conscious that the people are with us. May God grant that in a certain place (meaning England) the sympathy for us may grow into active support." Hostilities were renewed in June. Again resistance proved hopeless. The Isle of Alsen was taken, and Fredericia abandoned, and without allies Denmark found herself compelled to yield. A Treaty of Peace was concluded at Vienna, by which the three Duchies, including the islands belonging to Sleswig, were ceded to Prussia and Austria.

The Treaty was pregnant with great results for Germany, for out of it arose the contest for supremacy between the two great Powers, Austria and Prussia, which was closed in 1866 upon the battlefield of Sadowa.

Consequent

English

Ministry.

To the English Government it brought unpopularity and disgrace. The English people had been deeply moved by the struggle of the little kingdom in the grasp of its powerful oppressors. discredit of the The Ministers on whom they relied to give expression to their desires had contented themselves with a bustling and officious interference, an interchange of hard words, to be closed only by a meek surrender, and a complete diplomatic defeat. The conduct of Lord Russell, Lord Derby thought might be best expressed by the words "meddle and muddle," while Disraeli found in the negotiations ground for a motion of want of confidence of a more than usually stinging character. "The course pursued by Government has failed to maintain," he said, "their avowed policy of upholding the independence and integrity of Denmark, and has lowered the just influence of the country in the capitals of Europe, and therefore diminished the securities for peace." It was only by the skill of Lord Palmerston, who, passing lightly over the points at issue, expatiated on the financial triumphs of the Government, rather than on the merits of the case, that a scanty majority was won for the Ministry.

It was not only in the affairs of Denmark that the diplomacy of the Government met with a severe rebuff. Early in the year 1863 an act of tyranny on the part of the Russian police drove Poland to rebellion. The conscription for the army, which under any circumstances presses Insurrection in heavily upon a people, had been used in Poland as a Poland. 1863. means of political repression. In one night more than 2000 men of the middle class had been seized and forced into military service. It was an act described by Lord Napier, the English Ambassador at St. Petersburg, as "a design to make a clean sweep of the revolutionary youth of Poland, to shut up the most energetic and dangerous spirits in the restraints of the Russian army; simply a plan

1863]

INSURRECTION IN POLAND

367

to kidnap the insurrection and carry it off to Siberia or the Caucasus.” The Grand Duke Constantine was at that time Viceroy of Poland. It was known that he intended to make this violent use of the conscription, and a central committee had already been formed, and had issued calls upon the people to resist. When the blow was struck this advice was taken, and the insurrection broke out in several parts of Poland at once. The number of the insurgents was small compared with that of the army opposed to them, but the whole country was involved in a network of conspiracy. The combatants assembled rapidly in the woods, cut off detachments, won or lost engagements, and disappeared from the field, only to reappear suddenly with similar results elsewhere. The people however proved unable to resist the large forces which the Czar could bring against them. By degrees the insurrection was suppressed, with circumstances of violence and cruelty which, combined with the immediate cause of the rising, excited in Europe the strongest sympathy for the oppressed Poles, and abhorrence for the Russian Government. Bismarck and Prussia were included in the general disapproval. He had joined in a convention with Russia by which the troops of the oppressor had right of passage through the Prussian territories, and the fugitive Poles were to be given up.

The futile

of England.

Again England thought fit to come forward as the champion of oppressed nationality; and the Government seemed fully to sympathise in the expressions of disapproval of the action of Russia, which in debate after debate found utterance in the two Houses of Parliament. But again when it came to action the remonstrance Ministry laid itself open to that failure which must generally attend diplomacy unsupported by force; again the Foreign Office appeared criticising, arguing, and lecturing without result. It took its stand upon the Vienna Treaties of 1815, which, according to its interpretation, placed Poland in the hands of Russia upon the condition of its receiving a national constitution—a condition which had been flagrantly disregarded. Lord Russell even went so far as to lay down six points, embodying a perfect amnesty and complete constitutional arrangements, as the basis of discussion at a Congress of the signatories of the Vienna Treaties which he proposed to call. The Russian Minister, politely enough, but very firmly, refused to listen to such suggestions, although they were supported in some degree both by France and Austria. Sure indeed that no armed intervention was intended, for even the most violent assaults in the English Parliament were coupled with declarations in favour of peaceful inter

vention only, he had no difficulty in assuming a high tone. He declared that the Czar had always had the happiness of the Poles at heart, that some at least of the points suggested had been already granted, that it was false to suppose after the fashion of England that one sort of government suited every country, and that before any concessions could be considered order must be restored. The insurrection, he declared, was the work not of the Poles themselves, who were well affected and improving in prosperity, but of reckless agitators supported by the revolutionists of all countries, who were pressing on a propaganda of their views under the influence of an irresistible terrorism. That there was some truth in this assertion can scarcely be denied. The position taken up by the English Government, the via media of liberal constitutionalism which it always recommended, is difficult to maintain. The Treaties of 1815 had been an attempt to reestablish, with some attention to new liberal doctrines, the old system of dynastic rule. Every attempt to encourage the growing feeling of nationality is inevitably a blow aimed against that system. Of necessity those who have supported the attempt have found themselves in alliance with the most vigorous and determined opponents of the system, the leaders of revolutionary thought. It is not always that a great and commanding statesman such as Cavour is to be found capable at once of using and dominating his dangerous allies. By falling back upon the Treaties of 1815 to support a national movement, Lord Russell was in fact taking up an untenable position, and as the breach of treaty should logically lead to war, he was laying England open, unless indeed war was intended, to the very complete rebuff which it encountered. It may also be doubted whether the knowledge that foreign nations are sympathising with them, and that negotiations are on foot which may perhaps lead to armed assistance, does not excite in insurgents hope and determination to continue a course which only ends in their own destruction.

