HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



petition containing their demands, and said to 

 be signed by more than 5,000,000 persons, 

 which was to be presented by Feargus O'Connor, 

 one of the members for Nottingham. London 

 was .very much alarmed, and a large number of 

 special constables were enrolled. The whole affair, 

 however, passed off quietly and happily without 

 any conflict with the military, whom the Duke of 

 Wellington had stationed out of sight, but at hand. 

 After this, the Chartist agitation died down. 



, 



WARS OF THE PRESENT REIGN. 



The wars of this reign, in which Britain has 

 :en engaged, if they have not been of such great 

 importance as those in the time of George III. 

 have been very numerous. In the year of the 

 Queen's accession, some discontent in Lower 

 Canada, on account of ill-defined political griev- 

 ances, ended in open revolt. The rising, however, 

 was quickly put down, and conciliatory and popular 

 measures which were passed succeeded in 're- 

 storing peace. In 1867, the provinces of Canada, 

 Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were, by statute, 

 united federally into one Dominion, under the 

 name of Canada, with a constitution similar to 

 that of Great Britain and Ireland, being ruled by a 

 Governor-general in name of the Queen, and by two 

 Houses of Parliament. The Dominion now virtually 

 embraces the whole of British North America. 



In 1840, Great Britain, along with other powers, 

 took the part of the Sultan of Turkey against 

 Mehemet Ali, his pacha in Egypt, who had 

 rebelled against him, and had even endeavoured 

 to deprive him of a portion of his dominions. 

 Acre was bombarded and taken by a British fleet 

 under Admiral Stopford and Commodore Napier. 

 A treaty was concluded by which Mehemet Ali 

 was compelled to give up Syria, although he was 

 permitted to retain Egypt. 



Britain had no little trouble with China during 

 this reign. Difficulties arose first in 1840, from 

 the attempts of the imperial government in 

 hina to put down the contraband trade in opium 

 rricd on between that country and India. A 

 ar between China and Britain ensued, in which 

 e latter was victorious, and China was compelled 

 o sign a treaty at Nankin, by which the ports of 

 ~.moy, Foochow, Ningpo, Shanghai, and Canton 

 ere thrown open to foreign commerce, and the 

 land of Hong-kong was ceded to Britain. Peace 

 ntinued till 1856, when the seizure by the 

 hinese authorities at Canton of a ship and crew 

 titled to British protection, caused a fresh war, 

 r hich continued with some interruptions until the 

 3th October 1860, when the allied British and 

 "rench forces captured Pekin, the Chinese capital, 

 'he Chinese then submitted to a treaty, the most 

 portant of the stipulations of which were, that 

 e Queen of Great Britain might appoint diplo- 

 atic agents to reside at the court of Pekin ; that 

 ,e Christian religion should enjoy the protection 

 f the Chinese authorities ; that British subjects 

 ,ould be permitted, under passports from their 

 onsuls, to travel in all parts of the interior of 

 "hina ; and that British ships should be allowed 

 navigate the Yang-tze. This war led to an 

 pedition to Japan under Lord Elgin, and the 

 opening to some extent of that interesting empire 

 to foreign commerce. 

 After a peace of forty years, Britain again be- 



came involved in a European war. This arose 

 from the assertion, by the Czar Nicholas of Russia, 

 of a right to a protectorate of the Christian popu- 

 lation in Turkey. In 1853, he urged this claim in 

 such a form as to render it impossible for Turkey 

 to admit it without ceasing to be an independent 

 state. The other great powers of Europe, which 

 had now become very jealous of Russia's encroach- 

 ments all along her frontier, interfered as medi- 

 ators, but in vain. After a year spent in negotia- 

 tions, England and France formally declared war 

 against Russia on the 27th March 1854. The 

 war was carried on for two years, and during 

 that time the other powers of Europe re- 

 mained neutral, with the exception of Sardinia, 

 which joined the alliance. A considerable British 

 and French army was sent to the Crimea, 

 landing there on the I4th September. On 

 the 20th they defeated a Russian army strongly 

 posted on the Alma. They then settled down to 

 the siege of the great fortress of Sebastopol. 

 During the winter, the British troops suffered 

 terrible hardships, mainly from the imperfect 

 arrangements made to provide them with shelter 

 and supplies. The Russians made two des- 

 perate efforts to dislodge the allies, but were 

 beaten with heavy loss in the sanguinary engage- 

 ments of Balaklava (October 25) and Inkermann 

 (November 5). The brunt of both engagements 

 was borne by the British troops. The Czar 

 Nicholas died (March 1855), and the war con- 

 tinued under his son, Alexander II. Meanwhile, 

 there had been two naval campaigns in the Baltic 

 Sea, a powerful English and French fleet entering 

 the Gulf of Finland, blockading the Russian 

 coasts, and compelling the enemy's fleet to seek 

 shelter behind the granite fortresses of Cronstadt 

 and Sveaborg. The bombardment and partial 

 destruction of the latter fortress in the second 

 campaign was the most important service rendered 

 by the fleets. At length, after a terrific cannonade, 

 continued for three days, the French carried the 

 key of Sebastopol by assault, and the allies cap- 

 tured the whole south side of the city (September 

 8, 1855). During the winter of that year, the 

 opposing forces maintained their positions. Aus- 

 tria now came forward as a mediator, and the 

 result of her interposition was a conference at 

 Paris (March 1856), which in turn led to the con- 

 clusion of a treaty guaranteeing the independence 

 of Turkey, and stipulating that Russia should 

 maintain no naval force in the Black Sea. The 

 rather unexpected termination of the war was 

 learned with something like a feeling of dis- 

 appointment in this country, as both the army and 

 the navy were known to be in the beginning of 

 1856 in a thorough state of efficiency, and it was 

 hoped that an attempt would be made to retrieve 

 previous blunders at the beginning of the war, 

 by which the military reputation of Britain had 

 suffered. In 1871, by an agreement among 

 the powers consenting to the Treaty of Paris, the 

 clause in it prohibiting Russia from maintaining 

 a naval force on the Black Sea, was practically 

 rescinded. The marriage of the Queen's second 

 son, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, to the Princess 

 Marie Alexandrowna, daughter of the Czar Alex- 

 ander II. which took place, January 23, 1874, led 

 to great demonstrations of friendship between the 

 courts of Russia and Britain. 

 As early as 1838, Great Britain became involved 



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