The Life and Times of Queen Victoria (Illustrated Edition). Robert Thomas Wilson

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      CHAPTER XIV.

       THE FIRST RUSSELL ADMINISTRATION.

       Table of Contents

      The Transfer of Ministerial Offices—The Whigs Patronise Mr. Cobden—A Radical in the New Cabinet—The Peelites Refuse to Take Office—Lord Campbell as Chancellor of the Duchy—Anecdote of his Installation—Lord John Russell’s Deportment to the Queen—His Modest Programme—The Abolition of the Sugar Duties—Bishop Wilberforce and Slave-grown Sugar—Outrages in Ireland—The Whigs become Coercionists—Their Arms Act—Mutiny among Ministerialists—The Bill Dropped—The Alternative Policy—Relief Works for Ireland—A Military Scandal—Indignation in the Country—Abuse of Corporal Punishment in the Army—“The Cat” in the House of Commons—The Queen’s Views on Military Punishment—The Queen and a Deserter’s Death-warrant—Captain Layard’s Motion—The Duke of Wellington’s Interference—Restrictions on the use of the Lash—England and the Colonies—Canada and Free Trade—Nova Scotia and the Potato Famine—The Halifax, Quebec, and Montreal Railway—The New Zealand War—The Caffre War—The Expedition to Borneo—End of the Anglo-Chinese Difficulty—The “Spanish Marriages” and the Treaty of Utrecht—Louis Philippe’s Intrigues with the Queen Dowager Christina—Secret History of the Conspiracy—M. Guizot’s Pretext—How the English Minister at Madrid was Deceived—Lord Palmerston’s Indiscreet Despatch—The Queen’s Cutting Letter to the Queen Marie Amélie—Metternich’s Caustic Epigram—The Prince Consort’s Resentment against the King of the French—End of the Anglo-French Alliance—Fall of the Republic of Cracow.

      Lord John Russell had no serious difficulty on this occasion in forming a Ministry. The transfer of Ministerial offices was effected at Buckingham Palace on the 6th of July, 1846. Some recognition was due to the Anti-Corn-Law League for the aid it had given the Whigs in their contest for supremacy with the Party which had allied itself with the Protectionists. An office of Cabinet rank would have been offered to Mr. Cobden, but he was desirous of obtaining some respite from the severe strain of political life. His private affairs had suffered from his devotion to the public service, and, as his biographer admits, it would have been difficult to appoint to a high office in the State a politician whose friends were at the time collecting a public subscription on his behalf. Mr. Villiers was offered a place, but refused it. Lord John Russell finally induced Mr. Milner Gibson to represent the Free Trade Party in the Government, as Vice-President of the Board of Trade—a post devoid of high dignity and strong influence. Three of Sir Robert Peel’s colleagues—Mr. Sidney Herbert, Lord Dalhousie, and Lord Lincoln—were invited to join the Government as a concession to the feeling of those who demanded a coalition. The invitation was declined. It was, in truth, one that could not have been honourably accepted, and, therefore, it should never have been made. There was no reason to suppose that these statesmen were ready to remodel their views on Coercion, as suddenly as they had recast their opinions about Corn.

      Leaving Mr. Milner Gibson out of account, we may say that the new Ministry was of the conventional Whig type, the only notable addition to it being Lord Grey, who by this time had overcome his objections to serve in the same Cabinet with Lord Palmerston as Foreign Secretary.52 Lord Lansdowne, as Lord Privy Seal, led the Party in the House of Lords; Sir George Grey went to the Home Office, a perilous post in times of popular distress and discontent; Mr. C. Wood—afterwards Lord Halifax—became