346 



GREAT BRITAIN". 



GREAT BRITAIN". The year commenced 

 with gloomy .apprehensions. The country was 

 involved, in alliance with France, in a costly and, 

 as was then probable, protracted war with China, 

 and though news of a treaty of peace between 

 the representatives of the allied powers and the 

 Chinese Emperor (the treaty of Tien-tsin) soon 

 arrived, yet the flight of the emperor and the 

 wide-spread insurrection of the Tae-ping party, 

 made it doubtful whether another and worse 

 struggle was not to follow. In New Zealand 

 a war had broken out between the natives and 

 the colonists, which the experience of previous 

 colonial wars led the nation to apprehend, 

 might prove lengthy and expensive ; in her 

 relations to the European powers, there was 

 much that boded ill for peace ; Austria was 

 threatened with an Italian war and insurrec- 

 tion in Hungary, and such a war would almost 

 inevitably involve on one side or the other most 

 of the powers of Europe ; Prussia was develop- 

 ing a reactionary tendency, and her hostility to 

 France and connection with England were 

 strong motives to incline Great Britain to sym- 

 pathize with a Germanic policy ; France, by 

 her disruption of diplomatic intercourse with 

 Italy, the retention of her squadron at Gaeta, 

 her persistent occupation of Syria against Eng- 

 lish remonstrances, her encouragement of the 

 canal project of M. Lesseps, and her armed oc- 

 cupancy of the isthmus of Suez in connection 

 with it ; her whispered designs upon Sardinia, 

 and the marked increase of her army and naval 

 forces, had given rise to extreme uneasiness, on 

 the part both of the British Government and 

 people. At home, there was still more cause 

 for depression. The deficiency in the crops of 

 1860 was very great, far beyond that of any 

 previous year since 1847, and the purchase of 

 grain from foreign countries had produced such 

 a drain of specie, that the rate of discount in 

 the Bank of England had risen to nine per 

 cent., and the disturbances already existing in 

 the United States, the general shortness of 

 crops in France and Germany, and the appre- 

 hension of the imminence of war, had so far 

 paralyzed trade, that the manufactories of the 

 country were obliged to suspend or diminish 

 their production. News, too, came from India 

 that, owing to the extreme drought of the pre- 

 ceding season, a terrible famine was prevailing 

 over extensive districts, and the wretched na- 

 tives were dying daily by hundreds from starva- 

 tion, and looked to England for help. The Gov- 

 ernment took measures at once to relieve, in 

 part, this urgent distress, and subscriptions to 

 the amount of $500,000 were made by private 

 individuals, to aid in preventing or alleviating 

 the suffering from the famine. As the months 

 rolled on, some of these causes of disquietude 

 were removed ; the Chinese treaty was ob- 

 served, the Indian famine was relieved, the 

 New Zealand insurgents surrendered to the 

 British commander on the 13th of March, and 

 though hostilities were subsequently renewed, 

 their former prestige of success was lost ; the 



French fleet left Gaeta, and the city surrendered 

 on the 14th of February ; and, at the repeated 

 and urgent solicitation of the British Govern- 

 ment, the termination of the French occupation 

 of Syria was definitively fixed for the 6th of 

 June. The French Emperor disavowed any 

 intention of obtaining possession of Sardinia, 

 and made such explanations of his increased 

 armament as were partially satisfactory, while 

 his abrogation of the passport system, and his 

 negotiation with Mr. Cobden, of the reciprocal 

 commercial treaty, materially reducing the du- 

 ties on the productions and manufactures of 

 the two countries, were in some sort guaranties 

 for his peaceful intentions. 



The finances of the Government, too, which 

 had given rise to some apprehension, a deficit 

 having occurred the previous year, and a still 

 larger one being expected the present one, had 

 assumed unexpectedly a more favorable aspect ; 

 a moderate surplus having taken the place of 

 the previous year's deficiency. But if these 

 causes of solicitude had vanished, others had 

 appeared in their place. Lord John Russell 

 had communicated to the Italian court his sym- 

 pathy with them, and had avowed the right of 

 a people, situated as the Neapolitans were, to 

 throw off their allegiance to the tyranny that 

 oppressed them, and transfer it to another 

 power. This declaration, intended only to en- 

 courage and unite the Italians, and perhaps to 

 rebuke Prussia for her strongly reactionary ten- 

 dencies, had a wider application than he in- 

 tended ; the Ionian Islands, under the Govern- 

 ment of Great Britain, were desirous of trans- 

 ferring their allegiance to the Kingdom of 

 Greece, and had the very good plea to offer, 

 that Great Britain did not understand their 

 needs or legislate for them, and their commis- 

 sioners adroitly applied the language of the 

 English Foreign Secretary as justifying them 

 in making such a transfer ; the Irish members 

 of parliament, delighted with their opportunity, 

 made a similar application of it to their own 

 case ; and the commissioners from the Confed- 

 erate States, who had just appeared, hailed it 

 as perfectly apropos to their position. Some 

 awkward explanation was necessary, to avoid 

 the dilemma into which the Secretary had fall- 

 en ; but it was finally accomplished, without 

 satisfying the claimants for its application to 

 their several cases, that it was not intended 

 to have so wide a range as they sought to 

 give it. 



The proposition to repeal the duty on paper, 

 made by Mr. Gladstone, the Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer, the preceding year, and then de- 

 feated by the House of Lords, was renewed 

 during the session of 1861, and accompanied by 

 a reduction of the income tax one penny on 

 the pound, and the retention of the tea and 

 sugar duties for another year. After a consid- 

 erable debate, the bill for this purpose passed 

 the House of Commons by a vote of 296 yeas 

 to 281 nays, and the House of Lords without a 

 division. 



