forests department, and Mr. Sidney Herbert being secretary to the Admiralty. Lord Lowther was postmaster-general; Lord G. Somerset, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster ; and Sir George Murray, master-general of the ordnance.

The day after the mournful dining of the court, when the queen and her household were about to part-to undergo a separation far more complete than would have been necessary if they had not been at once near relations of the late ministers and her majesty's domestic companions -the queen had to go through much painful business. On that Friday morning, September 3, crowds thronged the approaches of Claremont, where the court was staying. It was not like an ordinary change of ministry. The exhaustion of the Whigs was so complete, that men knew that a former period of national history was closing, and another coming in; and the crowd was on the watch, that gray autumnal morning, not only for the old ministers and the new, but for every incident which might be construed as an omen. The old ministers drove up first, in plain clothes-were admitted to the royal presence, and delivered up the seals of office. Meantime, the new ministers arrived in court-dresses; and the first sunburst' occurred as Sir R. Peel drove in at the gates. He was warmly cheered, as was the Duke of Wellington; and both looked very well pleased, the people said. When the ex-ministers departed, Sir R. Peel had audience of the queen, to kiss hands on his appointment; and after him, the Duke of Wellington, and three or four more. Then the queen and Prince Albert repaired to the corridor, and held a privy-council, the queen declaring Lord Wharncliffe its president. The swearing-in of new members was got over quickly—the whole business, with luncheon, occupying only half-an-hour. By half-past two, the anxious young sovereign was left to make domestic acquaintance with her new household, and to miss the familiar friends under whose guidance she had been accustomed to do her share of state business. She was probably little aware how soon she could repose entire confidence in her firstminister, and feel a new kind of ease about the conduct of public affairs.

The next amusement for observers was seeing the

eminent men of the country change places, on the reassembling of parliament on the 16th of September. The new ministers had lost no seats in the process of their re-election; and they therefore assembled their whole number. Some of the Liberals went over, and occupied the front benches of opposition; some seemed at a loss where to place themselves, after having sat in the same seats for ten years, with only a short interval. One or two members, too Radical to belong to any party, would not move, but sat composedly among the Tories. The next interest for those who saw how serious was our condition, was in hearing the minister's statement as to how government meant to proceed. The chancellor of the exchequer must ask a vote of £2,500,000; and he would then state how he proposed temporarily to meet the existing deficiency. At the beginning of the next session, ministers would declare by what large measures they proposed to rectify the finances of the country, and equalise the revenue and the expenditure; an object of the very first importance in their eyes. Lord J. Russell made captious and taunting speeches, finding fault with this delay, and calling for an exposition of the government policy in regard to the corn-trade, within a month; and this provoked a retort from the minister, in the form of a question why the late government had deferred for five years of power a question which they would not now allow a new ministry five months to consider and mature; and thus it was immediately evident that there was to be parliamentary strife between the late and present leaders in the Commons. It was harrowing to the feelings of men of all parties to hear the statements made of the intense suffering of the operative classes from hunger, and the frequent declarations of their representatives that many of them could not live to learn what measures government would propose for their relief; and to the minister it must have been wearing to be appealed to, night after night, to declare what he proposed to do for the relief of the starving, and reproached in advance as purposing to keep up the price of food, and to sacrifice the lives of the poor to the purses of the aristocracy. These things seem foolish now-hasty, pettish, and unreasonable; but we must

remember that Sir R. Peel and his cabinet were, as yet, believers in the sliding-scale; that, while exposing the bad qualities of Lord J. Russell's 88. fixed duty, they had not yet given the slightest intimation that they had anything better to propose; and that their opponents were truly heart-stricken at the spectacle of the misery of the manufacturing districts; while, from long habit, they regarded the Peel administration as purely aristocratic in its temper and principles. The premier's replies were uniformly calm and quiet. He would not be forced to any disclosures before his colleagues and he were prepared with their plans. No one could grieve more deeply and sincerely for the distress of the people; but, the deeper that distress, the more careful should government be to avoid rashness in legislation and in promise. He would not countenance the delusion that it was possible to relieve the popular distress immediately by any parliamentary measure whatever. The only thing that legislation could do was to remove obstruction, to lay the foundation of improvement, and work a gradual amelioration in the condition of society. Those who heard him, and those who read his speeches, under the prejudice of his former Toryism, told the people that, having the powers of government in his hand, he now refused to do the first duty of the government-to employ and feed the people. This is worth noting in evidence of the retribution which Sir R. Peel had to undergo for his ancient opinions or party connections, and of the ignorance in regard to the functions of a representative government which existed, nine years after the passage of the Reform Bill, among a considerable number of the men who had caused that bill to pass.

