under the lead of Mr. Frost, a magistrate. This was, of course, easily suppressed, and some of the leaders were transported; but the agitation continued for years, and roused great enthusiasm among the unrepresented classes.

.movement.

The other movement in favour of free trade in corn had its origin in the wants of the manufacturers, who saw that one effect of the The free trade corn laws was to keep bread at a higher price than it would have been had foreign corn been allowed to be imported free of duty, so that foreigners might, whenever they could, undersell the English farmers in the home market. This artificial raising of the price necessarily increased the hardships of the unemployed workpeople whenever there were bad times in the manufacturing districts, and had the effect of making the interest of the manufacturing population hostile to that of the country districts, which depended for their prosperity on the condition of agriculture and the amount of employment which could be given on the land. The manufacturers, therefore, set on foot the Anti-Corn Law League, whose most active spirits were Richard Cobden and John Bright, both manufacturers and men of great eloquence, and they set on foot a crusade against the corn laws, which they carried on in the manufacturing districts.

While the country was thus being agitated by Chartism on one side, and the anti-corn law agitation on the other, the Melbourne Resignation of ministry was in the last stage of weakness. In the

the Whigs. general election on the queen's accession, the Conservatives had 310 members. In 1839 the government only carried a bill for suspending the constitution of Jamaica, in which island there had been constant trouble since the Act of 1833, by five votes. Upon this Lord Melbourne sent in his resignation, and Sir R. Peel attempted to form a ministry, but was foiled by an unexpected difficulty. It had always been the practice at court that the personal attendants of the sovereign should be of the same way of thinking as the ministers, and therefore that when a ministry resigned the household should resign too. This had been easy in the case of a king, but it was not so easy in the case of a queen, who naturally objected to have her domestic circle broken up; and Lord Melbourne had made it still more difficult by putting the most confidential

The Bedchamber question.

places into the hands of the wives and sisters of his own colleagues. Sir R. Peel naturally wished that these should be changed, but, as the queen objected, he gave way, and threw up the task of forming a ministry. Melbourne thereupon came back Return of Lord again; but his ignominious return, as it was said, "behind the petticoats of the ladies of the Bedchamber," was of small advantage to his party, for the Whigs were weaker than ever.

Melbourne.

Penny post.

The only important event of their ministry at home was the adoption by Rowland Hill of the penny postage scheme in 1839, which quite revolutionized the postal arrangements of the country, and not only conferred an immense boon on all classes, but also gave a vast impetus to the prosperity of the country by the increased facilities it offered to business.

colonies

In the colonies, the last years of William IV. and the early years of Queen Victoria were of considerable importance. In 1836 South Australia was first colonized, its capital taking the Progress of the name of Adelaide from the queen of William IV. The next year Natal was founded by Dutch settlers, who had made their way north from the Cape of Good Hope. At first they were independent, but in 1841 Natal was placed under English rule. In 1839 we acquired Aden, which is to the entrance of the Red Sea what Gibraltar is to the Mediterranean. The same year New Zealand was first permanently colonized.

General election and fall of the

Whigs.

In 1841 Sir R. Peel carried a vote of want of confidence in the ministry by one vote. Parliament was dissolved, and in the general election the Conservatives, carried by the reaction which had shown itself since 1832, secured 367 seats, giving them a majority over the Whigs of 86. Lord Melbourne was at once defeated, and resigned office. The resignation of Lord Melbourne brings to a close the period which followed immediately on the passing of the Reform Bill. Many important measures had been passed, but the enthusiasm had died out. The defection of the Chartists and the independent wishes of the Anti-Corn Law League had weakened the Whigs. On the other hand, the great reputation of Sir R. Peel as a financier, a department in which the Whigs were believed to be weak, was a tower of strength to the Conservatives in the towns, while the fear of the abolition of the corn laws was the mainstay of the Conservatives among the farmers.

Lord Melbourne's influence on the queen.

The part which Lord Melbourne had had to play since the accession of the queen was a most difficult and important one, for upon him fell the duty of teaching her the conduct of business and the functions of the sovereign in the working of the constitution. This Lord Melbourne, in spite of his want of tact in the arrangement of the household, is admitted to have done with great skill, and for it the nation will always owe a debt of gratitude to his memory.

The chief members of Sir R. Peel's ministry were the Duke of Wellington, who led the Lords; Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Chancellor; Lord Aberdeen, who was Foreign Secretary; Lord Stanley, War and Colonial Secretary; and Sir J. Graham, Home Secretary. Mr. Gladstone was Vice-President and afterwards President of the Board of Trade.

Progress of

The first concern of the new government was with Indian affairs. Since the Mahratta war of 1803, the British territories in India had made great progress. In 1813 we conquered India. Nepaul, a territory which lies close to the Himalaya mountains. In 1818 we put down the Pindarries-bands of professional robbers who infested the territory of the Great Mogul. In 1819 we acquired Singapore, an island which commands the Straits of Malacca. In 1824 we made war upon Burmah, and took Rangoon and the surrounding territory on the coast, leaving the district of Upper Burmah, annexed in 1885, independent. In 1826 we took Assam.

