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PICTU RES

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ROYAL PORTRAITS

?~A.Q-.S, COTEIiPORAKV ENGRAVINGS BY 3F.GKET A"N'D LiOGGAN

THE PORTRAIT T3\^ SIR. GODK.REV K N KL.L'F; B.

PICTURES

AND

ROYAL PORTRAITS

ILLUSTRATIVE OF

FROM THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY TO THE PRESENT TIME.

ENGRAVED

FROM IMPORTANT WORKS BY DISTINGUISHED MODERN PAINTERS, AND FROM

AUTHENTIC STATE PORTRAITS.

WITH DESCRIPTIVE HISTORICAL SKETCHES,

THOMAS ARCHER,

AUTHOR OF APPENDIX TO DE BONNECHOSE'S " HISTORY OF FRANCE," ETC.

VOLUME II.

LONDON:
BLACKIE & SON: OLD BAILEY;

GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH.

GLASGOW I

W. O. BLACKIE AKD CO., PKINTKRS.
VILLAFIELD.

LIST OF THE PLATES,

WITH
NOTES ON THE ORIGINAL PICTURES AFTER WHICH THEY ARE ENGRAVED.

VOLUME SECOND.

PAGE

PORTRAIT OF CHARLES II., Frontispiece, i

This engraving is from a drawing made by J. L. Williams in the year 1871, from con-
temporary prints by Becket and Loggan, after the portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller.
The background is from stamped Spanish leather of the seventeenth century, the border
from the frame of a looking-glass in Windsor Castle that belonged to Charles II.

LORD WILLIAM RUSSELL RECEIVING THE SACRAMENT PRIOR TO HIS
EXECUTION, 14

The original picture, painted by Alexander Johnston, was first exhibited at the Royal
Academy in the year 1845, and is now in the National Gallery, Vernon Collection. It is
5 feet 2 inches wide, and 3 feet 7J inches high.

PORTRAIT OF JAMES II., 18

This engraving is from a drawing made by J. L. Williams in the year 1873, from con-
temporary prints by Loggan & White, after pictures by Sir Godfrey Kneller and Sir
Peter Lely. The background is from stamped leather of Spanish workmanship of the
seventeenth century. The border is adapted from carvings by Grinling Gibbons, in
Windsor Castle.

THE ARREST OF ALICE LISLE, 24

The original picture is a fresco painted by E. M. Ward, R.A., on the wall of the
Commons' Corridor of the Houses of Parliament, in the year 1857. It is 7 feet 7^ inches
wide, by 6 feet 7^ inches high. A finished sketch for the fresco was exhibited at the
Royal Academy in the year 1858.

THE RELEASE OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS, 30

The original picture is a fresco painted by E. M. Ward, R.A., on the wall of the
Commons' Corridor of the Houses of Parliament, in the year 1867. It is 7 feet 7^ inches
wide, by 6 feet 8 inches high.

PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM III., 36

The original picture, painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller, is in St. George's Hall, Windsor
Castle. The background is from stamped leather of Spanish workmanship of the seventeenth
century, in South Kensington Museum, the border from carvings by Grinling Gibbons,
in Windsor Castle.

vi LIST OF THE PLATES.

PAGE

PORTRAIT OF QUEEN MARY II 4

The original picture, painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller, is in St. George's Hall, Windsor
Castle. The background is from stamped leather of Spanish workmanship of the seven
teenth century, the border from carvings by Grinling Gibbons, in Windsor Castle.

THE LORDS AND COMMONS OFFERING THE CROWN TO WILLIAM
AND MARY, 44

The original picture is a fresco painted by E. M. Ward, R.A., on the wall of the
Commons' Corridor of the Houses of Parliament, in the year 1866. It is 7 feet 7 inches
wide, by 6 feet 8 inches high.

THE BATTLE OF LA HOGUE, 48

The original picture, painted by Benjamin West, P.R.A., about the year 1774, is con-
sidered one of his finest works from English History. The original for he painted
several replicas was executed for Earl Grosvenor, and continues to adorn the fine
collection of that nobleman's successor, the Duke of Westminster. The size of the paint-
ing is 6 feet n inches in width, by 5 feet in height.

PORTRAIT OF QUEEN ANNE, 52

This engraving is from a drawing made by J. L. Williams in the year 1871, from the
marble statue by Ryssbrack at Blenheim House, the seat of the Duke of Marlborough. The
background is from stamped leather in South Kensington Museum, of a few years earlier
date than the reign of Queen Anne. The border is from a frame in the library at Blenheim.

PORTRAIT OF GEORGE 1 58

The original picture, painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller, is in St. George's Hall, Windsor
Castle. The background is from stamped leather of Spanish workmanship of the seventeenth
century in South Kensington Museum, the border from panelling at Blenheim House.

THE ESCAPE OF LORD NITHSDALE FROM THE TOWER, A.D. 1716, . . 64

The original picture, painted by Miss E. M. Osborne, was first exhibited at the Royal
Academy in 1861. The size of the painting is 4 feet 10 inches in height, by 3 feet 6 inches
in width.

PORTRAIT OF GEORGE II., 66

The original picture, painted by Zeeman, is in St. George's Hall, Windsor Castle.
The background is from stamped leather of Spanish workmanship of the seventeenth
century in South Kensington Museum, the border from panelling at Blenheim House.

DRAWING A LOTTERY IN GUILDHALL, LONDON, A.D. 1739 7

This engraving is from a drawing made by J. L. Williams, in the year 1871, from a rare
contemporary, but anonymous print, preserved in the British Museum.

FIRST MEETING OF PRINCE CHARLES WITH FLORA MACDONALD, . . 76

The original picture, painted by Alexander Johnston, was first exhibited at the Royal
Academy in the year 1846. Its size is 7 feet 6 inches in width, by 5 feet 6 inches in height.

RELICS ASSOCIATED WITH PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD, 78

The original is a drawing made for this work, by J. L. Williams, in the year 1875
The greater number of these relics are drawn from the objects themselves, in various private
:ollections.

LIST OF THE PLATES. VII

PAGE

THE DEATH OF GENERAL WOLFE, 84

The original picture was painted by Benjamin West, P.R.A., in 1770, for Earl Gros-
venor, and still adorns the fine collections of that nobleman's successor, the Duke of
Westminster. It is considered the painter's masterpiece. A replica of this picture was
painted" for King George III., and is now at Hampton Court. The size of the pictuie is
7 feet wide, by 4 feet j% inches high.

PORTRAIT OF GEORGE III.,

The original picture, painted by Allan Ramsay, is in the City Library, Guildhall.
London. The background is from damask satin of the period, in South Kensington
Museum. The border is adapted from frames in Windsor Castle.

WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE, ........... 90

The original picture was painted by E. Leutze at Dusseldorf, in 1850. It is now in
the collection of Marshall O. Roberts, Esq. , New York. Its size is about 20 feet long, by
12 feet high.

THE DEATH OF MAJOR PIERSON AT ST. HELIERS, JERSEY, ..... 94

The original picture was painted by John Singleton Copely, R.A., about the year 1780,
and is considered one of his finest works. It is now in the National Gallery. Its size is
ii feet ii inches wide, by 8 feet i inch high.

NELSON BOARDING THE San Josef AT THE BATTLE OF ST. VINCENT, . 96

The original picture, painted by George Jones, R.A., was presented by the British
Institution, in 1835, to Greenwich Hospital. It is now in the Naval Gallery at Greenwich.
Its size is 7 feet 3 inches wide, by 5 feet 3 inches high.

THE BATTLE OF THE NILE, .... ............ 100

The original picture, painted by George Arnald, A.R.A., about the year 1822, was
presented by the British Institution, in 1827, to Greenwich Hospital. It is now in the
Naval Gallery at Greenwich Its size is 8 feet 7 inches wide, by 6 feet i inch high.

SIR DAVID BAIRD DISCOVERING THE BODY OF TIPPOO SULTAUN, . . 104

The original picture, painted by Sir David Wilkie, R.A., was first exhibited at the
Royal Academy in 1839. It is now at Newbyth, Midlothian, one of the residences of the
Baird family. Its size is ii feet 4^ inches high, by 8 feet 9 inches wide.

THE PRESS-GANG, ............. ....... 108

The original picture, painted by Alexander Johnston, was first exhibited at the Royal
Academy in the year 1858. It is now in the collection of James Duncan, Esq., Benmore,
Argyleshire. Its size is 4 feet 6 inches high, by 3 feet u inches wide.

THE DEFENCE OF SARAGOSSA, 1808-9, ............ 112

The original picture, painted by Sir David Wilkie, R.A., was first exhibited at the
Royal Academy in 1829. It was purchased by King George IV., and now forms part of
the royal collection in Buckingham Palace. It measures 4 feet 7% inches in width, by
3 feet i inch in height.

WATERLOO THE DECISIVE CHARGE OF THE LIFE-GUARDS, ..... 118

The original picture, painted by Luke Clennell in the year 1816, is considered the
finest of all that artist's works. The power with which an idea of motion is conveyed is
very remarkable.

Vlll LIST OF THE PLATES.

PAGE

PORTRAIT OF GEORGE IV., 122

The original picture, painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A., is in the Waterloo
Gallery, Windsor Castle. The background is from damask satin, in South Kensington
Museum, the border from the semicircular saloon in Buckingham Palace.

THE BOMBARDMENT OF ALGIERS, BY LORD EXMOUTH, IN 1816, . . .128

The original picture, painted by George Chambers about the year 1832, is now in the
Naval Gallery, Greenwich Hospital. Its size is 8 feet 2 inches in width, by 5 feet 8 inches
in height

PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM IV., 134

The original picture, painted by Sir David Wilkie, R.A., was first exhibited at the
Royal Academy in 1832. It is now in the Waterloo Chamber, Windsor Castle.

PORTRAIT OF QUEEN VICTORIA 142

The original picture, painted by Winterhalter about the year 1845, is now in the throne-
room, Windsor Castle. The background is adapted from decorations in the Waterloo
Chamber, the flowers and fruit in the border from carvings by Grinling Gibbons. The
devices in the border consist of the stars of the orders of the Garter, Bath, St. Andrew,
St. Patrick, St. Michael, St. George, Star of India, and that of St. George belonging
to the Garter, also the badges of the Bath, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick.

QUEEN VICTORIA'S FIRST COUNCIL, 146

The original picture, painted by Sir David Wilkie, R.A., by command of Her
Majesty, Queen Victoria, was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1838. It now forms
part of Her Majesty's collection in Windsor Castle. Its size is 7 feet ioK inches wide, by
5 feet oK inch high.

PORTRAIT OF ALBERT, PRINCE CONSORT, 156

The original picture, painted by Winterhalter about the year 1846, is now in the throne-
room, Windsor Castle. The background and border are adapted from decorations in the
Waterloo Chamber, Windsor Castle.

SUNDAY IN THE BACKWOODS OF CANADA, 162

The original picture, painted by Thomas Faed, R.A., was first exhibited at the Royal
Academy in 1859. Its size is 4 feet 8 inches, by 3 feet 5^ inches.

GRAND DURBAR AT CAWNPORE, 30 NOVEMBER, 1859, 168

The original picture is a drawing in water colours, painted by Marshall Claxton in
1861, for the publishers of this work. Its size is i foot 3 inches by 11% inches.

* The backgrounds and borders of the portraits in this volume are adapted so as to be in keeping with the series .of
portraits of the Tudor sovereigns in the Prince's Chamber of the New Palace of Westminster, which are reproduced
in the first volume of this work.

HISTORICAL PAPERS.

VOLUME SECOND.

The Restoration, i

The Execution of Lord Russell, . . 10

James II., . . 18

Alice Lisle, 21

The Seven Bishops, 26

England's New Era, 34

The Battle of La Hogue, 46

Queen Anne, 49

George I., 56

The Escape of Lord Nithsdale from

the Tower, 60

George II., 65

English Public Lotteries, 69

Charles Edward the Young Pretender, 73

The Death of General Wolfe, ... 80

George III., 85

Washington crossing the Delaware, . 89

Death of Major Pierson, 93

Nelson boarding the San Josef, ... 94

The Battle of the Nile, 97

The Death of Tippoo Sultaun, . . .102

The " Press-gang," 107

The Defence of Saragossa, . . . .no
The Battle of Waterloo, Decisive
Charge of the Life-Guards, . . .113

George IV., 120

The Bombardment of Algiers, . . .126

William IV., 132

Queen Victoria, 141

Prince Albert, 148

Sunday in the Backwoods, . . . .159
The Grand Durbar at Cawnpore, . .166

PICTURES

AND

ROYAL PORTRAITS

THE RESTORATION.

ANEW period of English history may be said to have dated from
the restoration of Charles II. to the throne; not that he either
represented or encouraged the advancement of liberty, virtue, or
constitutional government, but because the principles which supported
all three had been already affirmed; and even the reign of a Stuart,
who, like the Bourbons, "learned nothing and forgot nothing," was
unable to do worse than temporarily to retard the growing desire for
freedom and the extension of commercial activity which were the two
most striking manifestations of the time.

A sense of present evils, and a strong apprehension of still
greater evils close at hand, had produced an alliance between the
Cavaliers and the Presbyterians. Some Presbyterians had been
disposed to such an alliance even before the death of Charles I.,
but it was not till after the retirement of Richard Cromwell that the
whole party became eager for the restoration of the royal house.
It seemed but too likely that England would fall under the most
odious and degrading of all kinds of government, a government
uniting the evils of despotism to the evils of anarchy. At the same
time there was a decided reaction against the stern and grim oppression
of the stricter sectaries, and those interdictions by which the Puritan
legislators dealt, not only with serious vices, but with many pleasant
social observances which they chose to assume gave opportunities for
vice. Because they were virtuous, there should be no more cakes and
ale. The May-poles were hewn down, public amusements were mostly
prohibited, the use of the Book of Common Prayer was forbidden not
only in churches but in private houses, works of art were defaced and

VOL. II. 24

2 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

destroyed, holidays were no longer to be observed except as the
parliament dictated, and Christmas-day was ordered to be kept as a
fast instead of as the great national festival, the season of carols, mirth,
loving-kindness, and good cheer.

The cry of the whole people was for a free parliament, and there
can be no doubt that while the existing government and the army
were opposed to the restoration of the House of Stuart, and were
almost equally opposed to each other, the nation had begun to
perceive that the best way in which it could escape from the assump-
tions of an irregular legislature, or the threatened military domination
of a formidable soldiery, was to demand such a constitution as Cromwell
desired to establish, but to which neither a fanatic parliament nor an
equally fanatic army would adhere. Had the army been united in
its claims it would have been irresistible; but the army of Scotland
and the army in London were divided in opinion, and the former was
not only less fanatic, but had regarded with indignation the assump-
tion of the soldiers who strove to bear rule because they happened
to be near Westminster instead of on the north of the Tweed. They
had no sympathy with the series of revolutions with which the country
was threatened, and their general, George Monk, was no zealot, since
he had served the king, had been made prisoner by the Roundheads,
and had then accepted a commission under the parliament. It may
be said that he was a slow-blooded time-server, and his enemies
doubtless did say so, while his after career proved that they were not
far wrong; but at all events his decision at an important crisis of
English history probably saved this country from a devastating civil
war, which was well escaped even by the restoration of Charles II.

He refused to acknowledge the authority of the usurper, and at
the head of 7000 veterans marched into England, a movement
which at once served to test the sincerity of the nation and its
eager desire to escape from the oppressive domination under which
it suffered. Everywhere the people refused to pay taxes, the
apprentices of the city assembled by thousands and clamoured for a
free parliament, the fleet sailed up the Thames and declared against
the tyranny of the soldiers. The soldiers, no longer under the control
of one commanding mind, separated into factions. Every regiment,
afraid less it should be left alone a mark for the vengeance of the
oppressed nation, hastened to make a separate peace. The military

THE RESTORATION. 3

power now gave way to the civil power. Monk marched towards
London, but had not yet stated his object or his determination. The
cry of the whole people was for a free parliament, and when at length
he declared himself to be at one with them the whole nation was wild
with delight. The bells rang joyously, the gutters ran with ale, and
night after night the sky five miles round London was reddened by
innumerable bonfires.

Writs were issued for a general election, and the new parliament,
which, having been called without the royal writ, is more accurately
described as the convention of 1660, met at Westminster. The lords
repaired to the hall from which they had for more than eleven years
been excluded by force. Both houses instantly invited the king to
return to his country. A gallant fleet conveyed him from Holland
to the coast of Kent. When he landed, the cliffs of Dover were
covered by thousands of gazers, among whom scarcely one could be
found who was not weeping with delight. The journey to London
was a continued triumph. The whole road from Rochester was
bordered by booths and tents, and looked like an interminable fair.
Everywhere flags were flying, bells and music sounding, wine and
ale flowing in rivers to the health of him whose return was the return
of peace, law, and freedom. 1

It was on the 25th of May that Charles and his two brothers, the
Dukes of York and Gloucester, landed near Dover, where Monk met
them. The king embraced and kissed his restorer, calling him
" Father." On the 29th, which was Charles' birth-day, and that on
which he completed his thirtieth year, he made his solemn entry into
London, attended by the members of both houses, by bishops, minis-
ters, knights of the Bath, lord-mayor and aldermen, kettle-drums and
trumpets.

It would have been well if Charles had sincerely endeavoured to
justify the prognostications of happiness which accompanied his restora-
tion; but except that he was too apparently easy and indifferent to
usurp an authority which would have led first to persecution and
afterwards to another revolution, his conduct was little calculated to
maintain or to restore to England the place which she had gained
amidst the nations of Europe, or to give the people that sense of
security for their liberties which they had hoped to attain. With an

1 Macaulay.

4 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

air of careless good nature and almost languid idleness he contrived
by a kind of cynical cunning to play off ministers and parties against
each other and to gain his own selfish ends. A slothful debauchee
whose court was a scandal, and living in an atmosphere of sensualism
and duplicity, he yet contrived to preserve a reputation for kindness.
With a face and appearance which suggested anything but cheerfulness,
his ready affability and complete courtesy, together with a pleasant way
of saying those personally witty things to which modern language
has given the name of " chaff," enabled him to hold his own with less
difficulty than he would have encountered if anybody had really
believed him to be in earnest.

Temple said that " he desired nothing but that he might be easy
himself, and that everybody else should be so;" but this is only a super-
ficial estimate of his character. Perhaps it would be more correct to say
that he encouraged other people to be easy lest he should otherwise
interfere with his own ease. He temporized, made concessions, evaded
decided issues, and waited and watched till, by skilfully availing
himself of the course of events, he seemed to have been released by
them rather than to have released himself from his engagements.
Popular suspicion of any designs of his own was effectually disarmed
by his seemingly idle habits and his cheerful affability. Who could
have suspected a royal conspirator in the chatty man of pleasure
feeding the ducks in St. James' Park! Nature had attempted to mark
the true character of the man by the grim sardonic features with which
she endowed him : but he persuaded his people to disbelieve in the
evidence of nature.