With various results, and various degrees of success, the Government had at least succeeded, amid the complications of Europe, in keeping England in peace. It was not, however, able to avoid some wars of secondary importance which seem inseparable from the wide spread of its Empire.

War in China.

The Chinese War, which had been brought to a conclusion as it was hoped by the Treaty of Tientsin in 1858, had broken out in an exaggerated form in the following year. Mr. Bruce, the brother of Lord Elgin, had been appointed Minister Plenipotentiary under the Treaty, which had stipulated that a British

1859,

1859]

WAR IN CHINA

369

Embassy should be established at Pekin. It had been thought wiser to waive this last condition, and while preserving the right of visiting Pekin as occasion required to establish the British Embassy at Shanghai. But it was Mr. Bruce's duty to proceed first to the capital for the purpose of exchanging ratifications of the Treaty; and the extreme dislike of the Chinese to treat with foreign nations upon terms of equality rendered it probable that they would have recourse to every shift to avoid this visit. The French and English plenipotentiaries (for the nations were acting in common) were therefore supplied with a considerable escort of gun-boats under the command of Admiral Hope. When the allied squadron arrived off the mouth of the Peiho river, it was found that the forts destroyed in the previous year had been reconstructed and much strengthened, and fresh booms and obstructions placed across the river. As all demands for the removal of these obstacles were refused, Chinese. the Admiral was instructed to force them. But the squadron was not sufficiently strong for the purpose. It encountered a powerful and furious cannonade, and several of the gun-boats were sunk or disabled. An attempt to take the forts by landing a body of men failed disastrously. The assailants had to wade through mud up to their waist, and as they straggled forward were exposed to an overwhelming fire; their scaling ladders were smashed or left sticking in the mud; and though a little band succeeded in pushing on to the further side of the last ditch by which their course was obstructed, the troops were compelled to fall back with a loss of a third of their whole number, including three-fourths of the officers who had landed.

Defeat of the

June 1859.

A more disastrous failure could scarcely have happened, not so much on account of the immediate effects, as because the necessity of restoring their prestige drove England and France to one of those exhibitions of force against a weak and semi-barbarous people which add so little to the credit or honour of great nations. Lord Elgin and Baron Gros resumed their position as plenipotentiaries for the two countries, and Sir Hope Grant and General Montauban were placed in command of a considerable body of troops, French, English, and Indian, to insist upon the execution of the late treaty, and obtain reparation for the repulse encountered. Apology, and the restoration of guns or material captured, the admission of the Western Ministers to Pekin, and the ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin, with an indemnity of 4,000,000 taels, were the terms laid down for immediate acceptance. The ultimatum was absolutely rejected, and in August

VICT.

2 A

Treachery of the Chinese.

1860, the combined fleets and armies proceeded to force their way to the capital. Not without desperate fighting, the forts were taken, and Tientsin reached, whence it was determined to advance to Tangchou, a few miles from Pekin, and there, and there only, to treat. As the army approached, Mr. Parkes and Mr. Wade, Lord Elgin's secretaries, went forward and met the Chinese commissioners. An agreement was arrived at by which the army was to halt within five miles of the city, whither the ambassadors should then repair and sign the convention. Mr. Parkes and his comrades rode back to the place appointed to show the troops their camping-ground, were astonished to find it already occupied by a large Chinese army, and hastened again to the High Commissioners to demand the meaning of this breach of faith. Meanwhile the army on arriving at the appointed ground found itself in presence of the Chinese forces. Sir Hope Grant, apprehensive of the safety of the Englishmen who were within the Chinese lines, attempted to avoid a collision, but information that the escort attending the European emissaries had been treacherously assaulted, and a French officer murdered, induced him to put an end to his delay. He attacked and defeated the Chinese. Mr. Parkes and those with him had on their return to Tangchou been seized, some of them hurried up the country where they were barbarously murdered, Mr. Parkes himself with Mr. Loch being confined with every indignity in the foul common prison at Pekin. Lord Elgin of course refused to negotiate unless the prisoners were restored, and allowed three days for their surrender and the signature and completion of the Treaty. As the Emperor's brother, Prince Kung, who was superintending the action of the Chinese, continued to refuse his demands, on the 6th of October the army advanced, and captured and pillaged the summer palace, which was filled with vast wealth of rich manufactures and curiosities. The stroke was so far successful that Mr. Parkes and the other prisoners confined in Pekin were two days afterwards released; and when every disposition had been made for the bombardment of the capital, the Chinese lost heart and surrendered the city, which was at once occupied by the allied troops. The barbarous treatment to which the prisoners were subjected then first became known, and Lord Elgin thought it necessary to order the complete destruction of the summer palace, and to demand the immediate ment of a considerable indemnity for the murdered men. The opposition of the Chinese was so completely broken, that no further hesitation was shown; and on the 24th of October

Complete

success of the English.

Oct. 1860.

pay