They left Windsor on the 19th and drove to the Queen Dowager's place at Cashiobury, where they spent three days in strict privacy. After that they drove to Lord Clarendon's seat near Watford, and went on to the Marquis of Abercorn's at Stanmore Abbey. Taking a circuitous route by Reading, they drove to Hatfield, where they visited the Marquis of Salisbury. But the weather was most disagreeable, and even St. Albans failed to put up the usual arches of welcome, and bedeck itself in congratulatory bunting. Four miles from Hatfield they were met by Lord Salisbury and the

Duke of Wellington. There was a pleasant party of friends at Hatfield waiting to welcome the Royal guests, including Lord Melbourne and Lord John Russell, the latter brooding over the growing uneasiness of the country and the painful dispute with the Court of France, the former gay and debonair, as if he had never known what it was to face the storms and strife of State. The Queen, it seems, was greatly interested in the treasures of the library, and spent much time poring over the Cecil papers. Her visit was long talked of in the district, for, in true baronial style, five hundred labourers were feasted in commemoration of the event at Hatfield, a great ox being roasted for the banquet, at which home-brewed ale flowed generously in hogsheads. In December her Majesty visited the Duke of Norfolk, Master of the Horse, at Arundel. At Portsmouth and Chichester she was welcomed with

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cordial demonstrations of affection, and not only was Arundel illuminated, but, what pleased her still more, a substantial dinner was given in her honour to every poor person in the town. Prince Albert, Lord John Russell, and the Earl of Arundel amused themselves with field sports; but the Queen,

attended by her host, the Duke of Norfolk, and the old Duke of Wellington, explored objects of interest in the neighbourhood. She held a formal reception in the great drawing-room of the Castle, and charmed all the "country people" with her simple, winning ways and sweet courtesies. It is recorded that at the ball held after this reception her Majesty distinguished herself by the hearty manner in which she joined in the dancing, an amusement which was ever a favourite one with her in those happy days of her golden youth.

But life in the Royal circle was not all amusement. Baron Stockmar bears testimony to the zeal with which both the Prince and the Queen devoted themselves at this time to business and graver studies. And many events were happening, many intellectual and social movements beginning to develop, which xeenly interested them. The unsatisfactory position of British art-emphasised by the fate of Haydon, who committed suicide in despair of ever interesting the English people in the higher forms of art-the development of the great inovement in favour of popular education, and the rise of what afterwards came to be known as the Party of Secularism, were keenly canvassed during the latter part of this eventful year in every circle where thoughtful men and

women met.

Among the many remarkable inovements that arose when the country was liberated from the strain of the Free Trade agitation, was that which originated the strife between parties as to the share which the Church and the State should take in the work of education. A crude and rudimentary scheme of national education was part of Lord John Russell's programme, and the attention of the country had been excited by a pamphlet published by the late Dr. Hook, then Vicar of Leeds, afterwards Dean of Chichester, in which he proposed a plan which very much resembles that which the late Mr. W. E. Forster induced Parliament to accept in 1870. Her Majesty and Prince. Albert were deeply interested in Dr. Hook's plan, the leading points of which were: (1) Schools to be universally supported by the State; (2) Education to be secular, but one day in the week to be set apart for religious instruction, which should be given by each denomination to the children of its own members.

The Secularist Party owed their origin to Mr. Holyoake, who at this time began to propagate the system of ethics known as Secularism, a system which aimed at promoting the welfare of mankind by human means, and measuring it by utilitarian standards. The service of others he held to be the highest duty of life. Secularism rejoiced in life as the sphere of exalting duties. It was a religion of doubt, neither affirming nor denying the existence of a Deity. Ultimately it came to be termed Agnosticism, and the working classes seemed to be considerably influenced by Mr. Holyoake's teaching during this year and a few of the years that followed.

In the year 1846 the scientific world was greatly interested by the publication of a most extraordinary series of experimental researches in electricity conducted by Faraday, illustrating alike the genius of the man and the spirit and methods of scientific investigation during the early part of the Victorian epoch. That spirit was, in the main,. antagonistic to vacuous speculation or unprofitable theorising. It was daring enough in its utilitarianism to track by direct experiment the subtle elements of, or prove by tangible demonstration what were the occult relations which subsisted between, forms of matter and modes of force. "I have long held the opinion,"

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wrote Faraday, "that the various forms under which the forces of matter are made manifest have one common origin, or, in other words, are so directly related and mutually dependent, that they are convertible, as it were, into one another, and possess equivalents of power in their action.