But if he deluded his own people, he deluded foreign powers also.
He was, it is well known, the pensioner of France; but it is an entire
mistake to suppose that he was the mere servile tool of Louis. He
was too shrewd to resort to the systematic illegalities of his father to
obtain extra parliamentary supplies, and he resolved to achieve his
end out of the coffers of Louis. He cared little for the degradation
to himself, of such a position in the eyes of France, or of his own
people, when it was accidentally disclosed to them. He was resolved
not to be wholly dependent on Louis any more than on the House
of Commons, and he played off the one resource against the other
with marvellous skill and success. Louis, in fact, could scarcely count
more surely on Charles' support, as the reward of his money payments,

THE RESTORATION.

than he could on that of the popular leaders whom he also paid for
opposing their king.

The conventional aspect in which most questions presented them-
selves to the mind of Charles had at least one good effect. They
rendered him comparatively unsusceptible to the feelings of resentment
and implacability. Naturally good tempered, and in his familiar social
intercourse willing to bear defeat in his encounters of wit with good
humour, he did not, as a rule, feel any personal grudge to those who
thwarted or opposed his political schemes. He was cold-hearted
enough, it is true, to pronounce their doom with calm indifference,
if policy seemed to render their removal desirable; but apart from this
he avoided the shedding of blood, and would seldom condescend to
remember personal injuries. The man who had condemned his father
to the scaffold he sent to a cruel death with entire phlegm, though
in so doing he probably followed a policy of royal self-assertion, and
consulted the demands of excited partisans, rather than those of his
own feelings. He did not press the sentence on Lambert, while he
pronounced the greatest possible panegyric on the abilities and
character of Vane, in declaring him to be in his opinion too dangerous
a man to let live. Russell and Sidney suffered probably less from any
fear of their personal ability than from a strong belief in their influence
as the heads of a party which, but for their removal, might have
succeeded after the king's death in preventing the succession of the
Uuke of York. On this latter point Charles had followed his usual
policy of balancing pretensions and keeping his real purpose in suspense.
He had indulged his own fondness for Monmouth freely, and in so
doing had held in check the intrigues of James and the uncompromising
party who gathered round that prince; while he never allowed Mon-
mouth to assume the position of his intended heir. 1

At the same time Charles II. cannot well be regarded as an astute
plotter. He was utterly without ambition. He detested business,
and such was his apparent ignorance of affairs that the clerks of the
council could scarcely forbear sneering at him as he sat playing with
one of his pet spaniels or making frivolous remarks while the affairs
of the nation demanded attention. He wished to be a king such
as Louis XV. afterwards was, a king who could draw without
limit on the treasury for the gratification of his private tastes, who

1 SanforA

6 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

could hire with wealth and honours persons capable of assisting him
to kill the time, and who, even when the state was brought by malad-
ministration to the depths of humiliation and to the brink of ruin,
could still exclude unwelcome truth from the purlieus of his own

seraglio.

Yet he was a slave without being a dupe. Worthless men and
women, whom he knew to be destitute of affection for him and
undeserving of his confidence, could easily wheedle him out of titles,
places, 'domains, state secrets, and pardons. In the religious disputes
which divided his Protestant subjects his conscience was not at all
interested. For his opinions oscillated in suspense between infidelity
and Popery; and at last he died in the profession of the Romish faith,
attended by the priest, who, having once saved his life at Boscobel,
was brought clandestinely and in disguise to his death-bed to hear his
confession. His character for a kind of satirical wit mingled with a
peculiar and exquisite courtesy, was sustained to the last, if we are to
believe the generally received statement, that he apologized to his
courtiers and gentlemen " for being such an unconscionable time dying."
Indeed this perfect courtesy had been the charm which many times
had enabled the king to set aside even the public indignation provoked
by his actions, and the easy good nature of a disposition which was
perhaps indifferent to qualities that it did not itself possess to some
extent excused the immoralities of his life.

Charles, who was incapable of love in the highest sense of the word,
was the slave of any woman whose person excited his desires, and
whose airs and prattle amused his leisure. Indeed a husband would be
justly derided who should bear from a wife of exalted rank and spotless
virtue half the insolence which the King of England bore from
concubines who, while they owed everything to his bounty, caressed
his courtiers almost before his face. It would not be profitable to
extract from the pages of Grammont passages which show the condition
of the court and of society at that time. Many of the pert quaint
passages in Pepys' Diary are suggestive enough of the riot and
debauchery which was too gross to represent the luxury that sometimes
makes sin dazzling, and too low for the appearance of refinement by
which vice may conceal its deformities. There are few more striking
descriptions than those brief entries made by Evelyn in his Diary
respecting the death-bed at Whitehall; and a page or two further on he

THE RESTORATION. 7

remarks, " I can never forget the inexpressible luxury and profaneness,
gaming and all dissoluteness, and as it were total forgetfulness of God
(it being Sunday evening), which this day se'nnight I was witness
of, the king sitting and toying with his concubines, Portsmouth,
Cleveland, Mazarine, &c., a French boy singing love songs in that
glorious gallery, whilst about twenty of the great courtiers and other
dissolute persons were at basset round a large table, a bank of at least
^2000 in gold before them, upon which two gentlemen who were
with me made reflections in astonishment. Six days after, all was
dust!"

But say what we may, there was something in the character, or
at all events in the disposition of Charles which fascinated, and even
continues to fascinate. It was not his personal appearance, for though
tall and not ungraceful he was certainly not handsome. His rather
cynical face was grim and his complexion swarthy, not at all that
of " the merry monarch," which was the title bestowed upon him on
account perhaps of his reputation for witty sayings and humorous
retorts. Andrew Marvel says of him

" Of a tall stature and a sable hue,
Much like the son of Kish, that lofty Jew ;
Ten years of need he suffered in exile,
And kept his father's asses all the while."

The last line is a witty allusion to the occupation of Saul, and to the
companions of Charles' banishment.

The king was a rapid and constant walker, and was by no means
always the indolent lounger, gossiping with his mistresses, feeding his
ducks, or playing with the spaniels which swarmed and littered in
his apartments. After the fire of London, for instance, he was con-
stantly about the streets, and underwent considerable fatigue encour-
aging, and frequently personally rewarding, the workmen engaged in
clearing the ruins and in rebuilding the destroyed houses. One of
the habits which endeared him to the people was the fearless familiarity
with which he went amongst them, not only when the whole court,
queen, courtiers, and mistresses, went out disposed for a frolic, but on
ordinary occasions. In reference to his enthusiastic reception at the
Restoration he had sarcastically remarked that it must have been his
own fault he was so long absent, as every one seemed unanimous in
promoting his return ; but he continued to give practical effect to the

8 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

expression of public confidence by walking about almost unattended.
Dr. King says that once, when attended by only two noblemen, he
met the Duke of York, who had been hunting on Hounslow Heath and
was returning in his coach surrounded by his guards. The duke
instantly alighted and expressed his fears that the king's life might be
endangered by so small an attendance. "No kind of danger, James,"
said Charles; " for no man in England will take away my life to make
you king."

This was an example of his witticisms, but they were always
accompanied with that perfect courtesy, which, as we have already said,
was his real charm, and this courtesy itself included a certain sense
of social justice and good nature. Charles was too truly a gentleman
to be personally vindictive, and even in his inconstancy there was some
regard for what was due to his own code of honour. When Shaftes-
bury was compelled to deliver up his chancellorship, he begged the
king to allow him to carry the seals once more, that he might not
appear to be dismissed with contumely, and so might disappoint the crowd
of his opponents who stood in the ante-chambers to witness his disgrace.
"Oddsfish!" replied Charles, "I will not do it with any circumstance
that looks like an affront;" and so, after a little of their usual gay
conversation, the chancellor appeared as usual, and afterwards sent the
seals to the king from his own private house.

It was to Shaftesbury that the king once said, " I verily believe
thou art the wickedest dog in England." " For a subject, your majesty,
I believe I am," retorted the profligate and witty statesman.

Charles once asked Stillingfleet why he always read his sermons
in the Chapel Royal, but preached extempore everywhere else. Still-
ingfleet answered that it was from awe of his audience, and begged to
ask why his majesty read his speeches to parliament. "Oddsfish! doctor,"
said the king, " 'tis no difficult question. I always ask for money, and
I have so often asked for it I am ashamed to look the members in
the face."

There are several stories of his good-humoured satire, and some
of them are very suggestive, such as that of the occasion when William
Penn had an audience with his majesty, and in accordance with the
custom of his sect kept his hat on. As a gentle rebuke Charles
quietly took off his hat and stood uncovered before him. " Friend
Charles," said Penn, "why dost thou not keep on thy hat?" " Tis

THE RESTORATION. 9

the custom of this place," replied the king, " for only one person to
remain covered at a time."

If we are to accept the testimony of Dr. Birch it would seem that
the king was at all events not always on the side of impiety and pro-
fanity; for he says that on one occasion the Duke of Buckingham
having spoken profanely before him, Charles said, " My lord, I am
a great deal older than your grace, and have heard more arguments
for atheism; but I have since lived long enough to see that there is
nothing in them, and I hope your grace will." On another occasion,
speaking of the learned and credulous Vossius, who was a free-thinker,
Charles said that " he refused to believe nothing but the Bible."

These and other anecdotes serve partly to explain the regard which
his easy familiarity, associated with high-bred urbanity, obtained for
Charles II.; but they afford no contradiction to that estimate of his
character in which Macaulay represents him as having been distin-
guished for polite and engaging manners, and with some talent for
lively conversation, but addicted beyond measure to sensual indul-
gence, fond of sauntering and of frivolous amusements, incapable of
self-denial and of exertion, without faith in human virtue or in human
attachment, without desire of renown or sensibility to reproach.
" Honour and shame," says this historian, " were scarcely more to him
than light and darkness to the blind. His contempt of flattery has
been highly commended, but seems, when viewed in connection
with the rest of his character, to deserve no commendation. It is
possible to be below flattery as well as above it. One who trusts
nobody will not trust sycophants. One who does not value real glory
will not value its counterfeit."

This is harsh judgment, and should not be accepted without
reflecting on the influences by which Charles' character were affected,
his vicissitudes, the opposing interests to which he was subjected
during his youth, and the fact that while it is less easy to form a just
estimate of the character of a sovereign than of that of most other men,
their lives are not only to a great extent open to public observation,
but their biographies are written as frequently by bitter opponents as
by subservient flatterers. At the same time the pages of Lord Macaulay's
volumes are invaluable as brief chronicles of this period of English
history, and especially that portion of them which relates to the state
of England and the condition of the people in 1685.

VOL. II. 25

IO PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

THE EXECUTION OF LORD RUSSELL.

Among the leaders of that party which for a time successfully
opposed the attempts of Charles II. and the Duke of York to
re-establish arbitrary rule, and to favour the restoration of Romanism
in England, one of the most prominent was Lord Russell, usually
called Lord William Russell, son of William, Earl of Bedford, and
Lady Ann Carr, daughter of Carr, Earl of Somerset.

Lord Russell, Lord Essex, Mr. Hampden, and Algernon Sidney
were the principal supporters of the Exclusion Act, by which the Duke
of York was not only compelled as a Papist to resign the admiralty,
but would have been forbidden to ascend the throne. For a time they
succeeded; but there arose a host of false accusers like Titus Gates and
Dangerfield. Papist plots and Protestant plots were the subject
of continual alarm and excitement, and the reign of persecution again
set in. James, Duke of York, was sent to Scotland with plenary
powers, which he used in putting Covenanters to the torture. Charles,
without formally breaking the laws of the constitution, temporized, as
it seemed, to discover how he might himself best profit by either party.
Louis of France did his utmost to provoke anarchy by intriguing with
all parties at the same time. A reaction came, which was greatly
instigated by the violent measures taken against Roman Catholics by
the Whig majority in the House of Commons.

The Duke of Monmouth, the illegitimate son of Charles, was one
of the exclusionists, but was, it is supposed, too anxious to be on good
terms with his father to keep his own counsel or to refrain from giving
information which tended to the ruin of his friends. Shaftesbury
was, if not the most violent, the most determined of the opponents
of the claims of the Tories, and he declared that he could raise a
force in the city, while Monmouth was to influence a rising in
Cheshire and Lancashire, and Trenchard was to stir up the people
of Taunton. The king and his counsellors had not been idle.
Parliament was dissolved, and a new parliament in the royal interest
was called at Oxford, where the Whigs had no influence. Charles
demanded that he had the right of naming the sheriffs of London, and

THE EXECUTION OF LORD RUSSELL. I I

acting upon this false assumption, nominated two violent Tories, who
were ready to support the royal prerogative. Men who spoke against
the Duke of York were heavily mulcted. The infamous Jeffreys was
recorder of London; the citizens, in fear of fines and executions, were
divided amongst themselves; and the counteraction was complete when
Shaftesbury, in despair of retrieving his position, threw up the cause of
liberty and escaped to Holland, where a few weeks afterwards he died.

It now remained for Charles and his brother the Duke of York to
strike at the party who were endeavouring to support the freedom of
parliament and the rights of the constitution; and it was not difficult
to do so, as some of its members were doubtless engaged in plans which
might be called treasonable, though others, like Sidney and Russell,
representing quite different opinions as to methods and results, were
reformers who desired to act within the lines which the law gives to
an assertion of public right.

In order to carry their plan into effect the reformers organized
a select committee, called the " Council of Six." The members
of this council were Monmouth, Essex (who was the chief adviser),
Sidney, Russell, Lord Howard (introduced by Sidney), and young
Hampden, a scholar and a grandson of the Hampden. What the
deliberations of this council were it is now difficult to ascertain,
owing to the prejudiced sources from which information has to be
derived. There can be no doubt, however, that consultations were
frequently held as to the best course to pursue for resisting a govern-
ment which aimed at nothing less than arbitrary power. It is reported
that the object of this council was to organize an insurrection all over
the country, and, with the help of the discontented Presbyterians in
Scotland, to put an end to the tyranny of Charles and his brother.
What was the exact extent of these designs it is impossible to deter-
mine, unless we believe in the statements of Lord Grey and Bishop
Sprat the two most prejudiced and partial narrators of the Rye House
Plot. In all probability there was, as Lady Russell said, much talk
about a general rising, which " only amounted to loose discourse, or at
most, embryos that never came to anything." She was convinced, she
said, that it was no more than talk, " and 'tis possible that talk going so
far as to consider, if a remedy to suppress evils might be sought, how
it could be found."

Whilst the Council of Six were meditating their plans, whatever

12 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

they might be, an inferior order of conspirators were holding meetings
and organizing an insurrection perfectly unknown to the council. The
chief of these conspirators were West, an active man, who was supposed
to be an Atheist; Colonel Rumsey, an officer who had served under
Cromwell, and afterwards in Portugal; Ferguson, an active agent of
the late Lord Shaftesbury; Goodenough, who had been under-sheriff
of London; Lieutenant-colonel Walcot, a republican officer; and
several lawyers and tradesmen. The aim of these men seems to have
been desperate and criminal in the extreme. They talked openly
about murdering the king and his brother, and even went so far as
to organize a scheme for that purpose. Among this band was one
Rumbold, a maltster, who owned a farm called the Rye House, situated
on the road to Newmarket, which sporting town Charles was accustomed
to visit annually for the races. Rumbold laid before the conspirators
a plan of this farm, and showed how easy it would be to intercept the
king and his brother on their way home, fire upon them through the
hedges, and then, when the deed of assassination was committed,
escape by the by-lanes and across the fields. The murderous scheme
of the maltster was, however, frustrated by Charles having been obliged
to leave Newmarket eight days earlier than he had intended, owing to
his house having taken fire. Treachery now put a stop to any further
proceedings of the conspirators.

Among the minor persons engaged in the conspiracy was one
Keeling, an Anabaptist, who, having failed as a salter, thought that as
Gates and others had flourished so well in the trade of a witness, he
might as well follow their example. He had been employed by
Goodenough as a spy in the city, and was intimately acquainted with
the movements and designs of the conspirators. Accordingly he went
to Lord Dartmouth and told his tale, and was referred by his lordship
to Mr. Secretary Jenkins. Jenkins took down his deposition, but
said that unless his evidence was supported by another witness he
could not proceed to the investigation of the matter. Keeling was,
however, equal to the occasion, and induced his brother to corroborate
his statements. The plot now authenticated by two witnesses, Jenkins
thought it his duty to communicate the affair to the rest of the ministry.
The younger Keeling, who had been compelled against his will to give
evidence, secretly informed Goodenough that the plot had been
discovered, and advised all engaged in it to flee beyond sea.

THE EXECUTION OF LORD RUSSELL. 13

This news reaching Rumsey and West, who were inseparable allies,
the two began to think it the safer policy to take a leaf out of the book
of Keeling and reveal the whole plot with a few additions. A house
at Rye had been offered them by one Rumbold for the execution of
their design. At this house forty men, well armed and mounted, com-
manded in two divisions by Rumsey and Walcot, were to assemble.
On the return of the king from Newmarket, Rumsey with his division
was to stop the coach and kill the king and the duke, whilst Walcot
was to occupy himself in engaging with the guards. This done, they
were to defend the moat till night, and then make their escape towards
the Thames.

The details of the story once arranged, Rumsey and West had not
to wait long before their veracity was put into requisition. Three days
after Keeling's discovery the plot broke out, and was the talk of all the
town. Examinations were freely taken, and many suspected persons
seized. A proclamation having been issued to secure those who could
not be found, Rumsey and West, whose names were mentioned in the
proclamation, delivered themselves up to justice of their own accord.
And now their story of the plot was at once divulged. In spite of the
little difficulties and improbabilities it contained such as the absence
of any important person to head the insurrection, the awkward fact
of only being able to name eight out of the forty armed men who were
to assemble at Rye, the ignorance as to how arms and horses were to
be supplied, the very practicable idea of defending themselves within
mud walls and a moat, and the like the story was implicitly believed.
As an agreeable addition to this manufactured revelation the new
witnesses declared that they had heard ' of the conferences that the
Duke of Monmouth and the other lords had with those who were come
from Scotland, but knew nothing of it themselves' (a very safe and
cautious reserve). Rumsey, however, said that he remembered the
meeting at Shepherd's and the talk about seizing the king's guards. 1

In this critical situation Lord Russell, though perfectly sensible
of his danger, acted with the greatest composure. He had long ago
told a friend that he was very sensible he should fall a sacrifice.
Arbitrary government could not be set up in England without wading
through his blood. The day before the king arrived a messenger
of the council was sent to wait at his gate to stop him if he had offered

1 Ewald Life and Times of Algernon Sidney.

14 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

to go out; yet his back gate was not watched, so that he might have
gone away if he had chosen it. Yet he thought proper to send his
wife amongst his friends for advice. They were at first of different
minds; but as he said he apprehended nothing from Rumsey, who
had named him in his accusation, they agreed that his flight would
look too much like a confession of guilt. This advice coinciding with
his own opinion he determined to stay where he was. As soon as the
king arrived a messenger was sent to bring him before the council.
When he appeared there the king told him that nobody suspected him
of any design against his person, but that he had good evidence of his
being in designs against his government. He was examined upon the
information of Rumsey. When the examination was finished Lord
Russell was sent a close prisoner to the Tower. Upon his going in
he told his servant Taunton that he was sworn against, and they
would have his life. Taunton said he hoped it would not be in the
power of his enemies to take it. Lord Russell answered, "Yes; the
devil is loose!"

