VICTORIA. 



741 



I 



would not give up his opposition, left the Cab- 

 inet; Mr. Gladstone took his place as Secretary 

 of State for the Colonies; and Parliament was 

 summoned to meet Jan. 22, 1840. Meantime the 

 protectionists were not inactive. They declined to 

 believe in any prospective famine, and denounced 

 the proposed measures as a blow at the agricultural 

 interests. It was as a champion of their cause 

 during the discussion of the corn importation bill 

 that Air. Disraeli made his first brilliant success 

 in Parliament, though he had been a member for 

 nine years; and from this time on he was recog- 

 nized as a Tory leader. The bill was passed June 

 2<>. 1S4G. 



The Chartist Agitation. Chartism, which 

 took its name from what was called the " People's 

 Charier," arose about 1838, and was a source of 

 agitation for ten years. The charter demanded six 

 reforms manhood suffrage, equal electoral dis- 

 tricts, vote by ballot, annual Parliaments, pay- 

 ment of members, and abolition of the property 

 qualification for representatives. There were noisy 

 meetings and processions: there were riots at 

 Newcastle, Birmingham, and Newport. A monster 

 petition, the size of a cart wheel, was rolled into 

 the House of Commons; it was said to have 

 1,250,000 signatures. In 1842 another petition 

 with, as was alleged, 3,000,000 names, was brought 

 to the Commons. Newspapers advocating the 

 principles of chartism were established all over the 

 country, and the general poverty and privation 

 among the working classes helped to swell the 

 ranks of the agitators. Feargus O'Connor, the 

 leader of the movement, was returned for Not- 

 tingham at the general election of 1847. In 1848, 

 encouraged, or excited, perhaps, by the revolution- 

 ary movements on the Continent, the chartists 

 planned a great demonstration. They were to 

 form on Kennington Common and march in mili- 

 tary order to present another monster petition to 

 Parliament, and give it one more opportunity to 

 accede peaceably to the demands of the reformers. 

 London was filled with apprehension at the pros- 

 pect of hostile encounters and bloodshed. But the 

 Duke of Wellington had taken great precautions 

 for guarding the public buildings and protecting 

 all parts of London. Nearly 200,000 persons, it is 

 said, were sworn in as special constables, one of 

 whom was Prince Louis Napoleon, afterward the 

 Emperor Napoleon III. Their services were not 

 needed, however; the demonstration fell far short 

 of what had been expected; the petition had not 

 nearly so many signatures as had been claimed; 

 the gathering was comparatively small, and com- 

 posed in large part of mere onlookers: the proces- 

 sion was not formed, for O'Connor insisted on 

 obedience to the order of the authorities; and 

 chartism died out. Some of the reforms it called 

 for have since been effected. 



Wars with the Afghans. In 1838 England 

 declared war against Dost Mohammed, ruler of 

 Cabul, who had attacked her ally, Runjeet Singh. 

 Shah Soojah-ol-Moolk had a hereditary claim to 

 the throne, and England proposed to restore it to 

 him. British troops were sent into the country 

 in 1839, and in 1840 Dost Mohammed surrendered 

 and Shah Soojah was installed. But, Nov. 2, 1841, 

 the greater part of the troops having been with- 

 drawn, the Afghans in Cabul rose against the 

 British and murdered their representatives. The 

 natives attacked the English in their forts with 

 success. Sir W. Macnaghten was in charge, and 

 when the situation seemed hopeless he received a 

 proposal from Akbar Khan, a son of Dost Moham- 

 med, who led the Afghans, that they two should 

 form a secret alliance, should combine against the 

 other chiefs, and keep Shah Soojah on the throne 



as nominal ruler, with Akbar as his Vizier. Un- 

 fortunately, the base proposal was listened to, and 

 an agreement made to treat on these terms; but 

 when, accompanied by three of hi> olliccrs, the 

 English representative went out to a conference 

 \\ itli Akbar Khan and his company, he wa.-. treach- 

 erously slain, one of the three officers was killed, 

 and the other two taken prisoners. Notwith- 

 standing this, Gen. Elphinstone treated with the 

 Afghans and accepted their terms, which were the 

 withdrawal of the British from the country, leav- 

 ing behind all their treasure and all their guns, 

 but six, which were allowed them for their pro- 

 tection in their winter journey through the wild 

 country that had to be traversed and amid the 

 murderous savages that beset the way. It led 

 through the great dark gorge known as the Koord 

 Cabul pass. The army consisted of about 4,000 

 fighting men, of whom a small proportion were 

 Europeans; of camp followers there were about 

 12,000, including many women and children. Gen. 

 Elphinstone and two other officers, with the women 

 and children, were taken from the army on the 

 march by Akbar Khan, to be kept as hostages. Of 

 the remainder of the 10,000, only one came through 

 alive Dr. Brydon. 



Gen. Sale, commander of the garrison at Jelala- 

 bad, refused to be bound by the terms of the forced 

 treaty; he held his post against a siege by Akbar 

 Khan, and when he was certain that re-enforce- 

 ments were coming through the Khyber pass un- 

 der Gen. Pollock he went out to battle and defeated 

 the besiegers. Other successes followed, and those 

 of the hostages taken by Akbar Khan that wen- 

 alive were rescued. Gen. Elphinstone had died. 

 Lord Ellenborough, who had in the meantime be- 

 come Governor General, issued a proclamation an- 

 nouncing that the British Government would make 

 no further attempt to interfere with the Afghans 

 in their choice of a sovereign. Shah Soojah, who 

 had not been popular with the people, had been 

 assassinated, and Dost Mohammed was restored to 

 power in Cabul. 



Another Afghan war broke out in 1878, nearly 

 forty years later. Russia seemed to be intriguing 

 with Shere AH, son of Dost Mohammed and ruler 

 of Cabul. A special mission was sent by the In- 

 dian Government to induce him to allow a British 

 resident to remain at his capital. Shere AH 

 refused to receive the embassy, which num- 

 bered about 1,000 men. Troops were then 

 massed on the frontier and Shere AH placed a 

 force in the Khyber pass. The Indian Govern- 

 ment, therefore, under instructions from England, 

 required an apology and the reception of a per- 

 manent British mission in his territory, and he 

 was notified that unless he replied satisfactorily 

 his intentions would be considered hostile and he 

 would be treated as a declared enemy. He made 

 no satisfactory reply and hostilities were begun, 

 Gen. Roberts commanding the British forces. The 

 Russian embassy was withdrawn at the request of 

 the British with the statement that there was no 

 ground for the belief that the Russian Government 

 had influenced/ Shere AH to reject the British em- 

 bassy. The Afghans made little resistance: Shere 

 AH fled from Cabul, and soon after died. His son 

 and successor, Yakoob Khan, signed a treaty at 

 Gandamak, May 5, 1879, agreeing to admit a per- 

 manent British resident at Cabul : his foreign 

 affairs were to be conducted under advice of Great 

 Britain, and he was to be protected from foreign 

 aggression. The British authorities were to haA'e 

 complete control over the Khyber and Michnee 

 passes, and the frontier was settled in a way 

 not disadvantageous to Great Britain. The Ameer 

 was to receive 00,000 a year so long as the treaty 



