QUEEN ANNE’S ROOM, ST. JAMES’S PALACE.
(From a Photograph by H. N. King.)
said Mr. Disraeli, instead of acting cordially in alliance with France for the purpose of maintaining English influence in the councils of Europe, Lord Palmerston had tried to attain that end by exerting what was called the “moral power” of the country, which really meant “bloated armaments in time of peace.” If the conduct of France justified distrust, why not go to war with her? If she was not giving us cause for distrust, why waste money in preparing for war with her? Such were the questions and arguments which Mr. Disraeli put forward. But Peel’s doctrine of the surplus was of course never meant to apply to all circumstances. As for the Paper Duty, to expect Mr. Gladstone to revert to it was as absurd as to ask Nature to bring back the Mastodon. It was more difficult to escape from Mr. Disraeli’s dilemma as to the relations of England and France, but Lord Palmerston satisfied the House at this time that by outstripping the armaments of France he really freed her from any temptation she might have to become an enemy. The Radical Party, however, induced Mr. Stansfeld to move a resolution asserting that expenditure could be reduced with safety to the country, and the Tories showed their sympathy with the attack, when Mr. Walpole gave notice of another expressing a hope that expenditure might be cut down. Lord Palmerston said such attacks involved the fate of the Ministry—which settled the matter. Mr. Stansfeld’s resolution was rejected. Mr. Walpole, loving Lord Palmerston better than retrenchment, withdrew his motion, for which Mr. Disraeli, to the consternation of his party, assailed him bitterly, and Lord Palmerston carried unanimously a vote of confidence in himself.
The fight in March between the Confederate iron-clad Merrimac, and the Federal Monitor, indicated that wooden war-ships were henceforth useless. The Admiralty were therefore pressed to push forward the construction of iron-clad ships. Nay, it was suggested that the new type of iron-clads, working guns from revolving turrets, was better for coast defence than the costly fortifications on which Lord Palmerston had persisted in spending enormous sums of money. Why not, it was asked, stop the building of forts at Spithead till the value of iron-cased gunboats for coast defence had been fully considered? Strong supporters of Lord Palmerston’s fortification scheme—like Sir J. Hay—declared that their opinion as to the necessity for the Spithead forts had changed, because a ship of the Monitor type being a movable fort was of course more useful than any fixed fortification. Then, if the country spent, as it would probably have to spend, £20,000,000 on a great fortification scheme, how were the forts to be manned? Was the House of Commons prepared to vote for a corresponding increase in the Army? The Government, however, insisted on getting the money for fortifications voted, though events subsequently justified the criticism of their opponents. The economists consoled themselves by making a fierce but futile assault on the Ministry at the end of the Session, in the course of which Mr. Cobden declared that Lord Palmerston’s policy was based on a phantom of French aggression, and that it had cost the country £100,000,000. Colonial defence was more practically dealt with, for early in the year the House of Commons adopted a resolution to the effect that self-governing colonies should in the main provide for their own defence.
Foreign politics gave rise to no important debate in the House. Abortive attempts were made to induce the Government to make representations to Russia on behalf of the Poles, which would probably have led to Russia imploring the Ministry to deal more generously with Ireland. Partisans of the Pope and of the deposed Italian despots also indulged in impotent demonstrations of hostility against the new Kingdom of Italy. A Session which was from a party point of view almost colourless, ended on the 7th of August, the only discernible result of its proceedings being an aggravation of the feud between Lord Palmerston and the Radicals, who, as Mr. Cobden said, would now be better pleased to see the Tories in power. But the Tories had no desire to hold office till they were strong enough to resist Radical dictation. The Queen, too, was more than usually desirous that, in the circumstances, a Cabinet should remain in power which could avert Ministerial crises. Thus Lord Palmerston’s dictatorship was again confirmed.