It is not necessary to enter into the points of the trial, which
followed an examination by the privy-council. The bench had been
supplied with accommodating judges. Jeffreys was one of the counsel
for the prosecution; an illegally returned jury was not allowed to be
challenged; the witnesses were perjured, contradicted themselves, and
swore to save their lives. One of them (Lord Howard), who had
previously declared that he knew nothing that could hurt Lord Russell,
was a man of such infamous character that the king said he " would
not hang the worst dog he had upon his evidence." Nevertheless
his evidence was taken against the testimony of a number of honour-
able men.

The ground on which Lord Russell was sentenced to death was
that he had violated the law in conspiring the death of the king. He
argued that, granting the charge to be true (which he denied), it was
not that of conspiring the death of the king, but " a conspiracy to levy
war;" that this was not treason within the statute (which it was not);
and that if it had been, a statute of Charles II. made the accusation
null and void, because the time had expired to which the operation of it
was limited.

His wife, Lady Rachel Russell, the daughter of the virtuous and
noble Earl of Southampton, was his chief friend and counsellor. At

CD 10

H m

W ^

THE EXECUTION OF LORD RUSbKLL. 15

his trial, wishing to have notes of the evidence, he asked whether he
might have somebody to write for him. The Chief-justice Pemberton
said, " Any of your servants shall assist you in writing anything you
please." " My lord," said Russell, " my wife is here to do it." And
when the spectators turned their eyes and beheld the devoted lady
rise up to assist her lord in this his uttermost distress, a thrill of anguish
ran through the assembly.

Essex had been taken to the Tower, and while the perjured
Howard was giving his evidence intelligence reached the court that
in a fit of depression the noble lord had committed suicide. The
attorney-general made use of the information to declare that Essex
had killed himself to escape the hands of justice. The trial proceeded:
the false witness, having recovered the shock of the dreadful news,
went on with his evidence, and others swore to save their own lives.
Before the jury withdrew Russell said to them, " Gentlemen, I am now
in your hands eternally my honour, my life, my all; and I hope the
heats and animosities that are among you will not so bias you as to
make you inclined to find an innocent man guilty. I call heaven and
earth to witness that I never had a design against the king's life. I
am in your hands; so God direct you!" But the jury soon brought
in a verdict of guilty; and Treby, recorder of London, who had
formerly been an exclusionist, and who had been deeply engaged with
Lord Shaftesbury in most of the city schemes and plots, pronounced
the horrible sentence of death for high treason.

Many efforts were made to obtain the royal pardon; but Charles
was inexorable, even though .100,000 was offered him by his lordship's
father the Duke of Bedford, through the French mistress the Duchess
of Portsmouth. Russell's friends urged him to petition both the king
and the Duke of York, and he complied by writing letters, which were
of no avail. Lord Cavendish, his friend, offered to manage his escape
by changing clothes and remaining at all hazards to himself; but Russell
refused, and prepared to die with Christian piety. There are few more
affecting accounts than that of the last hours of this nobleman, who
seems to have been greatly beloved by all who knew him; while the
conduct of his wife, who long survived him, and saw the downfall of the
house of Stuart, is an admirable example of courage and devotion.
She threw herself at the king's feet and pleaded with many tears
the merit and loyalty of her father as an atonement for those errors

1 6 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

with which honest, however mistaken, principles had seduced her
husband. It is said that Charles refused her even a reprieve of six
weeks, saying, " How can I grant that man six weeks, who, if it had
been in his power, would not have granted me six hours?"

Finding all applications vain, Lady Russell collected courage and
endeavoured by her example to strengthen the resolution of her
unfortunate lord. He exhibited no fear of his sentence. " His whole
behaviour," says Burnet, "looked like a triumph over death." He
said he felt none of those transports that some good people felt; but
he had a full calm in his mind, no palpitation at heart, nor trembling
at the thoughts of death. He was much concerned at the cloud that
seemed to be now over his country; but he hoped his death would do
more service than his life could have done. He asked Burnet to assist
him in suggesting the way in which he should draw up a paper to
leave behind him at his death, and he was three days employed for
some time in the morning to write out his speech. He ordered four
copies to be made of it, all which he signed; and gave the original, with
three of the copies, to his lady, and kept the other to give to the sheriff
on the scaffold. He also wrote to the king, in which he asked pardon
for everything he had said or done contrary to his duty, protesting he
was innocent as to all designs against his person or government, and
that his heart was ever devoted to that which he thought was his
majesty's true interest. He added that though he thought he had met
with hard measures, yet he forgave all concerned in it from the highest
to the lowest, and ended hoping that his majesty's displeasure at him
would cease with his own life, and that no part of it should fall on his
wife and children. " The day before his death," says Burnet, " he
received the sacrament from Tillotson with much devotion: and I
preached two short sermons to him, which he heard with great affection;
and we were shut up till towards the evening. Then he suffered his
children that were very young, and some few of his friends, to take
leave of him : in which he maintained his constancy of temper, though
he was a very fond father. He also parted from his lady with a
composed silence; and as soon as she was gone, he said to me, 'The
bitterness of death is passed;' for he loved and esteemed her beyond
expression, as she well deserved it in all respects. She had that
command of herself so much, that at parting she gave him no disturb-
ance."

THE EXECUTION OF LORD RUSSELL. I'J

The substance of the paper delivered to the sheriff was first a
profession of his religion and of his sincerity in it: that he was of the
Church of England, but wished all would unite together against the
common enemy; that Churchmen would be less severe, and Dissenters
less scrupulous. He owned he had a great zeal against Popery, which
he looked on as an idolatrous and bloody religion; but that though he
was at all times ready to venture his life for his religion or his country,
yet that would never have carried him to a black or wicked design. No
man ever had the impudence to move to him anything with relation to
the king's life; he prayed heartily for him, that in his person and
government he might be happy both in this world and the next. He
protested that in the prosecution of the Popish plot he had gone on in
the sincerity of his heart, and that he never knew of any practice with
the witnesses. He owned he had been earnest in the matter of the
exclusion, as the best way in his opinion to secure both the king's life
and the Protestant religion, and to that he imputed his present
sufferings; but he forgave all concerned in them, and charged his
friends to think of no revenges. He thought his sentence was hard,
upon which he gave an account of all that had passed at Shepherd's.
From the heats that were in choosing the sheriffs he concluded that
matter would end as it now did, and he was not much surprised to
find it fall upon himself; he wished it might end in him. Killing by
forms of law was the worst kind of murder. He concluded with some
very devout ejaculations.

This is the synopsis of Lord Russell's paper as delivered to the
sheriff; and immediately after the execution, to which he went with the
greatest composure and religious fortitude, copies of the document were
printed, and distributed all over London. The king and the duke,
with their supporters, may well have felt that they had not triumphed
after all, for this paper must have contributed greatly to the events
which followed, and to the final release of the country from the Stuarts.
Within six years after the execution of Lord Russell, James II., when
leaving his throne, and, seeking for aid, had the meanness or the
stupidity to apply to the aged Earl of Bedford for assistance. " My
lord," said the fugitive king, "you are an honest man, have great
credit, and can do me signal service." "Ah! sir," replied the earl, " I
am old and feeble, but I once had a son." The king is said to have
been so struck with this reply that he was silent for some minutes.

VOL. u. 26

1 8 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

JAMES II.

Probably did more to hasten and confirm the liberty which the nation
universally demanded than would have been achieved by a sovereign
of a more engaging temper, and a greater talent for government.
Converted to the Church of Rome from an obstinate Protestantism,
which he had maintained while he was in exile, he became in England
a Popish bigot, and it required all the firmness and adroitness of
Charles to overcome the difficulties which his premature avowal of the
Roman Catholic faith occasioned. He was constantly suspected, and
very generally disliked while he was Duke of York, and the emphatic
promises and declarations which he made to the representatives of both
church and state on his accession to the throne, though for a time they
deceived the nation, were so immediately contradicted by his actions,
that he was ultimately consigned to contemptuous banishment.

Immediately after the death of Charles, James hastened to the
council and addressed its members in the following words : " My
lords, before I enter any other business I think fit to say something
to you. Since it hath pleased Almighty God to place me in this station,
and I am now to succeed so good and gracious a king as well as so
very kind a brother, it is proper for me to declare to you that I will
endeavour to follow his example, and particularly in that of his
great clemency and tenderness to his people. I have been reported
to be a man fond of arbitrary power; but that is not the only falsehood
which has been reported of me; and I shall make it my endeavour to
preserve this government, both in church and state, as it is now by
law established. I know the principles of the Church of England are
favourable to monarchy, and the members of it have shown themselves
good and loyal subjects, therefore I shall always take care to defend
and support it. I know, too, that the laws of England are sufficient to
make as great a monarch as I can wish; and as I shall never depart
from the just rights and prerogative of the crown, so I shall never
invade any man's property. I have often before ventured my life in
defence of this nation, and shall go as far as any man in preserving it
in all its just rights and liberties."

FR.OM CO TEMPORARY 'ENGRAVINGS BY LOGGAN: AKD WHITE,

AFT.ER PA1KTTNSS BY SIR- GOTXFJUTY KNELTIER AKD S-IR PETER LELV.

JAMES II. 19

After his proclamation every one of these protestations was falsi-
fied. On the Sunday after his brother's burial James went to mass
publicly and in royal state. The leading representatives of the party
which had been opposed to him when he was Duke of York were
received with significant coldness and even with reproaches. A full
narrative of the Rye House plot was published under his authority,
and in virulent language it stated that the king knew of 20,000 persons
who had been engaged in the design; an assertion which was regarded
as a menace by every prominent Whig in the country. Another paper
was issued, giving an account of the conversion to the Romish faith
of his first wife, the unhappy daughter of the high churchman Clarendon,
and it soon became evident that a period of bitter persecution was
about to commence in which both political and religious animosity
would be used for outraging the liberties of the people.

Instead of waiting for the assembling of parliament, the king issued
a proclamation for the levying of the customs and excise, a part of the
royal revenue which had only been granted to Charles for his life.
To this he was incited by the advice of the infamous Jeffreys, who
was then lord chief-justice and to obtain some excuse for the stretch
of prerogative addresses of loyalty and congratulation were procured
from various influential public bodies. Even an act which on the
ground of humanity should have been approved, was made the occasion
of asserting arbitrary power. The large number of Papists and
Dissenters who had been shut up in prison were released by the royal
warrant in spite of the law which forbade the sovereign to exercise
the dispensing power; and after events seemed to show that this,
instead of being an act of clemency, was only an attempt to gain such
a degree of toleration for Papists, that they, in conjunction with the
Dissenters, might have their disabilities removed for the purpose of
overthrowing the Anglican Church.

The degree of admiration and regard with which the memory of
Charles II. was afterwards associated must surely have been increased
by the detestation in which the character and conduct of his brother
were held. Charles was profligate and witty, selfish and courteous,
indifferent and not altogether cruel, perfidious and good-humoured,
constantly seeking personal aggrandizement and self-indulgence, but
too astute to imperil his crown by insisting on untimely demands.
James was not much less profligate than Charles in the particular

2O PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

of matrimonial unfaithfulness, and he had the additional disadvantage
ot selecting plain and even positively ugly mistresses. His court was
more dull, and outwardly more decorous, than that of his brother had
been; for while he was himself an offender, he was constantly doing
penance for his vices, bemoaning them and promising to reform. The
profound selfishness of the Stuarts seemed to reach the lowest depth
in him, and he had all that perverse, clumsy rudeness of speech that
lost so many friends to Charles I., without any of the kingly manner
which sometimes made it tolerable. His indifference to the sufferings
of others reached to a degree of cruelty which enabled him to inflict
horrible punishments on his foes, and to persecute to. the death even
old men and weak women and children, who, without guilty intention,
had been associated with those who were his declared opponents. His
perfidy was so marked and undisguised, that it almost took the form
of courageous mendacity, and he so little understood either his own
position or that of the nation that he lost his throne by being either
obstinate or pusillanimous at the wrong times and on the wrong
occasions.

Charles had been a palterer with France, and had degraded
himself and the nation by taking bribes from Louis, and doing very
little for them. James was the vassal of the French king, and would
perhaps have done a great deal in return for the large subsidies which
he unblushingly begged for and accepted, but that he had never been
able to acquire the power to make any particular return, and could only
use his efforts to remain neutral in Europe; which was all that Louis
expected. England had begun to acquire internal independence, and
even during the persecutions, the infamous mockery of justice, the
judicial murders, the appalling perjuries and sham plots which may
be said to have made the whole reign of James II. a sort of " bloody
assizes," had begun to look for the blessings of constitutional govern-
ment. Had it been otherwise he might have lost his head; instead of
this he was regarded as being unworthy of so much public notice, and
was suffered to steal away from the kingdom as one who had become
too insignificant to close an era in the history of the country or to take
any part in coming events.

ALICE LISLE. 21

ALICE LISLE.

The arbitrary temper with which James II. endeavoured to obtain
a prerogative enabling him to dispense with parliaments, was associated
with a meanness of disposition that the English people never could
forgive. The persecuting spirit which is perhaps an inevitable conse-
quence of such bigotry as his, was allied to a low desire to inflict cruel
punishments even on those whose opposition to his will arose from
circumstances or from convictions which any generous mind would have
taken into account. Even in cases where there was only the suspicion
of disaffection he was relentless, and it was regarded as a crime for
anybody to exhibit compassion for the objects of his barbarous
sentences.

It is no excuse for him that the frightful atrocities and utterly unjust
sentences executed against obscure and often comparatively innocent
victims, after the Monmouth rebellion, were by the orders of the brutal
Jeffreys and of the blood-stained Kirke. James had made Jeffreys
lord chief-justice that he might become his ready and implacable
instrument; and Feversham, who was as incapable as a commander as
he was heartless as a man, excited the contempt of both court and city
by his indolence, his foppery, and his want of military skill; yet he was
made Knight of the Garter and captain of the First Life Guards, as a
reward for defeating the poor, unarmed, but bold and determined, rebels
of Somerset and Wiltshire, who yet continued to oppose the regular
troops after Monmouth himself had fled. It was in reality his officers,
and chiefly the great man who was then known only as Lieutenant
Churchill, but who afterwards made his name terrible in Europe as the
Duke of Marlborough, who really held the command; but when Fevers-
ham was summoned to court he left in authority at Bridgewater a
fierce and malignant ruffian, one Percy Kirke, whose worst vices had
been developed in the fortress of Tangier, where he had played the
tyrant not only against the wretched barbarians of the country, but
against the inhabitants of the city, the Jews and his own soldiers, whom
he pacified after floggings and imprisonment by permitting them to
beat, rob, and insult the people whom they were supposed to protect.

22 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

All that even the wealthier victims who fell under the ban of Kirke
could obtain, in return for large bribes, was permission to flee from the
country. The ships which were bound for New England were crowded
at this juncture with so many fugitives from Sedgmoor that there
was great danger lest the water and provisions should fail. These
abominable exactions, however, can scarcely be wondered at when
we know that afterwards, during "the bloody assizes," the inhuman
and corrupt Jeffreys, who himself trafficked in pardons, condemned
841 prisoners to transportation, that these wretched persons were
distributed into gangs and bestowed on the courtiers or those who
could obtain court favour, the conditions being that the convicts
should be carried to one of the West India Islands as slaves, and
that they should not be emancipated for ten years. It was estimated
by Jeffreys that each of them would be worth on the average from
10 to ^15 after all charges were paid. The wretched sufferers
had to undergo all the miseries to which the negro slaves of later
times have alone been exposed in the detestable traffic between Congo
and Brazil.

This traffic, and that in bribes for pardons, was shared even by the
ladies of the queen's household and by her majesty herself, and it is
recorded that they exhibited a rapacity in the odious trade which leaves
the name of Marie D'Este, the queen of James II., tainted with infamy.
While her husband was a subject and an exile, shut out from public
employment and in imminent danger of being deprived of his birthright,
the suavity and humility of her manners conciliated the kindness even
of those who abhorred her religion; but she changed for the worse under
the influence of royal fortune, or it may be that the society and example
of her husband deteriorated her character. In one of the satires of the
time are these lines :

"When duchess, she was gentle, mild, and civil,
When queen, she proved a raging, furious devil."

A less irregular and more cruel massacre than that at Bridge water
was determined on, and it was notified to the Lord Chief-justice Jeffreys,
that he might expect the great seal of lord-chancellor as a reward
for faithful and vigorous service. At Doncaster the bloody assizes
commenced. The court was hung with scarlet. More than three hun-
dred prisoners were to be tried, but Jeffreys made short work of them

ALICE LISLE. 23

by letting it be understood that the only way to obtain pardon or
respite, was to plead guilty. Two hundred and ninety-two were sentenced
to death, and in Dorsetshire seventy-four were hanged. There were
fewer prisoners at Exeter, for the rebellion had only just extended to
the borders of Devonshire; but in Somersetshire, which was reserved to
the last, the chief-justice, who seems to have had little or no opposition
from his fellow-judges, appears to have revelled in carnage. He was
drunk with cruelty and blood, shouted and roared with horrible hilarity
in court, while he abused and taunted witnesses, and threatened and
denounced the unhappy prisoners, to whom he applied vile epithets.
Neither rank, age, nor sex, youth nor purity of character, were of any
avail to protect the unhappy victims of his brutality; and he acted only
as one could act who was certain of the royal favour. He boasted that
he had hanged more traitors than all his predecessors together since the
Conquest; and it is certain that the number of persons whom he put to
death in one month and in one shire very much exceeded the number
of all the political offenders who have been put to death in our island
since the Revolution. The number of executions on this circuit alone
was 320; and the accounts of some of the cases are sufficient to move
alike our sympathy, our horror, and our indignation.

Perhaps one of the first which is recorded is the most illus-
trative of the immovable dogged cruelty of James, and the atrocious
readiness with which Jeffreys was ready to give it effect. It was at
Winchester that the commission was first opened. Hampshire had
not been the theatre of war, but many of the vanquished rebels, like
their leader, fled thither. Two of them, John Hickes, a Nonconformist
minister, and Richard Nelthorpe, a lawyer who had been outlawed
for taking part in the Rye House plot, had sought refuge in the house
of a gentlewoman named Alice Lisle. This lady, who was very infirm
and of advanced age, was the widow of John Lisle, who had sat in the
Long Parliament and in the High Court of Justice in the days of the
Commonwealth. He had been made a lord by Cromwell, and
though the titles conferred by the Protector were not acknowledged
after the Restoration they were often used in courtesy even by Royalists.
Thus Mistress Lisle, who was related to several respectable and some
noble families, and who was herself distinguished for the gentleness
and courtesy of her manner, was commonly known as the Lady Alice.
Even her high Tory neighbours deeply respected her for her loyalty

24 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

and great humanity. The Lady Abergavenny and the Lady St. John
both testified that she had been a favourer of the king's friends in
their greatest extremities during the civil war, and, among others, of
those ladies themselves.

Her son, so far from taking arms for Monmouth, had served in the
royal army against the rebellion. It was well known that she had
deeply regretted some of the violent acts in which her husband had
borne a part, and, as she herself had often declared, had shed bitter tears
for the death of Charles I. Her husband had fled from England and
found an asylum in Switzerland at the Restoration, and he was one of
those who, though in exile, met their death at the hands of assassins
in the interest of Charles II. He was shot in the back on a Sunday
as he was about to enter a church in Lausanne by one of two horse-
men, who immediately shouted, " God save the King!" and galloped off
crossing the Swiss frontier into France, leaving their victim dead
where he had fallen. Such had been the exemplary conduct of his
wife while her husband's party was in power, and so gentle the aid she
had rendered to Cavalier fugitives, that her husband's estate had been
confirmed to her by the interposition of Clarendon.

