Sixty Years a Queen: The Story of Her Majesty's Reign

by Sir Herbert Maxwell

A CONTRAST BETWEEN THE CARES OF OFFICE AND THE EASE OF OPPOSITION.

The immediate effect of Russell’s conversion, coming on the top of alarming news from Ireland, was to send Peel forward on a course he had been contemplating for years. |Peel and Repeal.| He read a memorandum to the Cabinet on December 2 recommending that Parliament should be summoned early in January, and that he should submit a Bill for the practical and immediate repeal of the Corn Laws. Lord Stanley and the Duke of Buccleuch refused their support to this policy. The Duke of Wellington said he was still in favour of maintaining the Corn Laws, but that if Peel considered that their repeal was necessary for the maintenance of his position “in Parliament and in the public view,” he would support the measure. The Cabinet adjourned till next day. By some accident—it was said that a lady was the means of it—the Times became possessed of the secret, and on December 4 the startling announcement appeared in its columns that the Cabinet had resolved on the Repeal of the Corn Laws. The only modern parallel to the consternation ensuing in the clubs and the country may be found in that which took place when, in 1886, it was made known that Mr. Gladstone’s Cabinet had decided to give Home Rule to Ireland. Many refused to believe the statement in the Times, alleging that it was impossible that a Cabinet secret could have leaked out in this way. The Standard published an emphatic, though not authoritative, contradiction of the story. Excitement and dismay, delight and disgust, contended for mastery wheresoever a few men gathered together: in a few days all was known. Lord Stanley—the “Rupert of debate,” as Disraeli afterwards called him—and the Duke of Buccleuch resigned their seats in the Cabinet. Peel would not consent to proceed without the unanimous consent of his colleagues; on December 5 he went to Osborne and tendered his resignation to the Queen. |Rupture of the Tory Party.| Lord John Russell was at once sent for to form a Ministry: he attempted to do so, but failed: Lord Grey’s distrust of Lord Palmerston’s foreign policy proving a fatal obstacle to it. Peel, on being required to do so by the Queen, withdrew his resignation and resumed the duties of office. The Duke of Buccleuch returned as Privy Seal, but Lord Stanley was not to be reconciled, and Mr. Gladstone entered the Cabinet for the first time as Colonial Secretary.

J. Doyle (“H. B.”).] [Political Sketches, 1846.

AN AWKWARD SITUATION.

The Irish Famine of 1845 caused Sir Robert Peel to embrace the principle of Free Trade; and his party, incensed at what they considered his “treason,” rejected his Coercion Bill, and brought about the fall of his ministry.

Parliament met on January 22, 1846. Expectation was at the boiling point; it was one of those rare occasions, happening not more than once or twice in an ordinary reign, when the ears of the whole country await an announcement of interest to every class in it. Adopting an unusual, almost unprecedented, course, the Prime Minister rose immediately after the speeches of the mover and seconder of the Address: he entered into no details of the measure foreshadowed in the Queen’s Speech, but he removed all shadow of doubt that the Ministry had resolved on the total repeal of the corn duties. |The Corn Duties repealed.| Those who know the ways of the House of Commons will best understand the significance of a comment made by one who was present. “He did not get a solitary cheer from the people behind him except when he said that Stanley had always been against him ... and then the whole of those benches rung with cheers.” Perhaps nothing in his speech gave deeper offence to his Party than the concluding sentence, in which he declared that he found it “no easy task to ensure the harmonious and united action of an ancient monarchy, a proud aristocracy, and a reformed House of Commons.”

THE GROWTH OF MAIL STEAMERS REPRESENTED BY THE CUNARD LINE FLEET FROM 1840 TO THE PRESENT DAY.

The year 1838 was the starting point of Atlantic Ocean racing. In that year the Great Western and the Sirius crossed in 18 days and 15 days respectively. The first Cunarder, the Britannia, appeared in 1840, and made the westward passage in 14 days. The following year she crossed eastward in 10 days. In 1851 the record was reduced to 9 days 18 hours westward by the Baltic, and 9 days 20 hours 16 min. eastward by the Pacific. In 1863 the Scotia, of the Cunard line, crossed eastward in 8 days 3 hours, and in the following year returned in 8 days 15 hours 45 min. Five years later the City of Brussels, of the Inman Line, travelled between New York and Liverpool in 7 days 22 hours 3 min., but the Baltic, of the White Star Line, lowered this by 2 hours four years later. The Arizona and Alaska improved the speed between 1880 and 1885, the latter making the passage eastward in 6 days 22 hours. The ill-fated Oregon came eastward in 6 days 11 hours 9 min. in 1884, while the Etruria went westward in 6 days 1 hour 55 min. In 1889 the City of Paris lowered the eastward and westward journeys to 5 days 22 hours 50 min., and 5 days 19 hours 18 min., respectively, while two years later the Teutonic reduced this still further by 3 hours each way. Finally the Campania and Lucania appeared in 1893, the latter establishing the record eastwards of 5 days 8 hours 38 min. and westwards of 5 days 7 hours 23 min. Mails have been carried per the Lucania between New York Post Office and the London Central Office in 156·7 hours.