METZ.
schoolmaster who was a little too fond of exhibiting the rod. Mr. Ayrton and Mr. Lowe during the Session even enhanced their reputation for irritating those who transacted business with them. But at every turn Mr. Gladstone was embarrassed by his Parliamentary majority. It had been elected to carry reforms which most of them individually dreaded. Their desire was therefore to discover, not pretexts for pushing the Ministry onward, but excuses which they could plausibly justify to their constituents for holding Ministers back. As for the working classes, they had imagined when Mr. Gladstone came to office “something would be done for them.” But nothing except the Trades Union Bill had been conceded to their demands, and even that measure was defaced by irritating provisions, inserted to please their masters. Mr. Disraeli’s strategy in these circumstances was artful, if not altogether admirable. He gently fomented every rising discontent. Without committing his Party to redress the wrongs of the discontented, he left on the country the impression that under his administration there would be less social friction than then existed, whilst there could not be much less social reform.
Other circumstances tended to strengthen Conservative feeling in England. Just as the triumph of democracy in the United States at the end of the Civil War gave a great impetus to English Liberalism, so did the march of events in France after the conclusion of peace produce a reaction in England against democracy. The French elections resulted in the return of the Assembly which met at Bordeaux on the 12th of February. Its majority consisted of Legitimists and Orleanists, and, since the Convocation of the Estates General in 1789, no French Parliament had ever met which contained so many men of high rank and good estate. It had no special mandate, but it very sensibly took in hand the task of making peace with Germany, and, having superseded the Government of National Defence, it elected M. Thiers as Chief of the Executive. He formed a Ministry which represented the best men of all parties. The new Government were confronted at the outset with an unexpected difficulty. The National Guard of Paris had been allowed to retain their arms, and they not only broke into revolt, but seized the capital and established in Paris the revolutionary Government of the Commune, General Cluseret, a revolutionary “soldier of fortune,” being appointed Minister of War. The idea of the revolt seems to have been to convert the ten great cities of France into autonomous States in federal alliance with the rest of the country, and the insurgents began by giving Paris a separate Government, Executive, Army, and Legislature. The Red Republicans imagined that by this device they could emancipate the artisans from the control of the peasants, who, under universal suffrage, were masters of France. The Commune was founded by honest fanatics, but it let loose the suppressed blackguardism of Paris, and before it was stamped out by the Army and the Government of Versailles, terrible atrocities not unworthy of the worst days of the “Terror” had been committed by the rabble whom it had armed, and was powerless to restrain. In England the excesses of the Commune were pointed to by Conservative writers and speakers as an apt illustration of the natural and logical tendencies of Radicalism.
The Queen’s domestic life during 1871 was not much disturbed by the petty demonstrations of Republican feeling which were in vogue at the beginning of the year. They did not influence either the Ministry or Parliament; and when, on the 13th of February, Mr. Gladstone proposed the vote for the Princess Louise’s dowry in the House of Commons, only three Members voted against it.[28] Mr. Disraeli, though he supported the proposal, gently tickled the sympathies of its opponents by suggesting that the system of voting Royal grants should be changed. His idea was to maintain the Crown by an estate of its own, ample enough to cover all its personal and family expenses, and that Parliament should not be called on to grant money to the Queen save for expenditure on public pageantry.
When it was announced that the Queen had fixed the 21st of March for the Princess Louise’s marriage, the High Church Party were indignant that the ceremony was to be performed in Lent. They argued that when Royalty set an example contrary to the teachings of the Church, the influence of the clergy was weakened over, what the Guardian newspaper called, “the large area of society which lies between the inner circle of the devout and the multitude of the unattached outside the consecrated ground.” No heed, however, was paid to these remonstrances, and the Royal wedding, when it took place at Windsor, completely diverted popular attention from the Communist Reign of Terror in Paris. The enthusiasm of the capital, it is true, was rather qualified. The West End tradesmen were sulky because of the withdrawal of the Queen from the gaieties of the London season; and the populace was annoyed because the marriage did not take place in Westminster Abbey or St. Paul’s. But the provinces were unusually lavish in their demonstrations of sympathy with the Sovereign, and with the wedded pair who had broken down the barrier of caste which had been so long maintained between the Royal Family and the nation.[29]
The town of Windsor was en fête for the occasion, the people crowding the Castle Green, and the Eton boys occupying the Castle Hill. The police and soldiery kept a passage open for the guests who came from London by special train, and who were conveyed in Royal carriages to St. George’s Chapel amid general cheering and joyous ringing of bells. The Ministers of State, Foreign Princes and Ambassadors, and other prominent persons, were gay in rich and glittering uniforms. Of the bridal party, the first to arrive was the Duke of Argyll, with his family. He wore the dress of a Highland chieftain, with philabeg, sporran, claymore, and jewelled dirk. A plaid of Campbell tartan was thrown across his shoulders, over which was also hung the Order of the Thistle. He was accompanied by the Duchess of Argyll, who shone in silver and white satin. The Lord Chancellor, in wig and gown, and Lord Halifax, in Ministerial uniform of blue and gold, walked up the central aisle and took their seats, along with members of the Cabinet and the Privy Council, in the stalls to the left of the altar. Then came the Princess Christian, in pink satin, trimmed with white lace, and some Indian potentates, radiant in auriferous scarlet. Lord Lorne, the bridegroom, next entered, arrayed in the uniform of the Argyllshire Regiment of Volunteer Artillery, of which he was Colonel, looking pale and nervous. He was supported by his groomsmen, Lord Percy and Lord Ronald Leveson-Gower. The Princess Beatrice arrived evidently in high spirits, and wearing a pink satin dress, her sunny hair flowing freely down her back. The Princess of Wales, who received an almost affectionate greeting, was the last of the Royal party to come. All the members of the Royal Family were then present, with the exception of Prince Alfred. As the procession advanced up the nave, the bride was supported on the right by the Queen, and on the left by the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The Princess, in her dress of white satin and veil of Honiton lace, was voted one of the most charming brides on whom the sun had shone. Eight bridesmaids followed, all daughters of dukes and earls, clad in white satin, decorated with red camellias. The Queen appeared in black satin, relieved by the broad blue ribbon of the Garter, and by a fall of white lace, which nearly reached to the ground. The service was read by the Bishop of London, the Queen giving away her daughter.[30] After the ceremony, the Queen took the bride in her arms, and kissed her heartily, while the Marquis of Lorne knelt and kissed the Queen’s hand. The Royal wedding breakfast was served in the magnificent oak-room of Windsor Castle, the company including the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince Arthur, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince and Princess Teck, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, Prince and Princess Christian. Another breakfast for the general company was served in the Waterloo Gallery. When the newly-married pair left the Castle for Claremont, it was noticed that the bride wore a charming travelling costume of Campbell tartan. As they departed, their numerous relatives showered over them a quantity of white satin slippers, and, following an ancient Highland usage, a new broom was also thrown after them as they got into the carriage. The Oriental custom of flinging rice after a wedded couple, introduced into England by the family of Musurus Pasha, the Turkish Ambassador, had not then become the mode in the highest circles of Society.[31]