I recently resumed the inquiry by experiment in a most strict and searching manner, and have at last succeeded in magnetising and electrifying a ray of light and in illuminating a magnetic line of force."* The phrase is not a felicitous one to express the idea of the transformation and transmutation of the forces, but it is worth citing as the original expression used. The paper from which it is taken simply proved that a ray of polarised light sent through certain transparent substances in the line of action connecting the two poles of a magnet, became visible or invisible just as the current was flowing or was stopped. In another paper In another paper "On New Magnetic Actions," Faraday proved that a non-magnetic body suspended freely in the line of a magnetic current is repelled by either pole, and takes up a position at right angles to the line, and, therefore, at right angles to the line a magnetic body would assume in similar circumstances.

But perhaps one of the most interesting events, to Prince Albert at least, was the laying of the first submarine telegraph cable at Portsmouth on the 13th of December, 1846. In the year 1843 telegraphic communication from the Nine Elms terminus at Portsmouth to Gosport had been established. Then the wires were continued to the Clarence Victualling Yard. The harbour, however, still intervened between the end of the wire and the Port Admiral's house, and it was supposed to be impossible to connect the two points electrically under water. The first plan suggested was to lay the wires in metal cases, to be fixed in position by divers with diving-bells. But it was finally agreed to lay the wires in a stout cable, and this was done without the use of a return wire. The first message sent over it thus demonstrated that water would act as a ready conductor in completing the electrical circuit, and almost immediately projectors were developing a plan for laying a submarine cable to France. This and the discovery of the use of ether as an anæsthetic in surgery- the first painless operation. being performed on a patient under its influence by Mr. Liston in University College Hospital-were the chief practical achievements in science during a year which closed with anxious forebodings from Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland, where the scourge of famine was again smiting the people.

* Experimental Researches in Electricity, by Michael Faraday, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S., &c. From the Philosophical Transactions, Part I. for 1846.

The Irish Crisis-Famine and Free Trade-Evictions and Imports-Fiscal Policy and Small Holdings-Shocking Scenes among the Irish People-The Mistake of the Government-Lord John Russell's Relief Measure Rejected by his Colleagues-An Autumnal Cabinet Meeting-Opening of Parliament-The Queen and the Distress-The Remedial Measures of the Government-Rival Schemes of the Protectionists-Lord George Bentinck's Railway Subsidies Bill-A Rival Ministerial Scheme-The Attack on the Bank Act of 1844-The Currency Controversy-Peel on a Convertible Currency-The Effect of the Railway Mania-Blaming the Bank-The Education Question-Opposition of. Dissenters-Colonisation and Emigration-Lord Lincoln's Motion-Is Emigration a Remedy for a Redundant Population ?-The Cabinet and the Ten Hours Bill-Mr. Fielden's Victory-Opposition of Manufacturers-Evading the Act-The Budget-The Queen and the Duchy of Lancaster-Lord Campbell and the Queen-A Famous Duchy Dinner-Privy Councillors at "High Jinks"Death of Lord Bessborough-Lord Clarendon appointed Irish Viceroy-Death of O'Connell-Growing Weak ness of the Cabinet-Prorogation of Parliament-Dissolution-The General Election--The State of Parties -Appalling Outrages in Ireland -Another Commercial Panic-Suspension of the Bank Act-The Queen and Sir Robert Peel-Parliament Summoned-A Coercion Bill for Ireland-Ireland and the Vatican-Lord Palmerston's Correspondence with Lord Minto-Denunciations of the Queen's Colleges-Projected Renewal of Diplomatic Relations with Rome-Lord Palmerston's Objections-The Jews in Parliament-New Bishops -The Hampden Controversy-Baffled Heresy-hunters.

DISTRESS is the word that sums up the life of the nation during 1847. If there be any inadequacy in the summary, it may be made good by the addition to it of-sectarian bigotry. Famine in Ireland, two commercial panics in England, religious controversies of the narrowest and most paltry character, and over all, the wind of Socialism moaning bodefully-there, in a sentence, we have a picture of this melancholy year. It will spot black in English history as the year of the Great Irish Famine. Whether Free Trade did or did not aggravate the distress in Ireland will always be a moot point with