This was the woman who, though she was so old and feeble that she
could scarcely follow the charges brought against her, and so deaf that
she was unable to hear the indictment, was dragged before a tribunal at
which her condemnation had been already determined. The same
womanly kindness which had led her to befriend the Royalists in their
time of need would not suffer her to refuse food and a hiding-place to
the two wretched men who had entreated her to befriend them. She
took them into her house, set meal and drink before them, and showed
them where they might rest. The next morning her dwelling was
surrounded by soldiers. Hicks was found concealed in the malt-house,
and Nelthorpe in the chimney. By doing so she was (according to the
law) guilty of high treason. In this respect the law is less merciful
to the person who conceals an alleged traitor than to the person who
conceals a felon or a murderer; for the hiding of a murderer is not
regarded as murder, and there always is a difference made between the
committer 6f a felony and an accessory after the fact. This difference in
the law, unjust and monstrous as it was, had been practically rectified
by the necessity that every just and noble mind feels for approving that
sentiment of humanity, which cannot consent to deliver up to death, or

W a

ALICE LISLE. 25

refuse to give food and shelter to the rebel or the traitor who is in
instant peril or in mortal agony.

And it is just to say, that during many generations no English
government, save one, has treated with rigour persons guilty merely
of harbouring defeated and flying insurgents. To women especially
has been granted, by a kind of tacit prescription, the right of indulging,
in the midst of havoc and vengeance, that compassion which is the
most endearing of all their charms. Since the beginning of the great
civil war numerous rebels, some of them far more important than
Hicks or Nelthorpe, have been protected from the severity of victorious
governments by female adroitness and generosity. But no English
ruler who has been thus baffled, the savage and implacable James
alone excepted, has had the barbarity even to think of putting a
lady to a cruel and shameful death for so venial and amiable a trans-
gression. 1

Even the barbarous law, as it then stood, was strained to destroy
Alice Lisle. She was sent to the bar before the trial of Hicks or
Nelthorpe, and the jury, composed of the principal gentlemen of
Hampshire, shrunk from the thought of sending her to the stake for
an act of humanity and mercy. Jeffreys cursed and swore, bullied and
threatened the reluctant witnesses, and broke out into furious revilings,
when there seemed to be a probability of their giving evidence in the
prisoner's favour. The Lady Alice, in her defence, represented that
though she knew Hicks to be in trouble when she took him in, she
neither knew nor suspected that he had been concerned in the
rebellion. He was a divine, a man of peace, and it had never occurred
to her that he could have borne arms against the government. She
had supposed that he wished to conceal himself because warrants
were out against him for field-preaching. This again gave Jeffreys
occasion for a volley of abuse against Presbyterianism, Whigs, and
Dissenters which lasted for an hour. In his summing up he repeated
his denunciations, and reminded the jury that the husband of the prisoner
had borne a part in the death of Charles I., a declaration of which no
proof was given. The jury retired and remained for a long time in
consultation. The judge grew impatient, and sent to tell them that
if they did not instantly return he would adjourn the court and lock
them up all night. They came to say that they doubted if the charge

1 Macaulay. 27

VOL. IL

26 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

had been proven. Jeffreys expostulated with them vehemently, and
after another consultation they gave a reluctant verdict of " Guilty."

Sentence was pronounced on the following morning, that Alice
Lisle was to be burned afive that very afternoon. This abominable
decision aroused the indignation even of those who were most devoted
to the crown, and whom James himself was desirous to propitiate.
The clergy of Winchester Cathedral protested against the sentence,
and the brutal chief-justice feared to risk a quarrel with these supporters
of the Tory party. The execution was deferred for five days; and
during that time the friends of the unfortunate lady besought the king
to be merciful. Ladies of high rank pleaded with him in vain.
Feversham, who perhaps was bribed, spoke in her favour; even
Clarendon, the king's brother-in-law, tried to obtain a pardon or a
mitigation of the sentence. All was useless. The utmost that could
be obtained was that her sentence should be commuted from burning
to beheading. She was put to death on a scaffold in the market-place
of Winchester, and underwent her fate with serene courage, a martyr
whose death aided to hasten the downfall of the tyrant who condemned
her and the approach of liberty to the whole nation.

THE SEVEN BISHOPS.

While Roman Catholics were liberated from the comparative
obscurity of exclusion, and were being appointed not only to military
and civil, but even to collegiate and ecclesiastial offices, Puritans and
" Nonconformists," and especially Presbyterians, both in England and
Scotland, were being persecuted with increased animosity. Not under
the tyranny of Laud had their condition been so deplorable as at that
time. Many Dissenters were cited before the ecclesiastical courts.
Others found it necessary to purchase the connivance of the agents
of the government by presents of hogsheads of wine, and of gloves
stuffed with guineas. It was impossible for the separatists to pray
together without precautions such as are employed by coiners and

THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 27

receivers of stolen goods. The places of meeting were frequently
changed. Worship was performed sometimes just before break of day,
and sometimes at dead of night. Round the building where the little
flock was gathered, sentinels were posted to give the alarm if a stranger
drew near. Yet with all this care it was often found impossible to elude
the vigilance of informers. Through many years the autumn of 1685
was remembered by the Nonconformists as a time of misery and terror.
Yet in that autumn might be discerned the first faint indications of a
great turn of fortune, and before eighteen months had elapsed the
intolerant king and the intolerant church were eagerly bidding against
each other for the support of the party which both had so deeply
injured. l

Roman Catholics were admitted to office in contravention of
the law, and were allowed and encouraged in the public exercise
of their religion, but penal laws were in rigorous force against
Independents, Quakers, Baptists, and especially Presbyterians. The
king used every effort to produce an alliance between the English and
the Romish Church. The Tories had supported him in almost every
emergency: the church was deferential and never wavered in its
assertions of loyalty, the parliament was comparatively submissive,
and he took care so to organize a system of mingled promises and
threats that he imagined it would be subservient. He was mistaken.
Men who were not supposed to care much for religion were ready
to relinquish their offices and emoluments rather than open the door
for Popish domination. Parliament opposed him till he took the
alternative of proroguing parliament The Cavalier party were for the
king, but they were against the Papacy. The whole Anglican priesthood
were ready to suffer rather than yield. James subsided into dogged
tyranny, and unable to make a coalition between the English and
Roman Churches to the exclusion of all other sects, he determined
to attempt the establishment of a general Declaration of Indulgence,
which, by relieving the sufferings of Nonconformists and Presbyterians,
would gain them to his side against the Anglican clergy, and enable
him to elevate the Roman Catholics to power. At the same time
he proceeded to annul by his sole authority a series of statutes, and
abrogated all the acts which imposed a religious test as a qualification
for any civil or military office.

1 Macaulay.

28 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

There were not wanting signs that numbers of the oppressed and
persecuted Puritans would not accept a relaxation of the rigours with
which they had been treated as the price of their joining to elevate
Popery against the Protestant Church, even though that church had
been concerned in embittering their lives and in forbidding them that
freedom of conscience which they were now promised. Happily there
had for a long time been a moderate party in the Anglican Church,
consisting of divines eminent alike for learning and consistency, who
had felt kindly towards those who, while they dissented from them in
matters of church government and in some points of doctrine, were yet
regarded by them as Christian brethren. The great body of Dissenters
and their most eminent representatives had no reason to love either
king or church; but they loved the true liberty of England, and they
loved true liberty of conscience. Only a section of the Nonconformists
could ever be induced to thank the king for his concessions, and to
make common cause with him. The rest, under the influence of men
like Baxter, Home, Kiffin, and Bunyan, stood aloof.

Nearly a year passed during which unsuccessful efforts were made
to cause the English clergy to yield. On the 2jth of April, 1668, when
public suspicion and alarm had reached their height, James published
another Declaration of Indulgence, and on the 4th of May he com-
manded the Protestant clergy to read it in all their churches on two
successive Sundays. The king's temper was arbitrary and severe.
The proceedings of the Ecclesiastical Commission were as summary
as those of a court-martial; whoever ventured to resist might in a week
be ejected from his parsonage, deprived of his whole income, pronounced
incapable of holding any other spiritual preferment, and left to beg
from door to door. There was no time to form an extensive combina-
tion. The order in council was gazetted on the 7th of May. On the
2oth the declaration was to be read in all the pulpits of London and
the neighbourhood. It was not easy to collect in so short a time the
sense even of the bishops.

At this conjuncture the Protestant Dissenters of London won for
themselves a title to the lasting gratitude of their country. The time
had come when it was necessary to make a choice; and the Noncon-
formists of the city, with a noble spirit, arrayed themselves side by
side with the members of the church in defence of the fundamental
laws of the realm. Baxter, Bates, and Howe distinguished themselves

THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 29

by their efforts to briag about this coalition; but the generous enthusi-
asm of the whole Puritan body made the task easy. Those Presbyter-
ian and Independent teachers who showed an inclination to take part
with the king against the Ecclesiastical Establishment received distinct
notice, that unless they changed their conduct their congregations
would neither hear them nor pay them. Deputations waited on several
of the London clergy imploring them not to judge of the Dissenting
body from the servile adulation which lately filled the London Gazette,
and exhorting them, placed as they were in the van of this great fight,
to play the men for the liberties of England and the faith delivered to
the saints. The London clergy, then universally acknowledged to be
the flower of their profession, held a meeting. After much uncertainty
and debate Dr. Fowler, vicar of St. Giles, Cripplegate, Tillotson, Patrick,
Sherlock, and Stillingfleet declared their determination not to read the
declaration. A resolution by which all present also pledged them-
selves to one another not to read it was then drawn up, and was sent round
the city, where it was speedily subscribed by eighty-five incumbents.

Meanwhile several of the bishops were anxiously deliberating
as to the course which they should take. On the i2th of May a
grave and learned company was assembled round the table of the
primate at Lambeth. Letters were forthwith written to several of the
most respectable prelates of the province of Canterbury, entreating
them to come up without delay to London. As there was little doubt
that these letters would be opened if they passed through the office
in Lombard Street, they were sent by horsemen to the nearest country
post-towns on the different roads. By the i;th, William Lloyd,
bishop of St. Asaph; Kerr, bishop of Bath and Wells; Lake, bishop
of Rochester; and Sir Jonathan Trelawney, bishop of Bristol, a
baronet of an old and honourable Cornish family, had arrived, and
on the following day a meeting was again held at Lambeth, where
Tillotson, Tennison, Stillingfleet, Patrick, and Sherlock were present.
Prayers were solemnly read before the consultation began. After
long deliberation a petition embodying the general sense was written
by the archbishop, Sancroft, with his own hand.

In substance nothing could be more skilfully framed than this
memorable document. All disloyalty, all intolerance, was earnestly
disclaimed. The king was assured that the church still was, as she
had ever been, faithful to the throne. He was assured also that the

3O PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

bishops would, in proper place and time, as lords of parliament and
members of the Upper House of Convocation, show that they by no
means wanted tenderness for the conscientious scruples of Dissenters.
But parliament had, both in the late and in the present reign, declared
that the sovereign was not constitutionally competent to dispense with
statutes in matters ecclesiastical. The declaration was therefore illegal;
and the petitioners could not, in prudence, honour, or conscience, be
parties to the solemn publication of an illegal declaration in the house
of God and during the time of divine service. This paper was signed
by the archbishop and by six of his suffragans, Lloyd of St. Asaph,
Turner of Ely, Lake of Chichester, Kerr of Bath and Wells, White
of Peterborough, and Trelawney of Bristol.

It was now late on Friday evening, and on Sunday morning the
declaration was to be read in the churches of London. It was necessary
to put the paper into the king's hands without delay. The six bishops
set off for Whitehall. The archbishop, who had long been forbidden
the court, did not accompany them. James directed that the bishops
should be admitted. He had heard from his tool Cartwright that they
were disposed to obey, and only required some modification in the form
of the royal mandate. His majesty was therefore in good humour.
When they knelt before him he graciously told them to rise, took the
paper from Lloyd, and said, "This is my lord of Canterbury's hand."
"Yes, sir, his own hand," was the answer. James read the petition; he
folded it up and his countenance grew dark. "This," he said, "is a
great surprise to me. I did not expect this from your church, especially
from some of you. This is a standard of rebellion." The bishops broke
forth into passionate expressions of loyalty; but the king, as usual,
repeated the same words over and over. " I tell you this is a standard
of rebellion." "Rebellion!" cried Trelawney, falling on his knees.
" For God's sake, sir, do not say so hard a thing of us. No Trelawney
can be a rebel. Remember that my family has fought for the crown.
Remember how I served your majesty when Monmouth was in the
West." " We put down the last rebellion," said Lake; "we shall not raise
another." "We rebel !" exclaimed Turner; "we are ready to die at your
majesty's feet." "Sir," said Kerr, in a more manly tone, " I hope that
you will grant to us that liberty of conscience which you grant to all
mankind." Still James went on declaring that it was rebellion, that no
good churchman had questioned the dispensing power before, that some

THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 3!

of the petitioners had preached for it and written for it, that he would
have his declaration published. "We have two duties to perform,"
answered Kerr, "our duty to God and our duty to your majesty. We
honour you, but we fear God." "Have I deserved this?" continued
James, more and more angry, "I who have been such a friend to your
church ? I will be obeyed. My declaration shall be published. What
do you do here? Go to your dioceses and see that I am obeyed. I
will keep this paper. I will not part with it. I will remember you
that have signed it." "God's will be done!" said Kerr. "What's
that?" said the enraged king. "God's will be done!" repeated the
bishops, who then respectfully retired.

That very evening the document which they had put in the hands
of the king appeared in print was laid on the tables of the coffee-
houses, and was cried about the streets. How the petition got
abroad is still a mystery. Bancroft declared that he had taken every
precaution against publication, and that he knew of no copy except
that which he had himself written, and which James had taken out of
Lloyd's hand. The veracity of the archbishop is above suspicion.
It is, however, not improbable that some of the divines who assisted
in framing the document may have remembered so short a composition,
and may have sent it to the press.

On the Sunday only seven out of 100 clergymen in the London
parish churches read the declaration, while those who did so were groaned
at by the people, who left the churches where the hated mandate was
brought forward. The spirit of dissent seemed to be extinct. Baxter
from his pulpit pronounced an eulogium on the bishops and parochial
clergy. Another week passed away, and on the Sunday the churches
were again crowded, but the declaration was nowhere read, except where
it had been read the week before.

Even the king stood aghast for a moment at the violence of the
tempest that he had raised. What step was he next to take ? Should
he cite them before the Ecclesiastical Commission, where Jeffreys was
sole judge ? Jeffreys shrank from such a responsibility, and recommended
a criminal information. It was accordingly resolved that the archbishop
and his six suffragans should be brought before the King's Bench on
a charge of seditious libel before judges and officers who were creatures
of the court, and would probably condemn them to fines and imprison-
ment, to escape which they would be glad to serve the designs of the

32 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

king. First, however, they were cited to appear before the privy-
council. Perhaps James thought that they might yet instruct their
clergy to obey his order; but nothing of the kind took place. Not one
parish priest in fifty consented to read. The Bishops of Norwich,
Gloucester, Salisbury, Winchester and Exeter had signed copies of the
petition in token of their approbation.

On the 8th of June the seven bishops were summoned before the
privy-council. At first James and his Lord-chancellor Jeffreys affected
a gracious manner to cajole them into submission, but they were firm.
Sancroft acknowledged his hand-writing on the repeated demand of the
king, and the others followed in owning the petition, with the proviso
that they were not bound to admit anything which should be used
against them. On Jeffreys demanding that they should enter into
recognizances to appear and take their trial at Westminster Hall, they
refused, on the ground that as peers they were not bound by recogniz-
ances in misdemeanours. A warrant was then made out to commit
them to the Tower.

Never since the first introduction of the mitre was Episcopacy so
popular as on that day. " The concern of the people," says Evelyn,
" was wonderful infinite crowds on their knees, begging their blessing
and praying for them as they passed. They were conveyed from
Whitehall by water, and as they took boat they were followed by the
tears and prayers of thousands, and men ran after them into the water
to implore their blessing." The very soldiers at the Tower followed
the general impulse; the sentinels who were under arms at the Traitor's
Gate reverently asked a blessing from their prisoners; in the evening
the men of the garrison were all drinking the health of the bishops, and
the officers could not prevent it. All day the coaches and liveries of
the first nobles of England were seen round the prison gates. Thousands
of persons assembled on Tower Hill, and to the rage and alarm of the
king a deputation of ten Nonconformist ministers waited on and
condoled with the prisoners. James sent for four of these men and
upbraided them. They answered that they thought it their duty to
forget past quarrels and to stand by the men who stood by the
Protestant religion.

The trial was adjourned on the first appearance of the bishops, and
they were suffered to go to their own homes. On the 2Qth of June
the bishops again entered Westminster Hall, surrounded by lords and

THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 33

gentlemen, and followed by blessings and prayers. James made sure
of a verdict, for he thought the judges were his slaves, and that the
jury would be subservient. But there were present men before whom
even the lord chief-justice was abashed. " He looked," said a
by-stander, " as if every peer had a halter in his pocket." The bishops
were ably defended by some of the most capable lawyers of the day,
and by Mr. Justice Powell, who was not to be put down by the clamour
and bullying of the prosecution. The jury, of which Sir Robert Langley
was foreman, was composed of respectable men, and in truth any jury
would at that time have been more afraid of the people than of the king.

The trial lasted from nine in the morning till seven in the evening.
The jury retired to consider their verdict, and were locked up all night
one Arnold, the king's brewer, holding out to the last. At length,
however, he was overruled, and at nine o'clock the next morning, when
the court was opened, Sir Robert Langley pronounced the verdict
of "Not guilty" The next moment Lord Halifax waved his hat, and
there arose such a mighty shout in the court that it was heard outside,
and spread from Westminster to Temple Bar, whence it rolled in loud
huzzas as far as the Tower, where the guard had been doubled.

All over London the people were laughing, crying, praying, and
cheering with delight. The bishops as they walked to their barges
exhorted their countrymen to fear God and honour the king. At night
London was lighted from one end to the other with blazing bonfires,
seven candles appeared in almost every window, all the church-bells
were set ringing, and the pope was burned in effigy before the windows
of the palace at Whitehall, while in several other places similar effigies
were shown and ignited, much to the scandal of the papal nuncio and
the rage of the king. The whole metropolis was in an uproar of
congratulation, and horsemen were on every highroad to carry the
welcome intelligence to the shires.

The Sunday had dawned and the bells of the parish churches were
ringing for early prayers before the fires began to languish and the
crowds to disperse. A proclamation was speedily put forth against
the rioters. Many of them, mostly young apprentices, were appre-
hended, but the bills were thrown out at the Middlesex sessions. The
magistrates, many of whom were Roman Catholics, expostulated with
the grand-jury, and sent them back three or four times, but to no
purpose.

