On the 17th of June the India Bill, based on the resolutions of the Government, and vesting the sole dominion of India in the Crown, was introduced by Lord Stanley, and it passed into law on the 2nd of August.
Another measure was passed in July, though opposed rather venomously by the Tories in the House of Lords—namely, the Bill providing that either House might resolve that henceforth Jewish members of Parliament might omit from the Parliamentary Oath the words, “and I make this declaration on the true faith of a Christian.” This ended a long and bitter controversy. On the 26th of July Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild came to the table of the House of Commons, and was sworn on the Old Testament, the House having agreed to resolutions in terms of the new Act.[28]
The exceptional heat of the summer soon exhausted the energies of legislators. Mephitic odours from the Thames even caused some to demand that the Houses of Parliament should be shifted to another site. “We have,” writes Lord Malmesbury, on the 27th of June, “ordered large quantities of lime to be thrown into the Thames; for no works can be begun till the hot weather is over. The stench is perfectly intolerable, although Madame Ristori, coming back one night from a dinner at Greenwich, given by Lord Hardwicke, sniffed the air with delight, saying it reminded her of her ‘dear Venice.’” Perhaps this nuisance induced the House of Commons to pass with unlooked for rapidity a Main Drainage Bill, which was to prevent sewage from being turned into the Thames as it passed through London. All intrigues set on foot to reconcile Lord Palmerston to Lord John Russell,[29] and the Radicals to both, failed, so the Tory Ministry successfully weathered the storms of faction, and closed the Session, on the whole, with credit, on the 30th of July.
The family life of the Court had been brightened early in the year by the cordial welcome which the Queen’s eldest daughter had received in her new home in Prussia. Projects for a visit to her and her husband were formed by the Queen and the Prince Consort, which public duty compelled them to abandon month after month. On Maundy Thursday the Prince of Wales was confirmed at Windsor, having acquitted himself well during his examination by the Archbishop. After a fortnight’s tour in Ireland, it was arranged that he should live in the White Lodge, Richmond Park, and prepare for his military examination, his companions being Lord Valletort, eldest son of Lord Mount-Edgecumbe, Major Teesdale, R.E., one of the heroes of Kars, Major R. Loyd-Lindsay (afterwards Lord Wantage), V.C., and Mr. Gibbs, the Prince’s tutor. In May a visit from the beautiful Queen of Portugal charmed all hearts, and during the Whitsuntide holiday, when the Prince Consort went to pay a flying visit to Coburg, the Queen solaced her loneliness by visiting Prince Alfred at Alverbank, a cottage opposite the Isle of Wight, where he was pursuing his naval studies. Delightful letters came to the Queen from Babelsberg, describing the married happiness of her daughter, who received the Prince Consort there, and from whence he returned to London on the 8th of June.
On the 14th, her Majesty paid her promised visit to Birmingham, and to Lord Leigh at Stoneleigh Abbey. It was smiling summer weather when she drove from Coventry through Shakespeare’s country to her host’s house, where
VISIT OF THE QUEEN TO THE EMPEROR AND EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH AT CHERBOURG.
she was delighted with her reception. Next day she went by train to Birmingham, when, wonderful to relate, the sun shone through a smokeless though sultry atmosphere. As for the arrangements for her reception, she writes, “all was admirably done—handsomer even than Manchester. The cheering was tremendous.” Loyal addresses were presented at the Town Hall, where, seated on an extemporised throne, her Majesty knighted the Mayor. The Royal Party next proceeded to Aston Hall and Park, “now to be converted,” writes the Queen, “into a People’s Museum and Park, and to obtain which the working people had worked very hard, and subscribed very largely.” Here six of the working men associated with the managers of the proceedings were presented to the Queen, who conversed with them affably, and then proclaimed the Park open. “Quite a pattern lady!” “What a darling!”—such were among the exclamations, writes the Queen, with which she was greeted by the crowd. After visiting many places of interest in the district, the Queen returned to Buckingham Palace on the 16th, greatly impressed with the welcome she had received from the most democratic and republican community in England. This visit had a marked political influence. It gave a great though unseen impetus to the movement for Reform, and many thoughtful Conservatives now began to suspect that there was less danger in giving votes to the loyal artizans of Birmingham, than to the lower middle class whom the Whigs desired to enfranchise.