Count Walewski, with an intimation that England must accept them as they stood. Palmerston, angry at being thus duped and slighted, sent a violent remonstrance to France, declaring that England would carry on the war alone rather than accept such terms.* The Emperor himself, however, wrote to the Queen advising her to give way, and explaining why he could not consent to extort any further sacrifices from France, for what he contemptuously cailed "the microscopical advantages " which were the objects of Lord Palmerston's policy. The Queen in her reply says, "I make, then, full allowance for your Majesty's personal difficulties, and refuse to listen to any wounded feelings of amour propre which my Government might be supposed to entertain at a complete understanding having been come to with Austria —an understanding which has resulted in an arrangement being placed cut and dry before us, for our mere acceptance, putting us in the disagreeable position of either having to accept what we have not even been allowed fully to understand (and which, so far as Austria is concerned, has been negotiated under influences dictated by motives, and in a spirit which we are without the means of estimating), or to take the responsibility of breaking up this arrangement, of losing the alliance which is offered to us, and which is so inuch wanted,† and even of estranging the friendly feeling of the ally who advocates the arrangement itself." One member of the Cabinet, Sir George Cornewall Lewis, doubtless expressed the feeling of all his colleagues when he told Mr. Greville that they felt they had no alternative but to submit with a good grace. To this, says Mr. Greville, he "added an expression of his disgust at the pitiful figure we cut in the affair, being obliged to obey the commands of Louis Napoleon, and after our insolence, swagger, and bravado, to submit to terms of peace which we had just rejected; all which humiliation, he justly said, was the consequence of our plunging into war without any reason, and in defiance of all prudence and sound policy." He might have added that it was the inevitable result of plunging into war with a treacherous ally, on whose fidelity Palmerston was senseless enough to stake the fortunes of the Empire, and the sceptre of his Sovereign. The Queen personally considered the terms which were thus thrust on England far from adequate; still she set her face against Palmerston's first proposal to continue the war for the sake of winning prospective victories. After some trivial modifications the Franco

Evelyn Ashley's Life of Lord Palmerston, Vol. II., p. 322.

The excuse for the Franco-Austrian intrigue was that the rejection of the terms by Russia bound Austria to join France and England in going on with the war. But of course Austria had taken pains to find out what terms Russia would accept before she gave her pledge, so that she never had the remotest intention of fighting on our side. As for the terms they were, as Mr. Greville puts it, but a second edition of the proposals which we had rejected at the Vienna Conference. There was, says Mr. Greville, this difference: "while on the last occasion the Emperor knocked under to us and reluctantly agreed to go on with the war, he is now determined to go on with it no longer, and requires that we should defer to his wishes."-Greville Memoirs, Third Part, Vol. I., p. 297. Martin's Life of the Prince Consort, Chap. LXVIII.

Austrian conditions were accepted by the British Government, transmitted by Austria to Russia, and accepted by her on the 16th of January, 1856. "Think," said Sir George Lewis to Mr. Greville, "that this is a war carried on for the independence of Turkey, and we, the allies, are bound to Turkey by mutual obligations not to make peace but by common consent and concurrence. Well, we have sent an offer of peace to Russia, of which the following are among the terms: We propose that Turkey, who possesses one-half of the Black Sea Coast, shall have no ships, no ports, no arsenals in that sea; and then there are conditions about the Christians who are the subjects of Turkey, and others about the mouths of the Danube, to which part of the Turkish dominions are contiguous. Now in all these stipulations so intimately concerning Turkey, for whose independence we are fighting, Turkey is not allowed to have any voice whatever, nor has she ever been allowed to be made acquainted with what is going on except through the newspapers, where the Turkish Ministers may have read what is passing, like other people. When the French and Austrian terms were discussed in the Cabinet, at the end of the discussion some one modestly asked whether it would not be proper to communicate to Musurus (the Turkish Ambassador in London) what was in agitation, and what had been agreed upon, to which Clarendon said he saw no necessity for it whatever." But Palmerston by this time had abandoned the Turks--indeed, he now became quite moderate, not to say humble in his tone -permitting Clarendon to adopt or reject his suggestions as he chose. This sudden docility naturally improved his position at Court. "Palmerston," writes Mr. Greville, "is now on very good terms with the Queen, which is, though he does not know it, greatly attributable to Clarendon's constant endeavours to reconcile her to him, always telling her everything likely to ingratiate Palmerston with her, and showing her any notes or letters of his calculated to please her."+

The Prime Minister and his colleagues it seems were surprised that Russia assented so readily to the terms of peace, and were for a time nervous as to the verdict of the English people. "All peaces are unpopular," wrote Sir George Lewis to Sir Edmund Head, "and all peaces, it seems to me, are beneficial, even to the country which is supposed to be the loser. How greatly England prospered after the peace of 1782, and France after the peace of 1815! I suppose that this peace, if it takes place, will be no exception to the general rule." Fortunately, the Court supported the Ministry in acting with the other Powers, and Mr. Disraeli and Lord Stanley privately informed the Cabinet, that they would accept any peace which was sanctioned by the Crown. Thus the Queen and her Ministers were enabled to meet the Parliament of 1856 with some measure of confidence.