VOL. II. 38

34 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

Immediately after the verdict the attorney took the tidings to
Sunderland. The king was at the camp at Hounslow Heath, and
Sunderland sent a courier with the news. James was in Lord Fevers-
ham's tent, and when he received the message was greatly disturbed,
exclaiming in French, " So much the worse for them." While he was
present, respect and discipline prevented any demonstration on the
part of the soldiers; but he had scarcely quitted the camp when he
heard a great shouting behind him, and turning in surprise asked what
it meant. " Nothing," was the answer. " The soldiers are glad that
the bishops are acquitted." " Do you call that nothing?" said James;
and then he repeated, "So much the worse for them."

ENGLAND'S NEW ERA.

Long before the flight of James, and the departure of his queen
with the infant prince whose alleged birth a large number of the
people had persisted in representing as an imposture, the attention
of the whole nation had been directed to William Henry, prince
of Orange Nassau, the acknowledged defender of Protestantism in
Europe, and the husband of Mary, eldest daughter of James and
his first wife Anne Hyde.

William was the posthumous son of William II. of Orange,
and Mary, daughter of Charles I. His father was the eldest son
of the Stadtholder Frederic Henry, who was the youngest son of
William the Silent, and Louisa, daughter of the famous Admiral Coligny.
Thus the future King of England was cousin and husband to the
heiress to the English throne, and was also directly descended from
the great founder of the Dutch Republic and from the renowned leader
of the Huguenots.

William of Orange was an orphan in early childhood a fatherless
and motherless boy virtually the chief of a great party which was
for the time depressed by the oligarchy which, under the influence
of the De Witts, then ruled the United Provinces. That the child

ENGLAND S NEW ERA. 35

was heir to the great office of stadtholder, and the descendant of its
most illustrious representative, was sufficient reason for his being
held in the position of a state prisoner, whose every word and action
needed to be watched, and whose appearance in public was to be
discouraged because of the enthusiasm of the people for his house
and name. It is little wonder that a childhood so passed should have
so operated on a firm nature as to increase a natural reserve to
habitual reticence, and to make a temper not prone to elasticity often
grim and repellent. There was so little opportunity for the cultiva-
tion of sympathy that we may cease to wonder at the unconciliatory
habit of the prince, who was yet capable of deep and sincere attach-
ments. He was scarcely fifteen years old when all the domestics
who were loyal to his interests, or who enjoyed any share of his
confidence, were removed from under his roof. His health, never
robust, would have sunk from a sense of his desolate position, but
that he had both the courage and the sagacity which had distinguished
his ancestors. Long before he reached manhood he knew how to
keep secrets, how to baffle curiosity by dry and guarded answers,
how to conceal all passions under the same show of grave tranquillity.
He perhaps emulated the reserve of William the Silent, who trusted
nobody with his intentions till they were being executed, and who,
when one of his most influential companions once asked him what
would be his line of conduct in an approaching crisis, said, " Can
you keep a secret?" "Implicitly," replied the anxious inquirer.
"So can I," returned the imperturbable stadtholder, and so closed
the conversation.

The education of William of Orange, like his tastes, was of a
practical and severe kind. He possessed few or no accomplishments,
sought no grace of manner. He was blunt even for a Dutchman of
that period, and though he spoke and wrote French, and probably
understood it well, his letters in that language were remarkably crude
both in composition and spelling. He also understood Latin, Italian,
and Spanish, for these languages were necessary to a man who had
to answer both in speaking and writing questions involved in the
great political events of Europe. Of course he wrote and spoke
English fluently and intelligibly, though not elegantly, but he never
thoroughly understood the English people, and during his lifetime
they neither understood nor sympathized with him except when they

36 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

discovered the intensity of feeling which could move that apparently
cold impassive nature, on the death of the English wife whom he
profoundly loved, and who had been so devoted to him as to yield,
without a second thought, the crown which they shared together, but
which was hers by right of inheritance.

Not only the early education, but the great position of William
of Orange as the defender of the Protestant religion, and as the general
and statesman who had set himself to the task of thwarting, of defying,
and ultimately of humbling France, directed his vigorous intellect
only to those studies which were necessary to a complete knowledge
of public affairs, of political administration, and of military tactics.
Neither literature nor science claimed much attention from him;
of poetry he seemed to know nothing; the drama tired him; he was
neither wit nor orator, though he could utter sharp sarcasms, and could
speak with vigour and to the purpose when occasion demanded it.
Except amidst that inner circle of intimate friends of whom his loved
companion the faithful Bentinck was the most conspicuous, his social
qualifications appeared to be few and ungenial; but those who knew
him intimately, discovered that there was a real tenderness and a
simple pleasantry in the man, which, when once the ice of his cold
caution and silent self-control was broken, revealed unsuspected depths
of feeling. The familiar letters which he wrote to his friend attest
not only his simplicity of heart, but his unaffected regard and gratitude
for those true services which princes are often apt to forget.

Perhaps one reason for the unmoved and cautious exterior which
he maintained may be found in the fact that on occasions he was liable
to sudden outbursts of anger which startled those who encountered
them, and appeared to be the more furious because they were volcanic
fires that burst from beneath a thick crust of ice. But for any injustice
of which William was guilty during an outburst of temper he was
so penitent and so anxious to compensate, that it is said he not only
disarmed the indignation of the noble-minded, but almost excited
the cupidity of those who would even venture to brave his wrath
for the sake of the amends which he might make. But his self-
control was too great to make this a frequent occurrence, and it was
in war that the natural outbreak of his force of character found
occasion to display itself. Indeed his personal tastes were those
rather of a warrior than of a statesman; but he, like his grandfather,

FR-OM THE PORTRAIT BY SIR GODFREY KNELLER,
IN ST GEORGES HALIj.WIKDSOB. CASTLE.

"BI, ACKIE , 8c SON. LONDON, GIAS G W, & EEIKBTJJ18H .

ENGLAND S NEW ERA. 37

the silent prince who founded the Batavian commonwealth, occupies
a far higher place among statesmen than among warriors. He
was almost always opposed to those who were consummate masters
of the art of war, and to troops far superior in discipline to his own,
and this may be sufficient to account for the fact that he was not
successful: but he could not lay claim to being a great general, for
he had received no military education, had been placed while yet a
boy at the head of the army, and could only learn by the experience
which comes of failure. He himself once declared that he would give
a good part of his estates to have served a few campaigns under the
Prince of Conde before he had to command against him, and yet
the great Conde with generous admiration remarked, after the bloody
day of Seneff, that the Prince of Orange had in all things borne himself
like an old general, except in exposing himself like a young soldier.

Indeed the personal courage and cool disregard of danger which
distinguished William must have contributed greatly to the marvellous
alacrity with which he was able, though not victorious, to retrieve
defeat, or the determined persistency with which he maintained an
advantage. If his battles were not those of a great tactician, they
entitled him to be called a great man. No disaster could for one
moment deprive him of his firmness or of the entire possession of all
his faculties, nor did his adverse fortune ever lose him of the respect
and confidence of his soldiers. That respect and confidence he owed
in a great degree not only to the bravery which is necessary to carry
a soldier through an arduous campaign, but to a rarer sort of courage
which in his case was proved by almost every test by war, by wounds,
by painful and depressing maladies, by raging seas, by the imminent
and constant risk of assassination, a risk which has shaken very
strong nerves, a risk which severely tried even the adamantine fortitude
of Cromwell. Yet none could ever discover what that thing was
which the Prince of Orange feared. His advisers could with difficulty
induce him to take any precautions against the pistols and daggers
of conspirators, even when the Jacobites of St. Germains were con-
stantly contriving schemes of assassination. He not only received
the intimations of these dangers without disturbance, but with cold
magnanimity refused to investigate them or to punish their originators
until their plans became dangerous to the nation itself.

It cannot be denied, however, that though William was neither

^g PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

tyrannical nor revengeful, he had that kind of arbitrary disposition
which would brook no rival assumptions, and this is not much to be
wondered at when his early difficulties and his subsequent necessary
assumption of authority are considered. He was no persecutor,
and had no mean desire to avenge small injuries, but he did not
display that noble generosity of temper that only belongs to the
highest class of men. He was certainly not cruel, ,but he could regard
the horrors of war and punish by fire and sword with an equanimity
which, regarding it as the necessary means for maintaining his
government and checking what might be serious opposition to his
plans, appeared to be undisturbed by those considerations of humanity
that belong alike to smaller and to greater men.

It must be remembered, however, that he had so learned to control
every manifestation of feeling for the purpose of keeping his own
counsel against those who sought to discover and to thwart his designs,
that it was difficult to read any emotion beneath his imperturbable
manner. The massacre of Glencoe, the atrocity and treachery of
which aroused the feelings of the whole nation, was probably from
this cause scarcely denounced by William with the same natural
expressions of indignation which moved the general sympathy, and
though there is sufficient reason to believe that he was wholly un-
acquainted with that horrible event till after it was effected, he has
since been charged with it as a part of that cold-blooded policy which
his enemies attributed to him.

As warrior and statesman William brought to England a new era
of history at a period when a determined courage, an inflexible will,
and a just and yet liberal policy were essential to prevent a restoration
which would have been a death-blow to national honour and freedom,
or a revolution which would have resulted in a devastating civil war.

The remarkable strength of character which distinguished William
of Orange was not allied to a strong physical frame. His favourite
recreation was the chase, and he loved it most when it was most hazard-
ous. His leaps were so daring that his boldest companions hesitated
to follow him. By a remarkable contrast, though he endeavoured
in his grander palace and his finer grounds and gardens in England
to reduce everything to the inartistic Dutch formality of his gardens
at Loo, he also pined for the excitement which had delighted him
in hunting wolves, wild-boars, and great stags in the forest of Guelders.

ENGLAND S NEW ERA. 39

Yet bis physical organization was unusually weak. As a child he had
been sickly. In the prime of manhood his complaints had been
aggravated by a severe attack of small-pox, through which his friend
Bentinck had attended him with faithful affection. He was asthmatic
and consumptive. His slender frame was shaken by a constant
hoarse cough. He could not sleep unless his head was propped
up by pillows. Through a life which was one long disease the force
of his mind never failed on any great occasion to bear up his suffering
and languid body. "His name," says Macaulay, who is one of his
chief panegyrists, "at once calls up before us a slender and feeble
frame, a lofty and ample forehead, a nose curved like the beak of an
eagle, an eye rivalling that of an eagle in brightness and keenness,
a thoughtful and somewhat sullen brow, a firm and somewhat
peevish mouth, a cheek pale, thin, and deeply furrowed by sickness
and care, that pensive, severe, and solemn aspect could scarcely
have belonged to a happy or a good-humoured man. But it indicates
in a manner not to be mistaken capacity equal to the most arduous
enterprise, and fortitude not to be shaken by reverses or dangers."

Mary, who must have recognized in her husband a character lofty
indeed when contrasted with that of her uncle or her father, was
entirely devoted to him. A woman with no small share of personal
beauty, a dignified carriage, admirable truth and sweetness of disposi-
tion, and a large share of sound common sense and unaffected piety,
she loved him so well that she even pardoned that passing unfaith-
fulness which, on more than one occasion, William, in common with
every prince of the time, showed to the claims of marriage, and sought
to win him by an amiability which she evidently regarded as a part
of her religion.

That she succeeded is evident from the close affection with which
he regarded her an affection more distinctly manifested, it is true,
after she had declared to him that if she succeeded to the throne of
England she should yield to him the crown, and observe the Scripture
precept, " Wives, obey your husbands," in the hope that he too would
obey that which said, " Husbands, love your wives." But William had
never hinted to her the dissatisfaction with which he looked forward
to the probability of playing a second part under his wife's rule; and
but for the shrewdness of Bishop Burnet, who guessed at the cause
of William's moody silence, and communicated it to the princess, she

4<D PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

would not have been able to delight him so soon by this fresh
proof of her affection, which entirely gained his heart, if it was not
already hers.

Mary, in common with her sister Anne, who remained in England
with her husband Prince George of Denmark, has been charged with
a want of filial regard and with base disloyalty in contemplating
the abdication of her father, and aiding in his continued banishment.
On the other hand, we must reflect that they were daughters of the
first wife of James, were both Protestants, and that their father had
not regarded their claims to succession, when, by his determined efforts
to establish Popery, he imperilled both the crown and the nation : that
the husband of Mary was the head of the Protestant cause in Europe,
and himself allied to the royal family of England, and that he was
the only man to whom the people of this country could look to deliver
them from the detested rule of a weak king whom they both feared
and despised, or from the invasion of a foe who had supported the
tyranny under which they writhed.

To the great resentment of James, Bishop Burnet, whom he
regarded as one of his bitterest enemies, had occupied the position
of private secretary at the Hague, and even when, in deference to his
father-in-law's demands, William dispensed with his services, he was
still a confidential adviser, whose knowledge of English parties and
English character was derived from long acquaintance with the leading
men of this country.

The representative of Holland at the English court was Dykvelt,
in whom skill as a diplomatist and dexterity of temper and manners
were added to a remarkable knowledge of English affairs. It was
William's desire to unite the Protestant parties in one common
determination, and no one was better fitted to effect, this coalition
than Dykvelt, whose embassy was in fact less to the government than
to the opposition. For both the Prince and Princess of Orange,
while speaking favourably of a considerable mitigation of religious
tests and disabilities, had firmly refused to support the Declaration
of Indulgence and the promotion of Roman Catholics to offices of
state. " You ask me," said William to one of the king's agents, " to
countenance an attack on my own religion. I cannot with a safe
conscience do it, and I will not, no, not for the crown of England,
nor for the empire of the world." Both he and his wife were convinced

FROM THE PORTRAIT BY SIR GODFREY KNELLER.

IN ST GEORGE'S HALL , "WINDS OK. CASTLE.

BLACKT"E.& SON. 1OKDON. GLASQOW. &

ENGLAND'S NEW ERA. 41

that James had usurped a prerogative that did not belong to him, and
seriously advised him to govern in all things according to law. Against
usurpation they protested not only as friends to civil liberty, but as
members of the royal house who had a deep interest in maintaining
the rights of the crown, for experience had shown that in England
arbitrary government could not fail to produce a reaction even more
pernicious than itself.

Nothing would arrest the mad folly of James, though he saw
that Dykvelt was mustering the divisions of the opposition. The
great chiefs Danby, Nottingham, Halifax, and several of the eminent
Whigs were stirring for action, Bishop Compton was influencing the
clergy, Admiral Herbert the navy, and an interest was established
in the army by the instrumentality of Churchill, whose wife (formerly
Sarah Jennings) was the confidante and intimate friend of the Princess
Anne. His sister had been the mistress of the king, and he,
once a needy ensign, was now, in his thirty-seventh year, a major-
general, a peer of Scotland, commander of a troop of Life Guards,
and the holder of several considerable offices. A change must have
appeared imminent indeed when that cold-hearted, avaricious, and self-
contained man declared in favour of the maintenance of Protestantism,
and as it would seem with a real horror of having either to relinquish
his lucrative posts, or of abjuring a religion which he dared not forsake,
little as his life and character may have been in accordance with it.

The general feeling against the king may be indicated by the
wide-spread acceptance of the report that the reputed heir to the
throne was really no child of his, but had actually been introduced
into the queen's chamber. The popular fancy decided on the means
of conveyance having been a warming-pan; and it was hinted that the
alleged expectation of an heir was a pretence, while the alleged birth
of the child during the absence of the Princess Anne and of some other
notable Protestant personages was regarded as a part of the imposture.
That a sufficient number both of Protestants and Romanists were present
to verify the birth of the child there can be little doubt. The officiating
surgeon on the occasion was the famous Dr. Chamberlain, who was
not only a Protestant but a noted Whig, and one who had suffered
some persecution. James himself caused to be examined on oath about
forty persons, whose evidence may be regarded as conclusive. Still
the people would not accept the testimony, and Anne joined in

VOL. II.

2 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

representing to William and her sister that there was a doubt as to the
birth of a prince.

William, whether he believed the report or not, had begun to make
preparations for an actual invasion of England. Count Zuleystein,
who had been sent as ambassador from the States to congratulate James,
returned with a formal invitation from a great number of noblemen and
gentlemen for the Prince of Orange to come over with an armed force
to call the legitimacy of the child in question, and to redress the
grievances of the nation. The former was unnecessary, the latter
William had determined to do if the nation itself ultimately demanded
it. A regular intercourse was opened between London, Edinburgh,
Dublin, and the Hague, and men of name, wealth, and influence joined
in the request for the Prince of Orange to come at once.

By the month of August he had collected 15,000 land troops, a train
of artillery, seventy vessels and flat-bottomed boats to effect a
landing, and observing his usual impenetrable silence, kept the enter-
prise a secret from all but five or six persons in his confidence. Louis
of France thought that he was meditating an attack either on his ally
the King of Denmark or on the Dutch republicans. James fancied
that he was preparing for hostilities with France. When it was too
late both of them found out what the preparations meant; and James
made some offers of concession and retractation, in which few people
believed, though he consulted the bishops, replaced some Protestant
deputy-lieutenants and magistrates, gave back its charter to the city,
and spoke respectfully of parliament as the best means of settling
difficulties.

On Friday the i6th of October William embarked with some of
his own noblemen and generals, and many English noblemen. His ship
bore the flag of England and his own arms, with the motto, "I will
maintain the Protestant religion and the liberties of England." The
fleet was at first scattered by adverse winds, and had to put into
Helvoet with some damage, but on the ist of November it sailed a
second time. The English fleet, which had suffered by the storm, coulcl
not get away from the Downs, but it is doubtful if the men would have
fought, and the Dutchmen came to anchor at Torbay on the 4th of
November, the anniversary of William's birth and of his marriage with
the Princess Mary. On the 5th of November, the anniversary of the
Gunpowder Plot, he landed, and immediately marched to Exeter with

ENGLAND'S NEW ERA. .43

about 15,000 men, of whom 2000 were English, Scotch, and Irish Protes-
tants. Everywhere there was disaffection many of the principal towns
were declaring for the prince, whole regiments with their officers were
deserting the royal cause, the city of London was in riotous disorder.

A council of war was called at Whitehall, and the king was advised
at once to call a parliament an entreaty in which the bishops joined
and to proceed at once to the head-quarters of the army at Salisbury.
The little Prince of Wales was sent to Portsmouth for safety; monks
and priests were already in flight. James set out with the French
ambassador Barillon, but in five days returned to London, retreating
from the wide-spread defection which left him little hope of retrieving
his position. Stopping at Andover on his way back, he invited Prince
George of Denmark (his son-in-law) and the Duke of Ormond to sup
with him. The very next morning they were both missing, and
had gone straight from the royal table to join the Prince of Orange.
George, who had little to say for himself, and was a dull fellow, who
enjoyed his dinner and his bottle without troubling himself much
with public affairs, had used one stock phrase when he heard of the
desertion of any of James' former friends. He expressed at once his
surprise and his sympathy by ejaculating, "Est-il possible?" When
the king found that he also had deserted him he said with a bitter
sense of humour, which was perhaps the nearest approach he ever made
to the wit of Charles, "Est-il possible gone too!" Still more sad was
the discovery on reaching Whitehall that Arfne had also absconded
with Lady Churchill.