The minister's difficulties were increased by an unfortunate declaration of the Duke of Wellington's in the House of Lords-that there was no deficiency of corn in the country; that the distress had nothing to do with the food question; that it was owing to want of work and of wages, and other causes; but that he never heard how parliament could do anything in such a case. Probably, no one expected the Duke of Wellington ever to come out as a political economist, or supposed that, at his years, he could be taken in hand as a pupil by Sir R. Peel; but it

reflected some discredit on the government, and confirmed certain despairing statements of opposition members, when so eminent a member of the new government could see no connection between food and work-food and wages; and no evidence that the food question was concerned in the existing intolerable distress.

The chancellor of the exchequer early proposed to provide for the £2,500,000 (nearly) which was required for the public service, by selling stock for the emergency -declaring his dislike of increasing the debt, and his intention of proposing, in the next session, comprehensive and permanent methods of provision for the public service. There was much natural repining at any increase of the debt, and much denunciation of the method, as if the need had been the work of the new government; but the thing was agreed to, because, in fact, nobody saw anything else that could be done. The poor-law commissioners' powers were renewed for six months, that the relief of pauperism might not stop till the subject of the poor-law could be reviewed in parliament. The opposition to this brief and indispensable renewal showed how serious a matter the review of the law would be, and indicated that the question of pauperism would be one of the most pressing 'difficulties' of this, as of every administration. These, and some other matters being temporarily arranged, parliament was prorogued by commission on the 7th of October. The speech did not, this time, express any opinions on the corn-laws, but declared that the attention of parliament would have to be given, as soon as possible, to the means of equalising the national income and expenditure, and of providing against the recurrence of the terrible distress which had for long prevailed in the manufacturing districts—a distress for which her majesty expressed the deepest concern.

The prorogation was to the 11th of November. Meantime, the speech was a riddle for the politicians and the sufferers of the country to ponder; and the ministers had enough to do in considering and settling their plans for the retrieval of our affairs in the far east, and about our own doors. The news which arrived from the one and the other region was enough to try the courage of a Wellington, and exhaust the resources of a Peel.

CHAPTER III.

Policy of China-State of China-The Opium Question-British Superintendents-Lord Napier-Political Relations in AbeyanceOpium Traffic Prohibited-Negligence at Home-Crisis-WarChusan taken-Negotiation-Warfare-Captain__ Elliot superseded -Sir Henry Pottinger-Capture of Ningpo-Treaty of PeaceGovernor-general sent to China-Opium Compensation-Sir Henry Pottinger's Testimony.

FOR more than a century past-ever since our relations with India became a matter of popular interest-it has been a subject of speculation or observation why there was so little war in the heart of Asia, among those steppes which, according to all analogy, would be supposed likely to be the scene of constant or ever-renewed warfare. While, in the centre of every other great continent, there are interminable feuds, apparently necessitated by geographical conditions, the interior of Asia, where the same geographical conditions exist, has, for above a century, been as quiet as if it had been a maritime territory. The great table-lands are there, rising shelf above shelf, till it dizzies the imagination to mount the vast stair, from the steaming plains of the Ganges and the Camboja up from height to height of the Himalayas and the Snowy Mountains, finding at the top but little descent on the other side; but again, range above range of table-land, still rising till that deep interior is reached which no stranger may penetrate, except some wandering Russian trader, or adventurous pilgrim, who once in a century or two may get in, if he cannot get across. The ordinary and necessary population of such lands is there the Tibetian and Mongolian; apparently so apt, and once so ready, for war; yet, as we know from the facts of surrounding countries, no warfare has been carried on in those wild regions for above a century.

The reason is that a policy of peace has been the deliberate choice of the empire of China. There is no chance