The policy of intervention in Mexico in conjunction with France and Spain was not one which found much favour in England, although King Leopold of Belgium endeavoured to win the Queen over to support it in the interests of his son-in-law, the Archduke Maximilian of Austria. It was for this purpose that his Majesty carried on his intrigues at Osborne early in February. The real object of his policy was to establish a monarchy in Mexico, and to persuade the Queen that the Mexicans desired to have Maximilian as their ruler. This, however, was not divulged at the time, and thus, so far as England was concerned, she stood committed—despite King Leopold’s secret negotiations at Osborne—to nothing save to act with Spain and France in obtaining from Mexico satisfaction for wrongs done to certain British subjects. The French Emperor, however, was bent on creating a Latin Monarchy in the New World, under French protection, as a counterpoise to the great Anglo-Saxon Republic. After the allies landed, dissensions soon became manifest when the French contingent was doubled. Spain objected to convert Mexico into a French dependency, nominally under the rule of an Austrian Archduke. Hence, when the Mexican Government of Juarez offered to submit to the original demands of the allies, England and Spain accepted their proposals, and withdrew their forces. The French had permitted a Mexican conspirator called Almonte to accompany their expedition, and as his object was to overthrow the Mexican Government, President Juarez demanded that he should be sent back to Paris. The French refused, and made the demand an excuse for declining to treat with the Mexican Government. This, of course, broke up the alliance, and General Lorencez was ordered to march on Mexico, and enable the natives to choose a Government with which France could negotiate, which meant that they were to vote for a French Protectorate under the Archduke Maximilian. As a preliminary token of their appreciation of this proposal, the Mexican troops stopped the march of Lorencez at Orizaba. General Forey, with reinforcements, was accordingly sent out from France to prosecute the war, which was already unpopular with all Frenchmen who were not slaves of the Ultramontane Party.
During the last six months of the year, events in Italy and Greece preoccupied the Cabinet. Indeed, affairs in Greece took a turn that for the moment roused the Queen from the depths of her sorrow.
Baron Riccasoli, who succeeded Count Cavour, did not hold office long. The object of his policy was to win Rome for Italy, which rendered him obnoxious to Napoleon III. Moreover, he was too stiff and formal in his manners for the loose-living King of Italy, and so his fall was inevitable. To him succeeded Ratazzi—a Minister who was acceptable to Napoleon because he thought more of winning back Venice, than of expelling the French from the Holy City. How far Victor Emmanuel and Ratazzi participated in an intrigue, the result of which was that General Garibaldi began to raise the “Party of Action,” is not clear. At any rate, Garibaldi, at a meeting of a rifle club in Palermo, at which the Heir Apparent to the Crown was present, announced his intention of opening a new campaign of liberation. From Sicily he led a band of “Red Shirts” to the mainland, evidently under the impression that he was to repeat his former exploits with the secret connivance of the Italian Government. Before he advanced into the heart of Calabria, he found he had been deceived. Victor Emmanuel’s troops attacked and dispersed his irregular forces at Aspromonte, before they came into collision with the French. Garibaldi himself was wounded, and though at first sent as a prisoner to Spezia, he was soon afterwards set free, and his “rebellion” forgiven. Napoleon III. then induced Russia and Prussia to recognise the Kingdom of Italy. But in November Ratazzi resigned rather than face a vote of censure, and Farini succeeded him.
Italian intriguers had been busy at Athens fomenting rebellion against King Otho. Their object was to depose him, and seat Prince Thomas, the Duke of Genoa, on the throne. Russian and French intrigues seem also to have been going on. But every conspiracy, whether of native or foreign origin, had for its object the expulsion of King Otho, whose authority had been undermined by Palmerston’s treatment in 1850, and whose reign had done nothing to gratify Greek aspirations for an extension of territory. Otho’s opposition to progressive reform rendered him an obstacle to those who thought that Greece in the Ottoman Empire, might play the part of Piedmont in Italy. He was therefore driven from his throne, and the Crown of Greece offered to Prince Alfred of England, on whose behalf it was declined. England, however, showed her goodwill to Greece by declaring herself ready to surrender the Ionian Islands, an offer which gave Lord Palmerston an opportunity of emphasising his belief in “the doctrine of nationalities,” which he had so strenuously insisted on applying in Italy. In 1863, when the Greeks chose a Danish Prince for their King, these islands were transferred to Greece.
In Germany the cause of Reform slept. Austria apparently had increased her influence, because the King of Prussia was in conflict with the representatives of the Prussian people as to the reorganisation and strengthening of