William and his troops were joyfully expected at Oxford. The
Papist court was emptying fast. Proclamations were useless, proposals
for negotiation with the Prince of Orange were of no avail, promises
of amendment and the issue under the Great Seal of a general pardon
to offenders, had no effect. There was nothing for it but for the
king himself to take to flight. After having reached Sheppey, where
he was compelled to seek the protection of Lord Winchelsea, he
returned to London, much to the surprise of William, who was at
Windsor, earnestly desiring that his father-in-law might get quietly away
to France; and also to the surprise of the provisional council, who
had sent Lord Feversham to him with 200 Life Guards as an escort,
and a polite message to ask if he would come back to London or
continue his journey. He was eventually induced to go to Rochester,

44 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

whence he embarked in a fishing smack, passed the ships at the Nore
unchallenged, and landed at Ambleteuse. Thus,

"Prick'd by the Papal spur, we rear'd,
We flung the burthen of the Second James."

The " Glorious Revolution" which was truly glorious in its results,
though the treachery, falsehood, and cowardice of many of those who
were concerned in it are so depressing was not completed by the flight
of the king. Two months elapsed before Whigs and Dissenters, Tories
and High Churchmen, came to an agreement.

The Prince of Orange had taken up his residence, not at Whitehall
but at St James', and scrupulously avoided either interposition or the
assumption of any right. On the 25th of December about ninety
lords, spiritual and temporal, who had resumed their places in the
House of Lords, requested him to take upon himself the administration
of affairs and the disposal of the public revenue, and to issue writs for
a "Convention," to meet on the 22d of January. On the following
day an assembly of 150 persons, who had sat in parliament in the reign
of Charles II., together with the aldermen of London and fifty of
the common council, met at St James' at the request of the prince, and
thence proceeded to the Commons House and agreed to an address
similar to that of the Lords. The prince then despatched circular letters
to the several counties, universities, cities, and boroughs, and in the
meantime the country, the fleet, and what remained of James' army,
submitted quietly to the new rule. In Ireland it was very different;
but in Scotland men were as prompt in their obedience as in England.

On the 22d of January the convention (afterwards named the
parliament), set about its work in earnest. A letter from William was
read in both houses. His highness told them he had endeavoured to
the utmost of his power to perform what had been desired of him, in
order to maintain the public peace and safety; that it now rested with
themselves to lay the foundation of a firm security for their religion,
their laws, and their liberties. In the Commons there was a vast
enthusiasm, and the Lords were not backward in expressions of
satisfaction. They appointed a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God
for having made his highness the glorious instrument of the great
deliverance of the kingdom from Popery and arbitrary power; and they
joined the Commons in an address of thanks to the prince, which said,

ENGLAND S NEW ERA. 45

" And we do most humbly desire your highness to take upon you the
administration of public affairs, and the disposal of the public revenue
for the preservation of our religion, rights, laws, liberties, and properties,
and of the peace of the nation."

William delayed an answer till the next day, when he laconically
said, "My lords and gentlemen, I am glad that what I have done
hath pleased you; and since you desire me to continue the adminis-
tration of affairs, I am willing to accept it." The two houses then
adjourned to the 28th, when the next serious decision had to be come
to. There was a long and stormy debate before the resolution was
passed, "that King James II., having endeavoured to subvert the
constitution by breaking the original contract between king and
people, and by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons having
violated the fundamental laws and withdrawn himself out of the
kingdom, has abdicated the government, and that the throne is thereby
become vacant." The next day it was voted " that it hath been found
by experience to be inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this
Protestant kingdom to be governed by a Popish prince." The debate
in the Lords on the former resolution was sharp and protracted, and a
regency was proposed, while the maintenance of hereditary succession
was also advocated; but at last yielding to the force of circumstances, it
was resolved that the Prince and Princess of Orange should be declared
King and Queen of England and all the dominions thereunto belonging.
The final resolution to which both houses came on the i2th of
February, 1689, was, that William and Mary should be declared King
and Queen of England, France, and Ireland, and the dominions
thereunto belonging; with the sole and full exercise of the regal power
during their joint lives; that the succession should be to the issue of
the said princess, or failing her issue to the Princess Anne of Denmark,
and her issue, or failing them to the heirs of the body of the Prince
of Orange. On the same day Mary arrived from Holland at White-
hall, and on the morrow the prince and she being seated in the
banqueting-house, both houses of the convention waited upon them
with the declaration and resolution of the two houses, which was read
by the clerk of the crown, the Marquis of Halifax making a solemn
tender of the crown to their highnesses; and on the same day, being
Ash Wednesday, William and Mary were proclaimed king and queen,
amidst general acclamation and rejoicing.

46 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

THE BATTLE OF LA HOGUE.

On the 25th of November, 1690, William told the convention,
which had been transformed into a parliament, that the position of
affairs abroad imperatively required his presence at the Hague,
in order to direct the counsels and to consolidate the action of the
confederacy, which was again preparing to oppose the assumptions
of France. It was necessary to grant a large sum of money that
England might take her proper place in the defence of her own
liberties, and in protecting other states from the encroachment of the
common enemy. The parliament responded by voting ,4,000,000
for an army of 60,000 and a navy of 28,000 men the largest grant that
had ever been made in England; and they afterwards voted another
,500,000 for building new ships of war.

The king was eminently successful in arousing the energies
of the confederacy; but before he could rally his allies in Flanders to
raise the siege of Mons, that city had capitulated, and he returned to
England to get the British fleet to sea, under the command of Admiral
Russell, who, though not far from being a republican by theory, was
in secret communication with St. Germains, and if not actually a
traitor was strongly suspected of half-heartedness. The king returned
to the Continent, and at the head of about 70,000 men protected
Brussels from the operations of the French army under Marshal
Luxembourg, who was compelled to retire in order to avoid an action,
which he only escaped by marching and countermarching his troops.
William left the command to Prince Waldeck, and returned to England
to ask parliament for further supplies; but the opposition, consisting
of those who had not been appointed to offices of state, for a time set
themselves against further grants. Eventually, however, the large
sums of ,1,575,898 for the increase of the army, and nearly ,2, 000,000
for the navy were voted; and new taxes were imposed in order to
meet this unprecedented demand

In Ireland the campaign had been decisive. The troops under
Ginckel had beaten the French supporters of James, and the siege
and capitulation of Limerick put an end to the attempted invasion,

THE BATTLE OF LA HOGUE. 47

though the miseries which it caused long continued. Of the 14,000
or 15,000 soldiers who were allowed to march out of that city with
the honours of war, about 10,000 embarked for France, entered the
French army, and were afterwards famous as "the Irish Brigade."
Meanwhile the fleet under the command of Russell had done nothing,
and the trade of England had been almost ruined by French privateers,
while numerous plots and conspiracies were detected, and important
changes were made, some of which converted dismissed Whigs into
vehement Jacobites.

Among those who were dismissed from all appointments was
Churchill, earl of Marlborough, who was variously accused of being in
communication with St. Germains, of taking bribes, and of causing divi-
sions in the army. As his wife, the clever and fearless Sarah Jennings,
had for years been the intimate friend of the Princess Anne, this
event greatly increased the ill feeling which had for some time existed
between the queen and her sister, and had probably been caused by
the fact that Anne had also been in communication with James, with
a view of keeping on the safe side in case of another restoration,
which at one time seemed by no means improbable.

On the 5th of March, 1692, William set out for the grand campaign
of the army of the confederacy, which was at Louvain; but though he
did much to check the advance of the French arms he was unable to
obtain any decisive successes. Namur was taken by the skill of the
great engineer Vauban. The allies failed in their attempt to surprise
Mons, and the battle of Steinkirk was lost, in consequence, it is said,
of the inactivity of the Dutch general, Count Solines; though the
engagement was so desperate, and the British infantry were so
indomitable, that the enemy were unable to take any advantage of their
alleged victory. Happily the victory of La Hogue retrieved the English
prestige at sea, even in spite of the indifference of the admiral in
command. Russell had sailed from the Downs in search of the French
fleet, and was joined off Beachy Head by the squadrons of Carta and
Delaval, who had been watching the French ports, and by a number
of Dutch vessels, making in all ninety-nine men of war. On the
1 9th of May the French fleet of sixty-three ships, commanded by De
Tourville, was discovered off Cape Barfleur, bearing down full upon the
English, many of whose ships had not hove in sight. The engagement,
which lasted from ten in the morning till five in the evening, was a desul-

48 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

tory one, the combatants being too far distant from each other to make
any but long shots, and then the French towed away with all their boats,
with the English still in pursuit. The engagement was resumed, but
a fog came on, and De Tourville, perhaps relying on the sailing qualities
of his ships, made for the westward. At noon the next day when the
fog had cleared there were two leagues between the fleets, but on the
following morning a brisk gale had enabled a number of the French
vessels to make their way into the "Race of Alderney," that narrow
strait which divides the rugged island from the peninsula of Con-
tentin, and whose saw-like jagged rocks and baffling currents make
it a dangerous passage in stormy weather especially for large ships.
Sir John Ashley,- admiral of the blue, and the Commander of the
Dutch squadron, followed with their vessels as far as the mouth of
the Channel, but would not risk further pursuit, and stood off, while
twenty-six of the enemy's vessels got away to St. Malo, for which
Sir John afterwards was called to account by parliament and acquitted,
though the nation did not so readily forgive him.

Sir Ralph Delaval, vice-admiral of the red, had kept toward
Cherbourg, where he found stranded or dismasted De Tourville's ship
the Soleil Royal of 1 19 guns, the Admirable of 102 guns, the Conquerant
of 80 guns and three smaller vessels, and burned them all : but eighteen
French ships of the line had got safely to La Hogue between forts De
Lisset and De la Hogue. Russell was so long in reaching them
that the French had time to run them aground and drag them into
the shallows with their broadsides towards the enemy, while batteries
and stages had already been raised on shore and furnished with the
artillery of an army with which James was again to attempt the
invasion of England. Among the shoals and on the beach were
shallops filled with infantry, and above on the heights stood the army
itself with James, the Duke of Berwick, Marshal de Belfonde, and
other generals and officers of the staff.

The next morning (the 22d of May) they witnessed a new and
terrible spectacle, for it was then that the battle of La Hogue was
fought, not by Russell but by Vice-admiral Rooke, who was sent by
his commander to attempt the desperate duty of advancing with the
men in light frigates and in open boats into the shallow water, and thence
to fight their way on board or to burn the enemy's vessels, as best they
could. He stood as near as possible in the frigates, while the sailors

QUEEN ANNE. 49

with undaunted valour pulled steadily towards the shore under a
terrible fire of guns and musketry. There was only one way of doing
the work that they had to accomplish, and they took it. Rowing close
up to the stranded vessels they flung away oars and muskets, and,
with their cutlasses in their hands and a loud huzza., sprang up to the
decks of the French, and carrying all before them pointed the guns
against the forts and the shallops. It is said that even the stupid and
unheroic James was so carried away when he witnessed this exploit,
that he momentarily forgot its cause and consequence, and exclaimed,
"See my brave English sailors;" but when six French ships of the line
were burned that night, when on the following day the rest of the fleet
at La Hogue with the transports and merchant vessels were destroyed,
and when as the fire reached the water's edge several of the loaded
guns exploded and killed some of the persons who stood near him,
he said, " Heaven fights against me," and retired hopelessly to his tent,
soon to return to St. Germains, where, however, he for several years
continued to make efforts to regain the crown.

QUEEN ANNE.

On the death of William III. the contest for power between Whigs
and Tories was renewed with such persistency that the reign of Anne
may be regarded as a period of constant political intrigue, and had
it not been for the fact that England had already entered on a system
of constitutional government, the country might again have been
divided by civil war, for the queen was constantly under the influence
of those personal favourites who had for years been able to persuade
and to control her. It may indeed be said that the Duchess of Marl-
borough was for several years the actual sovereign, and that John
Churchill, her husband, was the most exalted personage in the realm.

A consummate general, possessed of a faculty of self-control and
an impenetrable reticence which almost equalled the same qualities
that distinguished William himself, Marlborough had been regarded

VOL. II. S0

50 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

by the king, not perhaps as a rival in the art .of command, but as
a man who required constant and almost suspicious attention. He
was too important to be neglected, especially as it was to his influence
and that of his duchess that Anne had yielded when she espoused the
cause of the revolution, and refrained from communicating with James
at St. Germains. At the same time Marlborough's great abilities
were enhanced by a remarkable courtesy and dignity of manner, which,
united to a singularly fine presence and handsome person, gave him
an undoubted advantage. The rise of John Churchill had been
accelerated by these qualities, and from an obscure lieutenant with
little learning and scarcely anything beyond his pay, he had, by his
caution, his courage, and a certain natural eloquence and address,
attained, while he was yet a youth, to a position which many a man
of nobler principles and greater patriotism might have sought for in
vain. His sister, Arabella Churchill, was one of the mistresses of
James II., and to her influence he may have owed the first promotion
from which he afterwards steadily advanced to the highest position
of almost any subject in Europe; but it was by the extraordinary
influence which his wife had gained over the Princess Anne that he
was enabled to use those undoubtedly great talents as a general which
eventually humbled the power of France, and made his name feared
where his character could not be respected.

It is impossible to refer to the position occupied by the Duchess
of Marlborough without remembering that in the terse sentences
of Macaulay we find a striking description of the power which she
exercised over the queen. The understanding of Anne was sluggish,
and though there was latent in her character a hereditary wilful ness
and stubbornness which, many years later, great power and great
provocations developed, she was yet a willing slave to a nature far
more vivacious and imperious than her own. This nature was found
in Sarah Jennings, whose elder sister Frances had been distinguished
by beauty and levity even among the crowd of beautiful faces and
light characters which adorned and disgraced Whitehall during the
wild carnival of the Restoration. Sarah, less regularly beautiful, was
perhaps more attractive. Her face was expressive, her form wanted
no feminine charm, and the profusion of her fine hair, not yet disguised
by powder according to that barbarous fashion which she lived to see
introduced, was the delight of numerous admirers.

QUEEN ANNE. 51

Among the gallants who sued for her favour Colonel Churchill,
young, handsome, graceful, insinuating, eloquent, and brave, obtained
the preference. He must have been enamoured indeed; for he had
little property except the annuity which he had bought with a sum
of money bestowed on him by the Duchess of Cleveland, with whom
he had, when a mere youth, been an accepted lover. He was
insatiable of riches; Sarah was poor, and a plain girl with a large
fortune was proposed to him. His love, after a struggle, prevailed
over his avarice: marriage only strengthened his passion, and, to the
last hour of his life, Sarah enjoyed the pleasure and distinction
of being the one human being who was able to mislead that far-sighted
and sure-footed judgment, who was fervently loved by that cold heart,
and who was servilely feared by that intrepid spirit.

In a worldly sense the fidelity of Churchill's love was amply
rewarded. His bride, though slenderly portioned, brought with her
a dowry which, judiciously employed, made him at length a duke
of England, a prince of the empire, the captain-general of a great
coalition, the arbiter between mighty princes, and, what he valued more,
the wealthiest subject in Europe. She had been brought up from
childhood with the Princess Anne, and a close friendship had arisen
between the girls. In character they resembled each other very little.
Anne was slow and taciturn. To those whom she loved she was
meek. The form which her anger assumed was sullenness. She had
a strong sense of religion, and was attached even with bigotry to the
rites and government of the Church of England.

Sarah was lively and voluble, domineered over those whom she
regarded with most kindness, and when she was offended vented her
rage in tears and tempestuous reproaches. To sanctity she made
no pretence, and indeed narrowly escaped the imputation of irreligion.
She was not yet what she became when one class of vices had been
fully developed in her by prosperity and another by adversity, when
her brain had been turned by success and flattery, when her heart had
been ulcerated by disasters and mortifications. She lived to be that
most odious and miserable of human beings an ancient crone, at war
with her whole kind, at war with her own children and grand-children,
valuing greatness and riches chiefly because they enabled her to brave
public opinion, and to indulge without restraint her hatred to the
living and the dead. Yet this woman had for years been loved and

52 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

even worshipped by Anne. Prince George, a dull man whose chief
pleasures were derived from his dinners and his bottle, gave himself
up with stupid patience to the dominion of the vehement and command-
ing spirit by which his wife was governed. Anne had several children,
none of whom survived infancy, and she had for them a true maternal
tenderness; but her love for them was languid when compared with her
devotion to the companion of her early years. The titles which
etiquette prescribed were distasteful to her when used by her friend.
Anne was Mrs. Morley, Lady Churchill was Mrs. Freeman, and under
these childish names was carried on during twenty years a correspon-
dence on which at last the fate of administrations and dynasties depended.
The queen began her reign with a prepossession for the Tories;
in the words of her favourite, the Duchess of Marlborough, she " had
from her infancy imbibed the most unconquerable prejudice against the
Whigs. She had been taught to look upon them all, not only as repub-
licans who hated the very shadow of regal authority, but as implacable
enemies to the Church of England. This aversion to the whole party
had been confirmed by the ill usage she had met with from her sister
and King William, which, though perhaps more owing to Lord
Rochester than to any man then living, was now to be all charged to
the account of the Whigs. And Prince George, her husband, who had
also been ill treated in that reign, threw into the scale his resentment.
On the other hand, the Tories had the advantage not only of the
queen's early prepossessions in their favour, but of their having assisted
her in the late reign in the affair of her settlement. It was indeed
evident that they had done this more in opposition to King William
than from any real respect for the Princess of Denmark. But still
they had served her. And the winter before she came to the crown,
they had, in the same spirit of opposition to the king and in prospect
of his death, paid her more than usual civilities and attendance. It
is no great wonder therefore, all these things considered, that as soon
as she was seated on the throne the Tories (whom she usually called
by the name of the church party) became the distinguished objects
of the royal favour; and I am firmly persuaded that notwithstanding her
majesty's extraordinary affection for me, and the entire devotion which
my Lord Marlborough and my Lord Godolphin had for many years
showed to her service, they would not have had so great a share of her
favour and confidence if they had not been reckoned of the Tories."

VROM TH"K STATU.K B V .KYSBRACK AT .HJiEJsrBJ'l I M HOUSE-

QUEEN ANNE. 53

That the Tories were in power there can be no doubt, and
Rochester, who would have restored a test act and the persecution
of Dissenters, was an upholder of hereditary right and non-resistance,
which her grace of Marlborough characterizes as "gibberish," which
she could not think to forebode good to her mistress, whose title
rested upon a different foundation. Indeed Marlborough and Godolphin
were not really such high Tories as to follow men like Rochester,
or even St. John, who, having been a Nonconformist, became the
advocate of intolerance in order to attain to favour; but Marlborough
also joined those who advocated the revival of penal statutes against
Dissenters, though he afterwards trimmed his sails in conformity with
the mixed Whig and Tory government, of which St. John was
secretary at war, and Harley chief secretary of state.

By that time Marlborough was approaching the height of his fame,
the hero of Blenheim, the great general whose name alone caused
terror among the enemy. Yet this great man, whose military ability
and genius for command had given to England the foremost place
in Europe, who had been rewarded with truly royal munificence, and
whose palace of Blenheim House was a more than royal residence,
was to lose his influence by the intrigues of St. John (Bolingbroke)
and Harley, who contrived to make of a poor cousin of the Duchess
of Marlborough a rival to that powerful favourite of the queen.

