Prussian and Russian Ambassadors in London by their respective Governments.

Palmerston received these communications "with deep regret and with much surprise." The independence of Cracow had formed part of the general arrangements which the great Powers had made at Vienna for the settlement of Europe. What Europe had laid down Europe alone could alter, and the British Government felt itself bound to protest ag inst the execution of the policy which the three Northern Powers had announced to it. The protest was supported a few days later by a similar or even stronger remonstrance from France. The fact that it had been made was formally recorded two months afterwards in the Queen's Speech on the opening of Parliament. But the protest fell like the boom of an unshotted gun on the ears of the autocratic Powers of Northern and Eastern Europe. Even if France and England had been in accord, they could have done little to prevent the outrage. With France and England at variance, autocracy had nothing to fear.

One man, however, in the House of Commons thought that something might be done. Hume, reverting to a policy which had been fashionable fifteen years before, desired to stop the interest on the Russian Dutch loan. He failed 5 to secure the support which Herries had obtained for a similar proposal in the unreformed Parliament. Russell declared that he had consulted the law officers, and that these authorities thought that payment should be made. The leaders of the protectionist party went even further than the Prime Minister. Bentinck elaborately defended the conduct of autocracy, and Disraeli formally declared that he had no sympathy with the Poles.8

1 Parl. Papers, 1847, No. 71, p. 40.

2 Ibid., p. 52.

3 Hansard, vol. lxxxix. p. 4. For Metternich's view of the occupation and annexation, cf. Mémoires de Metternich, vol. vii. pp. 193 et seq, and pp. 359-368. 4 Ante, vol. iv. p. 255. 5 Hansard, vol. lxxxix. p. 183, vol. xc. p. 861.

7 Hansard, vol. xc. p. 894.

6 Ante, vol. iv. p. 256. 8 "When I hear of the infamous partition of Poland, although as an Englishman I regret a political event which I think was injurious to our country, I have no sympathy with the race which was partitioned." This passage is preceded by the magnificent burst, "A great nation is that which VOL. V.

2 A

At the time at which these discussions took place, the leaders of the protectionist party, in association with the Radicals, were contemplating the overthrow of the Govern ment on another question of foreign policy.

Portugal.

In 1834 the Quadruple Alliance had established Donna Maria on the throne of Portugal. In 1836 Stockmar succeeded in providing the child-queen with a husband, Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, a cousin of Prince Albert. The young prince was accompanied to Portugal by a German, Dietz, who essayed to play at Lisbon the part of Stockmar. The marriage was followed by several changes. The Duc da Terceira succeeded to the first place in the ministry, and the queen's husband became commander-in-chief. His appointment was intensely unpopular: riots occurred in the capital, the troops rose against the authorities, and the queen, who had hitherto been reigning under the conditions of Don Pedro's Charter of 1826, was forced to accept the Radical Constitution of 1820.3 This violent revolution was followed by nearly ten years of comparative quiet. The old Charter of 1826 was restored in 1842 without disturbance, and a ministry of which Terceira, Palmeila, and Costa Cabral were leading members, entered on a course of constitutional government.

Constitutional government, however, is a plant of slow growth on Continental soil, and politicians reared in the atmosphere of autocracy seem incapable of adapting themselves to parliamentary institutions. The Costa-Cabral Ministry, as it was called, gradually became unpopular. Measures of sanitary reform, imposing fresh taxation, irritated the populace. On the 10th of May 1846 the inhabitants of Northern The revolt Portugal, always ready to engage in a revolutionary movement, rose against the Government. Cabral was forced to leave the country, and Palmella was entrusted with the task of forming a new Administration.

of 1846.

produces great men. It is not by millions of population that we prove the magnitude of the mind." Hansard, vol. xci. p. 85. 1 Ante, vol iv. p. 298.

2 Martin's Prince Consort, vol. i. p. 414.

3 Life of Saldanha, vol. i. p. 445.

♦ Ibid., vol. ii. p. 63; cf. Ann. Reg., 1846, Hist. p. 295.

The ministry which Palmella formed proved unable to suppress the revolution. Oporto, the second city of the kingdom, led the revolt, and the queen's authority became almost daily more restricted. Conservative statesmen, alarmed at the spread of disorder, concluded that stronger men were necessary for the preparation of stronger measures. Palmella himself desired Saldanha, the hero of Terceira,1 to undertake the government. Saldanha, conjecturing that a formal attempt. to recast the ministry might lead to an armed resist- Saldanha's ance, decided on effecting his own accession to coup d'état. office by a coup d'état. On the evening of the 6th of October he repaired to the Queen's palace, summoned Palmella, asked him formally whether he were prepared to put down the revolution, and, on his professing his inability to do so, called on him to resign. Decrees were at once signed announcing the change of Government, and conferring the command of the troops on Saldanha himself. Lisbon sullenly acquiesced in a military revolution which it had no power to prevent.2

It was not, however, in Lisbon that action was chiefly required. Oporto was the centre of the revolt, and the chiefs of the party who were in arms in the North were given a new excuse for their conduct by the lawlessness of Saldanha's coup d'état. Terceira, despatched to the North to restore authority, was arrested and flung into Foz; and Saldanha found it necessary to act against the force which was in arms against queen and ministry.

