On the 9th the Court removed to Osborne—the Queen being desirous of personally supervising the arrangements for the Princess Beatrice’s marriage, which was to take place in Whippingham Parish Church. As there was no precedent for a Royal marriage in a country parish church, Sir Henry Ponsonby and the Court officials had considerable trouble in ordering the ceremony. They were further perplexed by the various instructions which day after day came from the Queen and the Princess. On the 23rd of July the marriage was solemnised by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Winchester, the Dean of Windsor, and Canon Prothero, Vicar of Whippingham. The ceremony was one of demi-state only; and, although the wedding procession was very pretty, especially when seen in the golden light of a July day, it was not brilliant. The nieces of the Princess Beatrice were her bridesmaids, and most of her near relations were present. The family of Hesse-Darmstadt was well represented; and, with the exception of Mr. Gladstone, most of the leading personages in English Society were present. Yet somehow the ceremony seemed to lack the courtly importance and dignity of other Royal marriages, and the absence of the German Crown Prince and Princess, who were not even represented by any of their family, was only too noticeable. The German Emperor, who had been deeply incensed by the de Kalomine scandal, had not yet been persuaded to look kindly on the Court of Darmstadt; but the German Empress, on the other hand, testified her interest in the bride by sending Princess Beatrice a Dresden china clock and bracket as a wedding gift. After the marriage the Queen conferred the Order of the Garter on Prince Henry of Battenberg—adding one more to the already crowded companionship of Royal Knights. This distinction had never before been given to a foreign personage not a monarch de facto, or born in the Royal caste, and there can be no doubt that the other Royal Knights of the family would have considered the Order of the Bath a more suitable distinction for Prince Henry.[230] It was also intimated in the Gazette (July 24th, 1885) that Prince Henry would forthwith assume the title of Royal Highness—a rank, however, which could not be conceded to him outside of English territory.[231]
It is remarkable that no family objections were raised to the recognition of Lady Augusta Lennox, who had long been married to Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, as the Princess Edward. Till 1885 she had only been received in Court as the Countess Dornburg, a title which had been “created” for her on her marriage, in spite of her high social position as daughter of the Duke of Richmond, to satisfy the exigencies of German etiquette.
After the close of the Parliamentary Session, the Court went from Osborne to Balmoral (August 25th), where the Princess Beatrice and her husband received a warm Highland reception. Life at Balmoral was somewhat dull, but in her walks and drives the Queen was now accompanied by Prince Henry of Battenberg as well as the Princess Beatrice. When not in attendance on the Queen, the Prince occasionally found amusement in deerstalking in the Balloch Pine and Abergeldie grounds. Her Majesty remained at Balmoral till the 18th of November, when she returned to Windsor to hold a Council, at which she sanctioned the dissolution of Parliament. On the 9th of December, accompanied by the Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg, the Queen presented medals for service in the Soudan to a number of Guardsmen at Windsor. On the 18th of December she left Windsor for Osborne. It was now plainly intimated to her Majesty that the royal rank and precedence conferred on Prince Henry of Battenberg would not be recognised at Berlin, Vienna, and St. Petersburg, the Courts at which capitals insisted on treating the marriage of the Princess Beatrice as a purely “morganatic” one. The difficulties which arose out of this incident were further aggravated when the Queen permitted the Count and Countess Gleichen to assume the rank and title of Prince and Princess Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenberg.[232]
In the spring of 1885 a rebellion of French half-breeds in the Canadian North-West, led by Riel, one of the pardoned insurgents who had been engaged in the Red River rising, was suppressed with great skill and ability by the Canadian Militia, under General Sir Frederick Middleton. Riel was tried and hanged for treason.
The misrule of Theebaw, the half-crazy King of Burmah, together with his intrigues with the French—then busy with the conquest of Tonquin—led to disputes between the Indian and Burmese Governments. The result was a war which ended in the deposition of King Theebaw and the annexation of Upper Burmah to the Indian Empire.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE BATTLE OF THE UNION.
Mr. Chamberlain’s Doctrine of “Ransom”—The Midlothian Programme—Lord Randolph Churchill’s Appeal to the Whigs—Bidding for the Parnellite Vote—Resignation of Lord Carnarvon—The General Election—“Three Acres and a Cow”—Defeat of Lord Salisbury—The Liberal Cabinet—Mr. Gladstone’s Home Rule Scheme—Ulster threatens Civil War—Secession of the Liberal “Unionists”—Defeat of Mr. Gladstone—Lord Salisbury again in Office—Mr. Parnell’s Relief Bill Rejected—The “Plan of Campaign”—Resignation of Lord Randolph Churchill—Mr. Goschen becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer—Riots in the West End of London—The Indian and Colonial Exhibition—The Imperial Institute—The Queen’s Visit to Liverpool—The Holloway College for Women—A Busy Season for her Majesty—The International Exhibition at Edinburgh—The Prince and Princess Komatsu of Japan.
The closing months of 1885 were devoted to preparations for the General Election. Mr. Chamberlain’s speeches developed his doctrine of “ransom” with a vigour of language and directness of purpose that terrified the Whigs. At Bradford he demanded Disestablishment, and thus concentrated the malice of the Church on the whole Liberal Party. Mr. Gladstone issued a moderate manifesto to his constituents, known as the “Midlothian Programme,” in which he attempted to neutralise Mr. Chamberlain’s “unauthorised programme.” The reform of Parliamentary procedure, and Local Government, the reform of the Registration Laws, and of land transfer were the famous “four points” on which he dwelt. As for Mr. Chamberlain’s suggestions for disestablishment, for education, graduated Income Tax, and the abolition of the House of Lords, he put them aside, refusing to peer “into the dim and distant courses of the future.” The Tory leaders professed themselves equally willing to reform Procedure, the Land Laws, and Local Government, and attacked the Whigs for their alliance with the Birmingham School of Radicals. Lord Randolph Churchill, in fact, appealed to the Whigs to coalesce with the Tories in resisting what Lord Hartington called “measures of a Socialistic tendency.” Both parties in the State made high bids for the Irish Vote. Mr. Chamberlain offered to Mr. Parnell a scheme of Home Rule, under which Ireland would be governed by Four Provincial Parliaments—in fact, he furbished up an old idea which the venerable Earl Russell had shed from his mind when it was in the last stage of decay. The Tories, through Lord Carnarvon, offered Mr. Parnell some form of Home Rule under which Ireland was to have a Legislature of her own with the right to levy Protective Duties on imported goods.[233] Though Lord
