Orlando Norrie] [From the Royal Collection.
THE ASHANTI WAR: THE ENTRY INTO COOMASSIE, February 4, 1874.
N. Chevalier.] [From the Royal Collection.
MARRIAGE OF H.R.H. THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH AND THE GRAND-DUCHESS MARIE OF RUSSIA AT THE WINTER PALACE, ST. PETERSBURG, January 23, 1874.
View of the interior of the chapel of the Winter Palace. The bride and bridegroom are standing before the altar, and over them the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg elevates the cross. The Emperor and Empress of Russia stand together against the great piers supporting the dome, and near them are the Czarewitch with his wife, the Princess Dagmar, and the Princess of Wales, her sister. In the foreground are the Prince of Wales and the Crown Prince of Prussia, and among others present are the Crown Princess of Prussia, the Crown Prince of Denmark, Prince Arthur, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and a long train of Grand Dukes and Nobles.
Mr. Disraeli was not new to office, but he found himself in power for the first time. With a good working majority behind him in the House of Commons, a helpless Opposition before him, and a surplus of six millions at the Treasury, the natural question in everybody’s mouth was “What will he do with it?” There were still many of his own party who mistrusted his love of display and his magnificent conception of empire as likely to impel him along some hazardous course of conquest abroad or legislation at home, but their apprehensions were soon allayed. |Annexation of the Fiji Islands.| In leading the House, Disraeli exchanged his formidable gifts of invective for a manner and speech conciliatory to men of all parties. The domestic programme of the Government for the sessions of 1874 and 1875 was unambitious but useful, and the only extension of British dominion abroad was the peaceful annexation of the Fiji Islands at the request of King Cakobau and his council.