1848.]

AT HOME IN THE HIGHLANDS.

321

tainted with the taquinerie, of which M. Bastiat complained so bitterly to Mr. Cobden some years afterwards, and which ultimately rendered him as obnoxious. personally to the Queen as he became to his own colleagues. About the end of September the Royal Family returned home, the Queen carrying with her, despite the bad weather, the brightest memories of lonely Ardverikie.

How complete, restful, and enjoyable the change of scene and occupation must have been for the Queen is brightly indicated by Lord Palmerston. He

told Lord Campbell that her Majesty was greatly delighted with the Highlands, in spite of the bad weather, and "that she was accustomed to sally forth for a walk in the midst of a heavy rain, putting a great hood over her bonnet, and showing nothing of her features but her eyes. The Prince's invariable return to luncheon at two o'clock, in spite of grouse-shooting and deerstalking, is explained by his voluntary desire to please the Queen, and by the intense hunger which always assails him at this hour, when he likes, in the German fashion, to make his dinner."* One is not surprised, then, that in some of her Majesty's letters to her relatives abroad, a note of regret is sounded over the exchange of this life of perfect freedom, for the

Life of Lord Campbell, Vol. II., p. 226.

ceremony, constraint, and semi-publicity which make up the daily round of life at Court.

Out of the conversations and discussions with Lord Palmerston and Prince Leiningen at Ardverikie grew projects for a policy of alliance with Germany, and foreshadowings of the great movement towards Unity which the Fatherland was, in the opinion of the Prince, bound to make under the leadership of Prussia. Nothing can be clearer than the Prince's prevision in discussing this theme, or sounder than his arguments for an Anglo-German alliance, based on geographical and ethnical considerations. Lord Palmerston apparently agreed that England and Germany had reason to fear the same enemies, France and Russia, and that they had therefore an obvious interest in strengthening each other. But the German Zollverein, excellent as it was as a means of paving the way for German Unity, imposed prohibitory duties on English goods, and Lord Palmerston stoutly held that an English Minister would neglect his duty to his country if he did not use his influence to prevent every German State not yet in the Customs Union from joining it. To sacrifice the Zollverein was to destroy the germ of German Unity, and here the divergence between Palmerston's views and those of the Court became patent. He was quite prepared to sacrifice the Zollverein in the cause of Free Trade. The Court was not.

CHAPTER XVIII.

REVOLUTION.

At Osborne-Beginnings of Revolution-The Reform Banquets in Paris - Lola Montes and the King of Bavaria-Downfall of Louis Philippe's Government-Flight of the King-Establishment of the Second Republic-The Queen and the Orleans Family-The Chartist Movement-Its Secret History-Its LeadersThe Queen Retreats to Osborne-The Chartist Meeting at Kennington--London in Terror-The Duke of Wellington's Precautions-Abortive Risings at Bonner's Fields and in Seven Dials-Riots in the Large Towns-Collapse of Chartism-Ireland and the "Young Irelanders"-The Rebellion of "48"-The Battle of the Cabbage Garden-Arrest of Smith O'Brien and the "Young Ireland" Leaders-Austria and Prussia in Anarchy-Flight of Metternich-The Berlin Mob and the King-Anxiety of the English Court-The Queen's Correspondence with her Half-Sister--The Anglo-Spanish Quarrel-Sir H. Bulwer Expelled from Madrid-The Queen's Indignation at Lord Palmerston-Conversation between the Queen and Lord John Russell-Palmerston's Victory-The "Three Budget" Session-The Anti-Income-Tax Agitation-Blundering in Finance-"Scenes" in Parliament--Irish and Colonial Controversies-The Encumbered Estates ActRepressive Legislation-Dawn of the Reform Agitation.

DURING the autumn Session of Parliament, while the Irish Coercion Bill was under debate, the Queen and her family retired to Osborne. Pleasant experiments in landscape gardening there formed an agreeable diversion from the distracting anxieties of foreign politics in London. And truly by this time affairs on the Continent began to assume a more threatening aspect than ever. In Switzerland the rebellion of the seven Catholic cantons of the Sonderbund

1848.]

A YEAR OF REVOLT.

323

had been crushed by General Dufour, who commanded the forces of the other fifteen cantons. The rising was suppressed before the Cabinets of England, Austria, France, Russia, and Prussia had time to intervene. But in Italy the popular party, excited by rumours of Lord Minto's sympathy with their movement, were stirring up the people against their Austrian masters. The Pope was growing afraid of his own diluted Liberalism. France was rapidly becoming demoralised. Sensational trials in the law courts revealed a shocking amount of corruption in official circles in Paris. The deficit in the Budget was greater than had been anticipated. Louis Philippe was accused of debauching the electorate and the Representative Chamber by bribery; his quarrel with England, and his futile attempt to win compensatory alliances elsewhere, destroyed his prestige; the Liberal Party, secretly encouraged by his enemy, Lord Palmerston, attacked his Government with every weapon of invective and ridicule; his Ministers had lost the confidence of the people, and the demand for a wide extension of the franchise accordingly became loud and deep. To this demand, perfectly reasonable in itself, the King and his Minister, M. Guizot, offered the most dogged and infatuated opposition.

The movement in North Italy against Austrian domination also created an agitation for reforms in the Two Sicilies, to which the King would make no concessions whatever. The Royal troops, in January, 1848, were beaten in an attempt to quell a revolt in the island of Sicily, and a futile compromise was scornfully rejected by the insurgents, who insisted on nothing less than the Constitution of 1812, and the assembly of a Parliament at Palermo. Naples in turn became restive, whereupon the terrified King dismissed his autocratic advisers, formed a Liberal Ministry, and granted a Constitution, with an amnesty, on the 12th of February. Even Lord Minto, Palmerston's unofficial emissary to "Young Italy," failed to persuade the Sicilians to accept it. But these concessions, barren as they were, forced the hands of the Pope and of the rulers of Tuscany and Sardinia, who in turn granted Constitutions. In fact, the tide of revolution was rising fast, and threatened to sweep everything before it in the Italian Peninsula.

Opinions differ as to what was the spark that lit the conflagration which made 1848 the annus mirabilis of Revolution. It has been customary to say it was the stupid opposition of Louis Philippe and M. Guizot to the Reform banquets in France, which were fixed for the 22nd of February. Lord Malmesbury, however, traces the origin of the outbreak to the popular disturbances in Munich early in the month. The people of Munich, it seems, were incensed against the King, who had dismissed his Prime Minister, Prince Wallenstein, for advising him to expel his mistress, Lola Montes, from Bavaria after her infamous influence had become paramount in the Royal councils.* Lola Montes had a most extraordinary career. She first appeared in society in London in Lord Malmesbury's house, where she sang ballads-Spanish

* Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. I., p. 208.