5

The war which thus broke out was attended with horrid cruelty; one side threatened the queen with the fate of Louis XVI.; the queen, on the other side, was induced to put her name to a proclamation directing that prisoners should im1 Ante, vol. iii. p. 153.

2 The account of the coup d'état from Saldanha's point of view is in his Life, vol. ii. p. 92 seq.; cf. English account in Parl. Papers relating to Portugal, 1847, P. I.

3 See Das Antas' letter to the queen, in which he professes himself devoted to the queen and country: The whole country . . . has seen with horror and indignation the treasonable attempt of a few men who have imposed upon your Majesty an Administration openly opposed to the national will." Ibid., p. 39. Ibid., p. 10; and Saldanha, vol. ii. p. 104 5 Ibid., p. 103.

mediately be shot1 Fortunately for Saldanha's reputation, the impotence of his army made the decree a dead letter. He won one considerable victory, but he was unable to follow up his advantage. The rebels again took heart; the civil war still continued, and an exhausted country remained the unfortunate prey of rival armies.

When the coup d'état of October took place, Howard de Walden represented, or misrepresented, his country at Lisbon. Forgetting that he was an ambassador, he adopted the tactics of a partisan. Fortunately for England, he left Lisbon and repaired to London. His conversation with Palmerston induced the Government to send an officer to visit the headquarters of the Junta, and impress on Das Antas the hopelessness of resisting the queen's authority. Colonel Wylde, who was selected for the duty, was in one respect under a special disqualification. He was attached to the Prince Consort's suite, and half Portugal ascribed the evils of the country to a Saxe-Coburg marriage. Probably, however, no one could have succeeded in Wylde's position. The Junta threw difficulties in the way of his landing at Oporto, and Das Antas turned a deaf ear to his arguments.5

Wylde's mission.

It was thus plain that Wylde's mission had failed, and that neither queen nor Junta was strong enough to bring the civil war to a conclusion. Adjacent Powers watched the protracted struggle with an ill-concealed impatience. Spain, which had from the first desired Saldanha's success, stationed a force on the Portuguese frontier, and the vigorous remonstrances of the British Minister at Madrid hardly prevented Spanish intervention."

Hitherto the contest had been a struggle between Liberals under Das Antas and Conservatives under Saldanha, but Dom

1 Parl. Papers, p. 62. Saldanha declared that the decree was meant only as a threat, Saldanha, vol. ii. p. 120.

2 Parl. Papers, p. 116 et seq.; and Saldanha, vol. ii. p. 135 et seq.

3 See, for instance, his letter to Saldanha in Saldanha, vol. ii. p. 80.

♦ Colonel Wylde's instructions are in Parl. Papers, p. 12.

Ibid., pp. 486, 51.

6 Ibid., pp. 15, 43; cf. Ashley's Palmerston, vol. ii. p. 15.

Miguel.

It

Miguel's friends gradually perceived that, while they gained nothing from standing aside, they might obtain much from. taking part in the struggle. The Miguelites joined Das Antas, and a war of parties became a war of dynasties. The Spanish Government had with difficulty been persuaded to remain neutral while Das Antas was struggling with Saldanha. openly professed its intention of interference if Dom Miguel were once arrayed against Maria. The Portuguese Government asked Palmerston whether he would intervene under the Quadruple Treaty of 1834, and Palmerston, refusing aid but offering intervention, directed Wylde to endeavour to bring about an understanding between the Government and the insurgents.3 Saldanha, however, had asked for material not moral help; and the proposal of Palmerston only made him repeat his application to Spain for armed assistance.4

In fact, Saldanha's position was becoming daily more difficult. He was forced to confess that he saw no prospect of bringing the struggle to a conclusion. His queen ordered him to make overtures to the enemy; his colleagues turned again to France, Spain, and England for help in their extremity. Spain, towards the end of March, moved 12,000 men to the Spanish frontier; Guizot desired M. de Varennes to express his readiness to render any assistance which the Queen of Portugal desired; and Britain saw, to her dismay, that, whether she interfered or not, foreign intervention would immediately take place in Portugal.5

These facts induced Palmerston to adopt a new policy. It was one thing to leave Portugal to settle her own quarrels; it was another thing to stand by and see them settled by other Powers. The Quadruple Treaty, indeed, gave no express right of interference. It had been framed to procure the expulsion of Don Carlos and Dom Miguel from the Peninsula, and neither Carlos nor Miguel was in Spain or Portugal. Neither,

1 Parl. Papers, pp. 101, 113.

2 Ibid., p. 151.

3 Ibid., p. 156; Life of Saldanha, vol. ii. p. 150. Pari. Papers, pp. 158, 171.

5 Ibid., pp. 226, 227, 275.