Opening of Parliament-A Cold Speech from the Throne-Moderation of Militant Toryism-Mr. Disraeli's Cynical Strategy - The Betrayal of Kars - The Life Peerage Controversy - Baron Parke's Nickname More Attacks on Prince Albert Court Favouritism among Men of Science The Congress of Paris How France Betrayed England - Walewski's Intrigues with Orloff- Mr. Greville's Pictures of French Official Life Snubbing Bonapartist Statesmen -Peace Proclaimed--Popular Rejoicings A Memento of the Congress-The Terms of Peace-The Tripartite Treaty-The Queen's Opinion of the Settlement-Parliamentary Criticism on the Treaty of Paris - Stagnation of Public Life in England-The Queen's "Happy Family" Dinner Party-A little "Tiff" with America-The Restoration of H.M.S. Resolute-The Budget -Palmerston's Tortuous Italian Policy-The Failure of his Domestic Policy-The Confirmation of the Princess Royal-Robbery of the Royal Nursery Plate-Prince Alfred's Tutor - Reviews of Crimean Troops -Debates on the Purchase System-Lord Hardinge's Tragic Death-The Duke of Cambridge as Commander-in-Chief-Miss Nightingale's Visit to Balmoral-Coronation of the Czar-Russian Chicanery at Paris -A Bad Map and a False Frontier-Quarrel between Prussia and Switzerland-Quarrel between England and the Sicilies Death of the Queen's Half-Brother -- Settlement of the Dispute with Russia - "The Dodge that Saved us."

PARLIAMENT was opened by the Queen in person on the 31st of January, 1856, vast crowds flocking to Westminster for the purpose of testifying their interest in the negotiations for peace. The Royal speech was a brief and business-like summary of the events that had led up to these negotiations, and it announced measures for assimilating the mercantile law of England and Scotland, simplifying the law of partnership, and reforming the system of levying dues on merchant shipping. Complaint was made that the references to the achievements of the army were cold and unsympathetic, as if the speech were that, not of a Sovereign, but of a Minister, and Lord Derby was perhaps right in saying that had her Majesty been left to the promptings of her heart, her Address would not have been open to this objection. Those who had observed the warm womanly sympathy she had shown to the wounded soldiers, or who had witnessed her agitation when she decorated the maimed Crimean heroes, knew well that had she been free to speak as she felt, she would have uttered eloquent words of thanks and praise to cheer the troops still keeping watch and ward in the Crimea.

The general feeling expressed in both Houses of Parliament was that, if we had determined to prosecute the war till Russia sued for peace, we should certainly have obtained more honourable terms than those which had been now accepted by us. But Mr. Disraeli wisely curbed the bellicose spirit of his party, and declared that to continue the war merely for the sake of adding lustre to our arms, would bring us no honour. From being vindicators of public law we should in that case sink to the level of "the gladiators of history." Policy as well as prudence forced moderation on militant Toryism. Mr. Disraeli in a letter to Lord Malmesbury, written on the 30th of November, 1855, says,

"it seems to me that a Party that has shrunk from the responsibility of conducting a war, would never be able to carry on an Opposition against a Minister for having concluded an unsatisfactory peace, however bad the terms."* Lord Derby's determination to refuse office when Lord Aberdeen fell from power, therefore doomed the Opposition to meek inactivity. "We are off the rail of politics," said Mr. Disraeli in the letter just quoted, "and must

continue so as long as the war lasts." Hence one can have no difficulty in agreeing with Sir Theodore Martin when he asserts, that "it was only to be expected of a statesman like Mr. Disraeli, that he should refrain from embarrassing by a word the Ministers on whom devolved the difficult duty of protecting the national interests and honour, in negotiating terms of peace."+ There was no division on the Address. But Lord Derby attacked the Government for the abandonment of Kars, in deference, he insinuated, to the wishes

+ Life of the Prince Consort, Chap. LXX.

Sir Theodore, when he penned this, had not seen

Mr. Disraeli's cynical letter to Lord Malmesbury, otherwise he would probably not have added "such

generosity among statesmen may always be counted on as a matter of course."