LORD TENNYSON,
1809–1892.
Appointed Poet Laureate 1850. His first published verses appeared in a volume of “Poems by Two Brothers” in 1827. He was created Baron Tennyson in 1884.
On Lord Derby’s resignation, Lord Palmerston formed a strong Cabinet, including Lord Granville, Mr. Gladstone, Sir George Cornewall-Lewis, Mr. Sidney Herbert, and Mr. Cardwell. |Lord Palmerston’s Second Administration.| Lord John Russell refused any post except that of Foreign Secretary, which shut out Lord Clarendon, who declined any other appointment. At the moment, as it happened, England was keeping scrupulously clear of the conflict between France and Austria. The Queen’s speech to the new Parliament had announced that “a strict and impartial neutrality” should be maintained, and this was done in spite of persistent attempts on the part of Louis Napoleon to secure the assistance of Great Britain in the deliverance of Italy, in spite, too, of the strong sympathy entertained by Mr. Gladstone and others in the Cabinet for the cause of Italian nationality. There was, however, a shrewd distrust of the French Emperor growing in the minds of the British public at this time, which made it easier than it had otherwise been for the Government to steer clear of foreign complications. |Threatened French Invasion.| In fact, the development of the arsenal at Cherbourg and the assembly there of a powerful fleet were interpreted, perhaps not without justice, as indicating a contemplated invasion of England. The Volunteer movement first assumed important proportions in the year 1859 under this feeling of apprehension.
“Form, form, riflemen, form!
Ready—be ready, to meet the storm”—
sang the Laureate, and the storm was expected to come from the French quarter. However, whatever aggressive intentions may have passed through the mind of Napoleon III. were dissipated by the formidable front assumed by the people of Great Britain. |The Volunteers.| The immense improvement which had been recently effected in arms of precision caused irregular troops to assume far greater importance in the calculations of an intending invader than they ever had before; and the same cause, by encouraging fine marksmanship and developing competitive skill at the targets, has imparted to the Volunteers of 1859 a permanence quite without precedent in the history of similar martial movements.
G. F. Watts, R.A.] [National Portrait
Gallery.
ROBERT BROWNING,
1812–1889.
Poet. His last volume, “Asolando,” was published on the day of his death, December 12, 1889. He and Tennyson lie in adjoining graves in “Poet’s Corner,” Westminster Abbey.