These annexations made our connection with India more that of rulers than ever, and when the East India Company's charter was renewed in 1833, the trade with India and China was thrown completely open. The Company, however, still preserved its position as a political body, and continued to govern India, subject to the Board of Control which Pitt had established, twenty-five years longer.

Reform of the
East India
Company.

Meanwhile the steady advance of Russia in Central Asia had begun to excite fear that she would intrigue against us in India, if Russians in only as a counterpoise to our well-understood hostility Afghanistan. to her designs on Constantinople; and when, in 1838, it was learnt that a Russian envoy had been received at Cabul, the capital of Afghanistan, the country which includes the great towns

of Herat, Cabul, Ghuznee, and Candahar, commanding the approaches to India on the north-west, a demand was sent to Dost Mahomed, Ameer of Afghanistan, that he should be dismissed.

war.

As the Ameer refused, British troops invaded the country and captured Ghuznee, Candahar, and Cabul. Dost Mahomed surrendered, and Shah Sujah was set up in his place. First Afghan Unfortunately, the English leaders at Cabul allowed themselves to be outwitted by Akbar Khan, Dost Mahomed's son, and agreed to retreat to the frontier under a safe conduct. This was broken, and of the whole army only one man, Dr. Brydon, survived the attacks of the enemy and retreat from the bitter cold of the Afghan winter, and reached Jellalabad, at the mouth of the Khyber Pass, where he found General Sale still holding out. To wipe away our disgrace, new armies were sent into Afghanistan, which recaptured Candahar and Cabul. After all Dost Mahomed was restored.

Disastrous

Cabul.

Scinde.

Hardly was the Afghan war over, when a misunderstanding with the Ameers of Scinde, the territory which lies at Annexation of the mouth of the river Indus, caused an invasion of Meeanee and their territory by Sir Charles Napier. The Ameers' troops were beaten in the battles of Meeanee and Hyderabad, and their land added to the Company's territories in 1843.

Hyderabad.

First Sikh war.

The war against Scinde was quickly followed by one against the Sikhs, who occupied the Punjab, a district of five rivers, all of which flow into the Indus. Their powerful army threatened the peace of the surrounding districts, and as they refused to disband we attacked and defeated them in the great battles of Aliwal and Sobraon, in 1846. Three years later war again broke out. The Sikhs were defeated at Chillianwallah and Goojerat, and the Punjab was annexed by the Company in 1849.

Aliwal and Sobraon. Second Sikh

war.

of Scotland formed. 1843.

Meanwhile at home the first years of Sir R. Peel's ministry were not marked by any events of first-rate importance. Free Church In Scotland a great secession took place from the established Presbyterian Church, and the seceders formed the Free Church of Scotland. In Ireland Sir R. Peel did a gracious act by passing a bill to increase the yearly allowance which had been made

Maynooth grant

1844.

since 1795 in aid of the maintenance of the Roman Catholic College of Maynooth, where Irish priests were usually educated. Mr. Gladstone left the ministry because he had previously written against such a measure. Sir R. Peel also devoted great attention to finance, and in his budget of 1842 followed the policy of Pitt and Huskisson by taking the duty off a very large number of small articles, for which he substituted an income tax for a limited period.

Peel's finance.

Corn law

The great question of the day, however, was that of the corn laws. The real difficulty was, how to make things as easy as possible for the manufacturers without ruining the agriculturists question. by throwing vast tracts of arable land out of cultivation. Since 1815 various schemes had been tried to this end, and in 1842 Sir R. Peel arranged a sliding scale by which the duty on foreign corn varied exactly according to the price in England, so that it could be introduced as soon as ever it would pay to sell it. Lord John Russell, who was now the leader of the Whigs, was understood to be in favour of a fixed duty of eight shillings in the quarter, which, as it would always be the same, would be more likely to make trade steady. However, the free-traders Cobden and Bright still agitated for total repeal, and in 1845 they were assisted by the terrible catastrophe of the Irish famine.

The Irish famine.

For years the Irish had learnt to rely upon the potato for their main support, and in that year the potato crop failed. It was certain that 1846 would be a year of famine, and it seemed intolerable that the price of corn should be kept up by artificial means. Accordingly Peel made up his mind that the corn laws must go, and offered to resign his post, feeling that his mind. as at the general election the maintenance of the corn laws had been one of the promises of the Conservatives, he was not the right person to propose their repeal.

Peel changes

Lord John Russell, however, failed to form a government, because Lord Grey (son of the former prime minister) refused to sit in the

Lord John Russell fails to form a ministry.

cabinet if Lord Palmerston, who had alarmed the Whigs by his vigorous action in foreign policy, was allowed to be Foreign Secretary. Lord Stanley, who refused to have anything to do with the repeal of the corn laws, was not prepared to form a government.