OPENING OF PARLIAMENT IN 1866: THE QUEEN AT THE PEERS’ ENTRANCE, WESTMINSTER PALACE.
CHAPTER XI.
A STOP-GAP ADMINISTRATION.
End of the Era of Compromise—Dawn of the new Epoch of Reform—Opening of Parliament by the Queen—The Queen’s Nervous Prostration at Osborne—Introduction of the Reform Bill—Hostility of the House of Commons—Dissentient Liberals in “the Cave of Adullam”—Defeat of the Reform Bill—Resignation of the Ministry—Lord Derby forms a Cabinet—His attempted Coalition with the Whig Dukes—Domestic Policy during the Session—The House of Commons and the Rinderpest—Another Prosperity Budget—Large Remissions of Taxation—Coercing Ireland—The White Terror in Jamaica—Marriage of the Princess Helena—The Financial Embarrassment of the Princess Louis of Hesse—The Queen Intercedes with Prussia on behalf of Hesse-Darmstadt—The Queen’s Gift to Mr. Peabody—The Queen’s Visit to Aldershot—The Foundation of the Albert Medal—Marriage of the Princess Mary of Cambridge—The Queen’s first Telegram to the President of the United States—The Queen’s Visit to Aberdeen and Wolverhampton.
The year 1866 will be memorable as the beginning of the new epoch of strife, controversy, and political activity which followed the death of Palmerston. The spell of compromise by which he had paralysed the life of England was broken, and Mr. Gladstone’s appointment as leader of the House of Commons filled the working classes with the brightest hopes. It was known that he was in favour of such an extension of the franchise as would partially redress
MR. JOHN STUART MILL.
the wrong done by the Reform Bill of 1832, which deprived Labour of the political power it enjoyed under the unreformed Parliamentary system. As one of their representative men has said, “those ameliorations of the laws for which they [the working classes] had looked in vain during so many years of Whig rule, when electoral reform was said to be deferred in favour of legal reforms that were only talked about, had to be preceded by the enfranchisement of the class whose welfare required them; and Mr. Gladstone, on his part, was conscious that he could not carry the important measures which he contemplated without first strengthening his hands by a considerable extension of the franchise and redistribution of seats.”[240] Moreover, the civil and military triumph of the United States, marked by moderation in the hour of victory, and invincible valour in the press of battle, gave an irresistible impulse to Democracy in England. But the Party of Reform were well aware that a fierce struggle lay before them. In 1831-32 the House of Lords was the enemy that had to be faced. In 1866 the House of Commons was quite as hostile as the House of Lords, to changes that might affect the power, privileges, and ease of the comfortable classes. Would the Government bring in a feeble Reform Bill which could be accepted by the Commons? In that case the country might look forward to another decade of stagnation. Would the measure be large and comprehensive? In that case the opposition of the Commons could be met only by a dissolution. But supposing, as was not unlikely, that under a £10 franchise a freshly-elected House proved as hostile to Reform as the old one, what was to be done? Its opposition could not, like that of the Crown, be overcome by a refusal of supplies, or like that of the Peers, by the creation of new members. For such a state of affairs the only possible remedy might be—Revolution. Such were the speculations and the forebodings with which thoughtful men greeted the New Year of 1866.