The Tory government had been succeeded by one entirely under
the control of the Whigs, who were the allies of Marlborough and his
duchess, and the only hope of the aspirants to power was to find some
means of diminishing their influence over the queen, who had perhaps
herself become sensible of the kind of thraldom in which she had long
been held by her now rather arrogant and exacting friend. The two
unscrupulous ministers found an instrument for supplanting the duchess
in Mistress Abigal Hill, a cousin of her own and also a relation
of Mr. Harley. The favourite had introduced this lady to court as
a bedchamber woman to the queen. In the summer of 1 707 the
duchess learned that this, her protegee, was privately married to a
Mr. Masham, that the queen had been present at the wedding,
which took place at Dr. Arbuthnot's lodgings, and that her majesty
had already made her "an absolute favourite," with the privileges
which the duchess alone had so long enjoyed of private and confidential
relations.

54 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

This was the beginning of that long series of plots and counterplots,
which, although they were themselves often contemptible, and \vere
promoted by unscrupulous and treacherous men, were followed by
the most important events in English history. Bolingbroke and his
ally Mrs. Masham were in constant communication with St. Germains,
and desired the succession to the throne to be settled on the Pretender
instead of on the Elector of Hanover; but Maryborough, who had left
England shorn of all his offices though not of his enormous wealth,
was still a powerful and influential foe, calmly awaiting at Ostend the
death of Anne who had first raised him to the highest pitch
of authority and then debased him, and looking forward to the
resumption of his place in the House of Peers and his great command
in the army under the favour of George I., the energy and prompti-
tude of the Whigs having overcome all the preparations made for an
attempt to proclaim the son of Marie d'Este.

It is only by remembering that the government of the country
had been settled as a constitution, that we can at all appreciate the
enormous importance of the events which took place under the rule
of a sovereign like Anne; though her combined timidity and obstinacy
actually tended to determine both the form of the constitution itself and
the occurrences which influenced the position of the great nations
of Europe. While the contention of parties was supported by ignoble
artifices, it led to extraordinary results, and though the queen was
so weak as to have constantly been swayed by the imperious demands
of her favourite, that favourite was herself so imperious that her
demands enabled the party of which her husband was a member to
concede to him the power which for a time, aided by his calm,
determined, and intrepid temper, broke the influence of France, and
by a great coalition of which "he was the acknowledged head, achieved
that which William III. might have failed to accomplish.

It is interesting after reading of the splendid triumphs of Marl-
borough to turn first to those letters which passed between " Mrs.
Morley and Mrs. Freeman," and then to the account of the common-
place quarrel in which Anne obstinately refused either to answer
or to listen to the reproaches of her intimate friend before banishing
her from her councils, and depriving her husband of those great offices
which had been the reward of such vast national successes. At the
same time these very characteristics of combined weakness and

QUEEN ANNE. 55

obstinacy often had the curious effect of frustrating the attempts
of either party to attain permanent authority. Swift says: "The
queen grew so jealous upon the change of her servants, that often,
from the fear of being imposed on and over caution, she would impose
upon herself. She took a delight in refusing those who were thought
to have had the greatest power with her even in the most reasonable
things, nor would she let them be done until she fell into the humour
of it herself." This, which may be regarded as an infirmity of temper,
contributed no little to the balance of parties which, at the time of her
death, left the Whigs in power, and had frequently before baffled the
tactics of men who, while they represented some of her own most
cherished convictions, were themselves only seeking to obtain the
rewards of place or the gratification of ambition.

It would seem indeed as though the stupendous events of this
reign turned on pivots so insignificant, that we can scarcely regard
them alone without a kind of scornful surprise. And yet the personal
character of Anne was far from being contemptible: her presence was
royal, her manners gracious, and her person comely and distinguished
by a plain but most attractive dignity. She was spoken of and
remembered as "good Queen Anne," and not without reason, for she
had little if any of the arbitrary selfishness of her race, and displayed
a genuine affection for her subjects and a desire to promote their
happiness. She was also capable of a wide generosity and of a royal
munificence in dispensing her charities. Of this, her again devoting
to the church the " first-fruits " and other emoluments which had been
seized by the crown was only an example; though the poor clergy, to
increase whose incomes that large fund was transferred, fitly commem-
orated it under the name of Queen Anne's bounty

It must be remembered too, that the revival of literature following
the better establishment of government distinguished this period of
English history. We may hesitate to call it "the Augustan age"
of letters, except in the sense that it was a time when a great number
of men distinguished for ability wrote on almost every conceivable
subject. Swift, Steele, Addison, Prior, Pope, and a whole galaxy of
eminent names are associated with it; but it could not be truly
denominated as the greatest literary period of England, for the
quality of the literature falls short of that which appeared in the
time of Elizabeth. Still, amidst a vast profusion of books and

56 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

pamphlets, of which poems and essays form a considerable part,
there are many which take their place in the national literature and
cannot be forgotten.

More influential still in forming the manners and in controlling
the opinions, even if it added to the fierce argumentative conflicts
of the time, was that periodical literature which may be said to have
sprung suddenly into existence at that period. There had been a
newspaper in the reign of Elizabeth, a mere brief chronicle of govern-
ment measures; there were pamphlets and newsletters during the
troublous times of Charles L, and they increased in number, in impor-
tance, and in virulence after the restoration of the Stuarts; but it was
during the reign of Anne that the newspaper and the weekly periodical
became recognized powers in the direction of public intelligence, and
were regularly read not only by the frequenters of the coffee-houses
who regularly assembled to discuss public affairs and private scandals,
but by quiet country gentlemen who had their magazines from town,
and by citizens and tradesmen who looked to them for information if
not for instruction.

The domestic virtue of the queen, and the consequent morality of the
court as compared with those of Charles and James, effected a vast
social improvement, while the union of England and Scotland, although
it gave little satisfaction at the time, was an event which tended
greatly to consolidate the national sentiment, and to preserve the
kingdom from subsequent attempts to re-establish the claims both
of the first and the second Pretender.

GEORGE THE FIRST.

The jealousy exhibited by Anne at the proposal for George, the
Electoral Prince of Hanover, to come over to England seemed at one
time to favour the revival of plots to bring in the Pretender. Schemes
and intrigues in his favour were of almost daily occurrence, and the
Duke of Berwick urged that he should go privately and alone to

GEORGE THE FIRST. 57

England, should present himself to his sister, and persuade her to go
down to parliament and there represent that his right to the crown
was incontestable; that she had resolved to restore him to his right,
and had taken measures to prevent any danger to the Church of
England, it having been settled that during her life he was to be
educated in England as her heir and successor.

The Whigs were alarmed, but they were vigilant, and the move-
ments of the Pretender were closely watched and reported both to
them and to the court of Hanover. The Jacobites, aided by Mrs.
Masham, had determined on the fall of Oxford and the restoration
of Bolingbroke, who, indifferent as he was to religion, upheld the High
Church party, and succeeded in promoting the renewal of oppressive
measures against Nonconformists. On the other hand, there were a
large number of Tories, who, though they were but cold and unsym-
pathetic allies of the Whigs, and were violent High Churchmen, pre-
ferred the accession of the Guelphs to the restoration of the Stuarts.
It was understood too that Marlborough, who had sent money to the
court at St. Germains, was yet ready to uphold the Hanoverian claims,
and had also offered to send .20,000 to enable Prince George to come
over to England. This self-contained and sagacious speculator was
waiting at Ostend watching events, and ready to return when he should
hear of the death of Anne, that he might throw the weight of his power
and influence into whichever scale best suited his purpose.

The queen was dying. Agitated by the quarrels of the court and
the stormy debates in parliament, undecided, and yet governed by those
personal feelings which at one time yielded to private favouritism and
at another left her obstinately determined to assert her own right, she
was stricken down by apoplexy, and afterwards fell into a stupor from
which she never recovered. The nation grieved for her, but at the
same time the great majority of thoughtful men foresaw that if her life
were prolonged, and arbitrary power remained in the hands of the
unscrupulous and intriguing ministry to which she had committed her-
self, the liberties of the country would be in peril.

That power they had not yet grasped. Bolingbroke, Ormond,
Harcourt, and their supporters, were nominated to offices of which they
had not yet taken possession. They therefore summoned a hasty
council at Kensington, not far from where the queen lay insensible.
Before anything could be discussed the Dukes of Argyle and Somerset

VOL. II. 31

5 8 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

arrived and took their seats at the council-board, saying, that hearing
of the queen's danger they had hastened to offer their services. Boling-
broke saw that the Whigs had been too prompt for him. The Duke
of Shrewsbury, who was present, rose to thank the new comers for their
prompt assistance, and they, after having sent for and examined the
physicians, declared that the post of lord-treasurer should at once
be filled, and insisted on going at once to her majesty to recommend
her to appoint Shrewsbury to the office.

Argyle had marched troops to London; seven battalions were on
their way from Dunkirk. Means were taken to equip a fleet by an
embargo on all the seaports. General Stanhope, Marlborough's son-
in-law, had taken steps to quell any Jacobite rising, and so all attempts
to brinor in the Pretender were rendered futile. The council went at

once to the queen's bedside accompanied by Bolingbroke, who saw that his
power was gone. Whether Anne understood the questions addressed
to her may be doubtful, but a nod or a gesture was interpreted to mean
assent, and Lord Shrewsbury, already lord-chamberlain and Lord-
lieutenant of Ireland, was made lord-treasurer and prime minister,
and the accession of the House of Hanover was decided. The heralds
and a troop of life-guards were held in readiness to proclaim the new
king directly after the death of the queen; and Mr. Secretary Craggs
was sent off to Hanover to hasten the journey of the elector, who was
to join the English fleet on the coast of Holland.

On the following morning, the 3ist July, 1714, Anne died in the
fiftieth year of her age, and the Elector of Hanover was proclaimed
with acclamation in London and the principal cities. On the next
evening Marlborough reached Dover, and thence made a sort of
triumphal progress to the metropolis. Parliament met on the day
of the queen's death (Sunday), and again the next day. A civil list
was passed for ,700,000, and a reward of ; 100,000 was offered for the
apprehension of the Pretender in case of his landing on these shores.

George I. was in no hurry to take possession of the throne. His
stolidity almost appeared to amount to indifference, and his plain appear-
ance and dull manner were not calculated to remove the impression.
It was not till the i8th of September, seven weeks after the death of
Anne, that he landed at Greenwich with his eldest son, Prince George;
but the Hanoverians had witnessed his departure with regret, and his
new subjects received him with no small show of welcome. On the

GEORGE THE FIRST. 59

2Oth of October the coronation was performed at Westminster Abbey
with all the usual solemnities.

The whole disposition of the great offices of state was now on the
Whig side. Manifestos were issued condemning the assumptions of the
House of Stuart, and the most prominent Tories of the late ministry
were impeached, many of them being arrested, and Oxford sent to the
Tower, whither he was soon followed by the famous Matthew Prior,
the secretary, who steadfastly refused to betray any of his master's
secrets, or to give evidence against him. Lord Halifax was made
chancellor of the exchequer; Lord Cowper was lord-chancellor; Marl-
borough, commander-in-chief; Nottingham, president of the council;
Oxford, first lord of the admiralty; Shrewsbury, lord-chamberlain;
Walpole, the brilliant debater, was paymaster of the forces, an appoint-
ment of great value, and in Scotland the Jacobite Earl of Mar was
replaced by the Duke of Montrose, while Argyle was intrusted wjth
the command of the forces.

Very soon, however, the attempts of the supporters of the
Pretender were renewed and civil war again raged in Scotland, where
Mar had raised the standard of the Stuarts in the Highlands, whence,
not having either the ability of a Montrose or a Dundee, he made
ineffectual attempts, which were frustrated, but only by prolonged suffer-
ing and bloodshed. The Duke of Ormond, the Duke of Berwick, and
Bolingbroke, who had escaped to France, were assiduous among the
Jacobites at the French court to obtain assistance for the insurgents;
but Louis XIV. was dead, and the dissolute regent, Orleans, could
not be persuaded that James Francis Edward had any great chance
of success either in Scotland or England. A time had arrived when
France and England were in co-operation against Spain. The
" triple alliance" of England, France, and Holland, and the " quadruple"
alliance which followed, and included the House of Austria, eventually
gave a twelve years' peace to Europe.

60 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

THE ESCAPE OF LORD NITHSDALE
FROM THE TOWER.

The ill-ordered insurrection commenced by the Earl of Mar, for
the restoration of the Pretender, may be said to have ended in the
battle of Sheriffmuir; that fierce engagement, in which the Highlanders
fought so fiercely and sternly, that though the victory remained with
Argyle and Wightman, the insurgent chief also took with him trophies
of the contested field when he retired to Perth, leaving his opponents
unable to follow up their advantage. After that the attempts to place
James Francis Edward Stuart on the English throne were merely
desultory failures, often without earnestness, except among a few mis-
guided men who succumbed not only to the power of established
government, or to the treachery of their former adherents, but also
to the weakness and vacillation of the puny prince for whom so many
brave lives were sacrificed, and so much misery and suffering endured.

The engagement, which ended in the loss of 700 killed and 200
prisoners by the insurgents, and 400 killed and 200 prisoners by the
royal army, was represented in France as a success, or at all events
was concealed as a defeat; and though the Regent Orleans could not
be induced to believe in the ultimate success of the partisans of the
Stuart cause, perhaps an undoubted victory on the side of the rebels
might have induced him to send them substantial aid, but all that
he did was to refrain from preventing " the Chevalier" from leaving
France, however he may have feigned to intercept him. Indeed,
it is probable that he would have been glad to get rid of so troublesome
a guest.

The prince had left Lorraine for the coast before he heard the true
version of the battle of Sheriffmuir; and as the Jacobites in Scotland
were entreating him to come, as Mar declared that he was stronger
since the engagement with Argyle, and that he had 16,000 fighting
men under his command, and as Bolingbroke and Berwick both urged
him to embark at once, he set out in a small vessel from Dunkirk,
with six gentlemen, who, like himself, were disguised as naval officers,
and arrived at Peterhead on the 22d of December, 1715. Hence

THE ESCAPE OF LORD NITHSDALE. 6 1

he went, still disguised, through Aberdeen to Fetteresso, where he was
joined by Lord Mar, General Hamilton, and about thirty others who
had hastened across the country, leaving the army behind them. If
the Pretender had no royal qualification he seems to have delighted
in playing at prerogative, for he stayed for some days at Fetteresso,
keeping a sort of court, receiving compliments and professions of
loyalty, and dispensing favours and titles, among which was a duke-
dom which he bestowed on Mar. There were shrewd suspicions that
he was afraid to go forward lest he should encounter Argyle, and that
his inactivity had less to do with the ague from which he was said to
be suffering, than with his uncertainty of the number and locality of the
king's troops. In about ten days he removed to Kinnaird, and thence
to Glammis Castle, the ancient and magnificent seat of the Earl of Strath-
more. On the 6th of January he entered Dundee with Mar and the
earl-marshal riding one on each side of him, and attended by 300
Jacobite lords and gentlemen. In the market-place he halted for an
hour while people thronged to kiss his hand, and then went forward
to the royal palace of Scone, which is near Perth, where the insurgent
army had taken up its quarters. Thence he issued manifestos and
proclamations, but he failed to make a favourable impression, for he
was both weak and self-willed. Perhaps he had inherited a disposition
to equivocate and to make false representations, a characteristic that
his education by the Jesuits had developed, and while he exhibited the
obstinacy and the talent for subterfuge which seemed to belong to his
family he was personally timid and irresolute.

There was much to disappoint and to depress him. Instead of the
16,000 men promised by Mar there were not more than 6000, and
several of the influential Highland chiefs had seceded from the cause
and made terms with the government, carrying with them their clans-
men, who were ready to fight for any party which their leaders favoured.
This was notably the case with the infamous Simon Lord Lovat, that
crafty old fox, who was later caught in the toils and ended a life of
treachery on the scaffold. He had made terms with Sutherland, and
marched off with his Highlanders to defeat Mackenzie at Inverness,
while the rest of the Frasers, when they heard that the chief had
abandoned the Stuart cause, threw away their white cockades and
joined the royal army.

The dejection of the Pretender was soon shared by his adherents.

62 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

One of them said, "We found ourselves not at all animated by his
presence, and if he was disappointed in us we were tenfold more so
in him. We saw nothing in him that looked like spirit He never
appeared with cheerfulness and vigour to animate us. Our men began
to despise him. Some asked if he could speak."

Meantime Argyle was active, and the royal troops were well
supplied with money, arms, and provisions. On the i6th of January
the prince held a council at Perth, at which he said it would be no new
thing for him to be unfortunate. His whole life from his cradle had
been a constant series of misfortunes, and he was prepared, if it so
pleased God, to suffer the threats of his enemies and the enemies
of his supporters. It was resolved to impede the advance of Argyle
by burning and destroying all the towns and villages between Perth
and Stirling, with the corn, forage, and supplies that might be found
in them. A proclamation to this effect was signed by the Pretender,
and the horrible determination was carried out The blackened ruins
of huts and homesteads smoked in the wintry air. The men who
could bear arms were already in one or other of the opposing armies;
the poor women and children, the aged and the infirm, were left home-
less and destitute, exposed to the rigours of one of the most inclement
winters that had been known for many years, and numbers of them
perished with cold and hunger.

The Duke of Argyle and General Cadogan advanced with soldiers
and peasants, clearing the roads as they went, for the snow lay deep
and the drifts stood high. In spite of interruption by skirmishing
parties of Highlanders from a few small garrisons on the borders of
Fife, the royal troops made such progress that they advanced to join
a detachment which had gone forward and driven the Highlanders out
of Tullibardine.

This was but eight miles from Perth, and the court there was in
confusion and dismay. On the 3<Dth of January, the anniversary of the
execution of Charles I., the Pretender prepared for flight, and on the
following day, when Argyle was advancing, the town was fast empty-
ing, the prince and his army defiling across the broad stream of the
Tay, which was then so frozen as to allow both horse and foot to
pass. Mar and the Pretender pushed on along the Carse of Gowrie
to Dundee; but Argyle followed, though more slowly, and found that
town also deserted.

THE ESCAPE OF LORD NITHSDALE. 63

The light-footed and hardy Highlanders had struck along the road
to Montrose, on a way so deep with snow that Cadogan followed by
another route, and only reached Arbroath on the 5th of February,
to learn that the Pretender had fled to France. He had ordered the
faithful clans to be ready to march with him at night to Aberdeen,
where he said they would find a considerable force from the Continent.
At the appointed time horses were ready at the door of the house
in which he was lodged, and a guard of honour awaited him, but he
had escaped by the back-door, had gone to Lord Mar's quarters, and
thence by a by-way to the water side, where a boat was waiting to carry
him and some of his followers to the Maria T/ierese, a French ship
from St Malo. Mar accompanied him, and two other boats took
on board the Earl of Melfort, Lord Drummond, Lieutenant-general
Sheldon, and ten other gentlemen. The vessel put to sea immediately,
and thus this miserable enterprise ended in the cowardly and cunning
flight of the prince in whose cause so many brave men had lost their
fortunes and their lives. He left the money he had with him, with
a letter to Argyle, asking him to use it for relieving the sufferings
of the poor people whose villages had been burned; and to General
Gordon he sent a letter, saying, that the disappointments he had met
with, especially from abroad, had compelled him to leave the country,
and advising them to seek their own safety as best they might.

