality of Cracow, which was forthwith annexed to Austria. This unjustifiable act only became possible in consequence of the entente between England and France (equally parties to the Treaty of Vienna) having been terminated by the affair of the Spanish marriages; their formal but separate protests were disregarded.
There remains to be mentioned the dispute between Great Britain and the United States as to the Oregon boundary, which had assumed so ominous a phase in 1845. Lord Aberdeen's last official act was to announce in the Lords that a Convention, proposed by himself for adjusting the question, had been accepted by the American President.