[54] Scotland, September, 1844; Ireland, August, 1849.
[55] August 18, 1855.
[56] Prince Albert was at one time very unpopular in England. His advising the Queen, and consequent intimate and personal knowledge of all that was going on during the Russian war, coupled with the fact that he was a foreigner, led the unthinking to believe that he was secretly helping Russia—a report of which he seems to have been well aware (vide Sir T. Martin’s “Life of the Prince Consort,” vol. iii. p. 219, March, 1855). I recollect very well the rumour that he had been imprisoned in the Tower, and a comic paper had an engraving of two cabmen meeting, and one saying to the other, “Have yer ’eard the noose? Vhy, Prince Halbert along with two other Commander-in-Chiefs have been sent to the Tower; which Lewis Napoleon diwulged ’em a sending of five pound notes to the Emperor of Rooshia, and so he blowed the gaff” (told of them).
[57] 1815.
[58] He died from the effects of a fall from his horse.
[59] Died September 14, 1852; lay in state at Chelsea Hospital from November 10 to 17; buried at St. Paul’s, November 18.
[60] When this ballad was written, the Lords might vote by proxy, and a minister, or his opponent, might, and did, produce enough (either to gain or lose a measure) of votes from Peers who were too lazy to attend.
[61] The counties of York and Lancaster were very early in the field in espousing the cause of the Anti-Corn-Law League.
[62] The “National Anti-Corn-Law League Free Trade Bazaar,” held at Covent Garden Theatre, May 8, 9, 10, 12, 1845.
[63] Repeat as chorus last two lines of each verse.