The Highland army sought the glens and mountain passes, where
it melted away as it went, amidst the rude homes of those who had
so lately fought in its ranks. But thousands of Englishmen and Scots
had afterwards to pay the penalty. The royal troops were placed
at free quarters in the houses and on the estates of the Jacobites, and
though the numbers of prisoners in the Highlands was small, the clans
were let loose upon each other. In the north of England, however,
the jails were full. High Church divines, Popish priests and monks
in disguise, gentlemen squires, officers, Highland chiefs, Lowland lairds,
and numbers of the common people, were taken. Many were executed
by military law, numbers were left to starve and perish of cold and
privation in castles and jails. The most conspicuous of the leaders
were marched to London, and after crossing Finchley Common, were
made to halt on the brow of Highgate Hill, whence they were taken
with hands bound behind their backs, their horses led by foot-soldiers,
amidst the beating of drums, and the scoffs, shouts, and insults of the

64 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

multitude. The lords and noblemen were sent to the Tower, the rest
to the common jails. Among the former were James, earl of Derwent-
water, Lord Widdrington, the Earls of Nithsdale, Winton, and Carn-
wath, Viscount Kenmure, and Lord Nairn.

Lord Winton pleaded not guilty, and was reserved for a trial, which
did not take place till three months afterwards, when he was found
guilty, but not executed; he was committed to the Tower, whence
he contrived to escape. The rest threw themselves on the mercy
of the crown, and great efforts were made on behalf of two of them :
the Earl of Derwentwater and Lord Nairn. The life of the latter
was saved by the interposition of his old schoolfellow, Secretary
Stanhope; but nothing could save Derwentwater, though his lovely
countess and many ladies of high rank strove to move the king to
mercy. George was not naturally cruel or implacable, but he was dull,
and regarded the crime as one in regard to which he must follow the
advice of his ministers. Bribes were offered in vain, ^"60,000 being
promised for Derwentwater's life; but though many of the Whigs
were inclined to be lenient, Walpole and some others would not listen
to any favour for " rebels and parricides." Some favourable circum-
stances were discovered for Carnwath and Widdrington, and they were
respited.

The three remaining victims therefore were Derwentwater,
Kenmure, and Nithsdale. For the former many honest hearts grieved,
and on every hillside and in every valley in Cumberland tears were
shed for his misfortune. Execution was to follow quickly after
sentence, and a message was sent to the Tower to have the block ready
the following morning. Yet the courage and devotion of a woman
robbed the headsman of one of the three; Lady Nithsdale had been
permitted to bid her husband farewell, and she seized the opportunity
to prevail on him to dress himself in female attire and so to escape
from prison that very night. 1 The Countess of Derwentwater was
less fortunate, and her lord, with Kenmure, were led to the scaffold
on the following morning.

1 The treatment of the subject by the artist was suggested by the following extract from a letter written
by the Countess of Nithsdale, to her sister the Lady Mary Herbert. "I had taken care," she says, "that
Mrs. Mills did not go out crying as she had come in, that my lord might the better pass for the lady who
came in crying and afflicted, and the more so because he had on the same dress she wore. ... I went
out leading him by the hand, and he held his handkerchief to his eyes. . . . The guards opened the
doors, and I went down stairs with him, still conjuring him to make all possible despatch."

THE ESCAPE OK LORD N 1THSDAI.E FROM THE TOWER, A. D . 1 7 LO

THE PICTURE B"5T K TvC . O E? B OF<7St .

GEORGE THE SECOND. 65

GEORGE THE SECOND.

The dislike to George I. which Jacobite conspirators endeavoured
to increase, by continually publishing accounts of his dull and heavy
appearance, his coarseness, and the ugliness and rapacity of his
mistresses, had some effect, inasmuch as a great deal of what was said
was true; and yet there was so much of honesty of purpose and of
blunt determination about the man, that the people of England could
not consent to exchange him for the feeble prince who had so signally
failed in provoking a revolution, and was both a debauchee and a
Papist. George, who was the representative of that branch of the
Guelph family which sprung from the marriage of Henry the Lion with
Matilda, daughter of Henry II. of England, had been intended as the
husband of Anne, but married instead, his cousin, Sophia Dorothea of
Zell. The match was the result of family policy, and probably was
against the inclination of the princess, whose alleged intrigue with Count
Philip von Konigsmarck was discovered by the elector Ernest Augustus,
the father of George, during the absence of the latter from Hanover;
an event which led to the assassination of Konigsmarck, the imprison-
ment of Sophia Dorothea, and probably the determination of George
to keep his queen out of England, which she never visited, though she
lived to within a few months of the death of her husband. It is
believed that the persistency of George, Prince of Wales, in defending
the reputation of his mother, was one of the causes of the bitter
animosity which for some time existed between him and his father.
This animosity resulted in quarrels, which were only superficially made
up some time before the death of the king, which happened unex-
pectedly on a journey to Osnabriick, during which he was seized with
an apoplectic fit and died in his carriage.

Marlborough was dead, and while he lay on his death-bed the
Jacobite conspiracies revived. The Pretender had married the Princess
Clementina, grand-daughter of the heroic John Sobieski, King of
Poland; and at the end of the year 1720 she had given birth to a son,
at whose birth seven cardinals, appointed for the purpose by the Pope,
were in attendance, and who received the name of Charles Edward

VOL. II. 32

66 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

Louis Casimir. The usual schemes were adopted by the Jacobites in
all parts of the kingdom. Comparisons were drawn between the
Stuarts and the Guelphs. Scurrilous lampoons were directed against
the king and his ugly and rapacious mistresses; and while such means
were taken to influence the masses, deeper plotters were actually
preparing for a revolution. The perspicacity and prompt energy of
Walpole frustrated these intentions, however, and the nation was saved
from what would have been a determined and widely organized plot.
It was with more difficulty that the astute minister contrived to sustain
the injured credit of the country, which had become the prey of bubble
companies, of which the South Sea Scheme was the most fatal to those
who were concerned in it. The collapse of this gigantic association,
which had been sustained by a system of remarkable frauds on
capitalists and on the public, affected the financial stability, not only
of English commercial enterprise, but of the principal states in Europe;
and many eminent persons in this country were either tried as accom-
plices in the nefarious transactions of the company, or were obliged
to retire to the Continent, ruined in fortune if not in reputation.

England was only just recovering from the effects of a series of the
wildest schemes for making money by absurd pretences, when George
Augustus succeeded to the throne. As Prince of Wales he had long
been the centre of a kind of opposition court, and his popularity, such
as it was, had doubtless added to the inimical feelings with which his
father regarded him, and to the unseemly and bitter, though trivial,
quarrels which were only at last (in 1720) brought to an end, as far
as outward demonstrations were concerned, by the intermediation
of friends of both parties. Of the character and ability of George II.
it is difficult to speak, since those who were supposed to be most
intimate with him, and who have left some biographical sketches, speak
of him with an almost virulent sarcasm, which leaves in the mind
of the reader a feeling of mingled aversion and distrust. Horace
Walpole, Lord Chesterfield, and Lord Hervey, should each have had
ample opportunities of describing the king in his habit as he lived, but
each in his way was prejudiced and unscrupulous, Walpole in his relish
for a racy story apart from its truth; Chesterfield as the renegade who
occupied the same position in the household of Frederick, the succeed-
ing Prince of Wales, as he had formerly maintained in that of George
Augustus; and Herbert as a man not only unscrupulous but unabashed

FROM THE POPITRA.IT BY

IN: s-* OEORCK'S HALL, -wiunsoR. OASTLK

3OW. & KJDINBURJrc

GEORGE THE SECOND. 67

even by personal association with occurrences which he marks as
infamous in others.

It would seem that the indications of character in George II. must
be judged partly from his peculiarity of temperament. He was at once
weaker and more generally accomplished than his father, more affable
and less true, with a wider range of thought and observation, but less
self-contained and thorough in his convictions as to the duties and the
claims of his position. Little accidents or untoward events disturbed
him so much that he ceased to be master even of his outward aspect and
manner. In private he was parsimonious and even mean, but he was
always ready to spend money freely in the public service. He had
in fact very little notion of being a king except in a public capacity,
and this may be a fault or a virtue according to the point of view from
which it is regarded. During his reign the national debt was very
nearly doubled, and yet he had the reputation of being stingy, and his
mode of living was frugal in the extreme. At the same time his foreign
policy was daring, and it required all the tact of Walpole to control
it within moderate bounds, especially as George Augustus had as much
regard to the welfare of Hanover as had been displayed by his father,
and would often have made the interest of England subservient to that
of the principality. This desire to initiate a foreign policy found an
ally in the elder Pitt, who succeeded Walpole, and may have been
allied to the physical courage which made the battlefield a fitting arena
for the impetuous and courageous little monarch who had about him
something of the heroic, which contrasted in a very marked manner
with the unobtrusive resolution of George I. Another peculiarity
of his was that he never scrupled to talk about his own bravery, so that
persons not acquainted with his real character were ready to doubt its
reality, especially as his vanity occasionally found outward expression
in a strutting gait and a stage attitude, which gave the wild wits of the
time a theme for their most audacious lampoons. It is declared by
astute observers that he thus demonstratively laid claim to a qualifica-
tion that he really possessed, because, in spite of a certain arrogance,
he really distrusted himself in matters of state-craft, and knew that
though he could thoroughly appreciate an able policy, he had not
sufficient ability to inaugurate one.

He was at once exacting and extreme in his attachments and
vehement in his antipathies. He had a sincere affection for his wife,

68 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

though he treated her with the same disregard to her feelings as he
did most people with whom he was intimate. He displayed a queer
kind of maundering sentimentality, which led him to be a voluminous
letter-writer, describing, either to his wife or to his mistress, all his
thoughts, hopes, fears, and vague imaginations; and he would talk in the
same fashion either in his wife's apartments, or while wandering about
in the moonlight with an actual mistress, with the Countess of Suffolk
with whom it has been supposed that he had no worse relations than
this kind of dreary flirtation, or with Madame de Valmoden, his later
mistress, who after the queen's death became Countess of Yarmouth.
With all his infidelity, however, George always consulted his wife about
state affairs, and usually took her advice, which seems to have been that
of a sound and practical mind, though she was probably influenced by
Walpole. It is certain, however, that Caroline was a remarkably clear-
headed, self-possessed, and managing woman, who exercised so great an
influence on her husband, that he is said to have confided to her even
those real or sentimental relations which would have aroused the bitter
jealousy and animosity of most women. It is remarkable, too, that
while knowing and caring nothing for art, and little for learning, he was
most anxious to establish a reputation for the quality of bravery,
of which no one could justly deny his possession; the queen desired
above all things to attain to the fame of a highly intellectual person, to
whom art, science, literature, philosophy, politics, and theology were
familiar subjects. It would appear that neither the king nor the queen
had any definite belief on the subject of religion, that is to say they were
Theists, not professing any particular creed, and occupying the position
of those who have generally been known as " free-thinkers."

If George II. had, when Prince of Wales, been a source of disquiet
to his father, his own son Frederick was a still greater trouble both to
him and to the queen. It is not to be wondered at, that this should
have been so, for whether from the deficiencies of his early training, the
want of restraining influences in his youth, either of religion or of
example, or from a character at once weak and easily depraved, he was
so thoroughly vicious that, except by a few showy and comparatively
worthless accomplishments, he attracted little respect, and could not
obtain the regards even of those who were his professed friends and
attendants. His mother half-pitied and excused him, but could scarcely
help disliking him for his folly, cowardice, meanness, and purposeless

ENGLISH PUBLIC LOTTERIES. 69

prevarication. His father seems to have despised and detested him.
His death was a shock only to those who had gathered about him in
order to make him, as heir apparent, the centre of a cabal, but it was
little less than a relief to the nation who had looked with reluctance to
his probable succession to the throne.

ENGLISH PUBLIC LOTTERIES.

So strongly has the legislature set its face of late years against the
recognition of anything approaching pubHc gambling, that in some
quarters it has been twitted with having become quite "grandmotherly"
in its solicitude for the morals of the people; and there is no doubt that
some inconvenience, not to say oppression, has at times resulted from
the laws which prohibit almost the simplest game of chance beyond the
privacy of what is considered to be an Englishman's " castle," that is,
the house in which he lives. But the legislation of the last half century
in this respect has surely been in the right direction, even if it be
admitted that it has gone to extremes; and nc right thinking person can
fail to admit that the statute which did away with the licensed moral
evil of state lotteries was a wise and judicious measure. It at any rate
put an end, in one direction, to an unwholesome craving after gain, a
feverishness of mind which could not but have an ill effect upon public
morals, greater even than appeared upon the surface, though that was
bad enough. The wonder is, not that lotteries should have been abol-
ished by the law, but that such sources of corruption should have been
allowed to grow up under the fostering care of the state, and have had
an existence down to a period within the memory of men and women
now living.

State lotteries did not originate in this country, and if antiquity alone
could make anything respectable, they assuredly might have claimed
a patent for that quality. The Romans appear to have had their lot-
teries as a means of enlivening the carnivals; and coming down to a
period of about three centuries ago, we find them in favour in Italy,

70 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

Germany, and elsewhere. They then passed on to France, and
ultimately to England, and in the time of Elizabeth, and for long years
subsequently, they were a common mode of raising money for state uses.
The repair of harbours and other public works was the purpose for
which the first lottery in England, in the year 1569, was put; and so
convenient a mode of raising capital was not lost sight of when additions
to the public revenue were required for a variety of purposes.

A document is extant which describes this first state gambling of
Elizabeth as " a very rich lottery-general of money, plate, and certain
sorts of merchandise erected by her majesty's order." This bait was pre-
sented to the public in the form of a large bill, bearing a representation
of the royal arms, the city of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, &c.; whilst
the articles which the eager drawers of the lottery were tempted to
possess themselves of, such as plate, tapestry, money, &c., were also
pictorially drawn out upon the placard. There were 400,000 "lots,"
and the price was IDS. each. The drawing began on the nth of Jan-
uary, 1568-69, in a building erected by the western door of St. Paul's
Cathedral, and continued till the 6th of May, the lord-mayor and the
corporation of the city of London, in conjunction with the queen, standing
sponsors for the genuineness of the transaction; not only so, but the
civic dignitaries themselves, as well as the guilds of the city and several
of the small hamlets and parishes round London, were amongst the
adventurers, the corporation taking a thousand lots. Each person
adventured what he or she pleased, and the lots were divided into
halves, quarters, or smaller portions. The prizes were shown at the
house of Dericke, the queen's goldsmith, in Cheapside. The great-
est prize was estimated at ^5000, of which ^3000 was to be paid in
ready money, and " seven hundred poundes in plate gilte and white, and
the rest in good tapissarie meet for hangings, and other covertures, and
certain sortes of good linen clothe." The second prize was ^3500, the
third ^3000, the fourth ^2000, and so on down to very small sums.
There were no blanks, and about 350,000 prizes were not of greater
value than 2s. 6d. each.

Shortly afterwards there was a lottery for " marvellous rich and
beautiful armour," the drawing or "reading" of which occupied three
days, at the same place. James I. granted a lottery to be held, also at
the west end of St. Paul's, " in special favour for the plantation of the
English colonies in Virginia;" and one Thomas Sharplys, a tailor of

ENGLISH PUBLIC LOTTERIES. /I

London, had the chief prize, which was plate of the value of " 4000
crowns." Charles I. proposed to bring water to London by means of
a lottery, and in Cromwell's time one was held in Grocers' Hall by the
committee of lands for Ireland. After the Restoration people were
induced by designing speculators to risk their money in lotteries for the
ostensible purpose of aiding those who had suffered in the civil wars for
their loyalty. From that time forward schemes were drawn up of vari-
ous kinds, and the baits were held out to the public in the most alluring
forms, hand-bills and placards being distributed throughout the country
by tens of thousands. The halls of the city mercers, coopers, and other
companies of the city of London, were used for the lotteries, as well as
the Guild-hall, commissioners being appointed to superintend the draw-
ings, which were performed by two boys, generally blue-coat boys, one
being at each wheel. Insurance offices were established for the protec-
tion of speculators, and the aid of fortune-tellers was frequently invoked
by eager gamblers in order to ascertain what the lucky numbers were.

A writer in the Spectator records how one man risked his money
upon the number 1711, because that was the date of the current year;
another, a great enemy to Popery, who believed that bad men were the
most fortunate in this world, lay two to one on the number 666, because
that was the number of the beast! A man would select the age of his
wife or of a friend as his number, whilst another would take a figure
which, his mind being full of lotteries, he had dreamed of. Of the hun-
dreds of whimsical notions which possessed the minds of the adventurers
one was that of a tradesman who bought four tickets, but thinking it
unfortunate to have consecutive numbers, he took one back which ulti-
mately turned up a prize of the value of ^20,000! Up to the present
day a farce is occasionally performed which whimsically represents the
chances, and changes, and flatterings of speculators in lottery tickets.
Of course the schemes were ridiculed by wits and satirists.

In Timbs's Romance of London it is recorded that a pamphlet was
published about the year 1731, purporting to be a prospectus (by the
way, that word calls up reflections on modern lotteries with a different
name!) of a lottery for ladies, by which they were to obtain, as chief
prize, a husband and coach and six, for ^5. In 1736, an act was
passed for building a bridge at Westminster by lottery, consisting of
125,000 tickets at /5 each; and the scheme was so far successful that
parliament sanctioned others in succession until Westminster Bridge

72 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

was completed. In 1753 the sum of ,300,000 was raised by lottery
for the purchase of the collections for the commencement of the British
Museum; and some twenty years later the Brothers Adam, builders of
the Adelphi Terrace and surrounding streets in the Strand, disposed
of these and other premises in a lottery containing 1 10 prizes, the first
drawn ticket entitling the holder to a prize of the value of .5000, and
the last to one of ,25,000. The work above quoted also states that
one particular year was marked by a singular incident. A lottery ticket
was appropriated to a child unborn, and was drawn a prize of ^1000
the day after its birth. In 1767 a lady residing in Holborn had a lot-
tery ticket presented to her by her husband, and on the Sunday preced-
ing the drawing her success was prayed for in this form: "The prayers
of this congregation are desired for the success of a person engaged in
a new undertaking."

It was not alone in London, however, that the effects of lotteries
were felt. They penetrated into every part of the country, and when
a prize was gained by a dweller in a remote district the excitement
spread until most of the inhabitants were affected by it, and many an
orgy and demoralizing scene was the consequence. Sometimes when
a lucky number was announced, or when the prize was taken down by
coach in charge of the agent, flags were displayed and a band was set
playing, and as much fuss as possible would be made, in order to tempt
other people to invest in like manner.

Lotteries existed until 1826, when the last one under the auspices
of the state was drawn in Coopers' Hall, Basinghall Street. Some
years previously a committee of the House of Commons had been
appointed to inquire into the matter, and they reported that "the founda-
tion of the lottery system is so radically vicious, that your committee
feel convinced that under no system of regulations that can be devised
will it be possible for parliament to adopt it as an efficacious source of
revenue, and at the same time divest it of all the evils of which it has
hitherto been so painful a source." In 1823 the last act that was sanc-
tioned by parliament for the sale of lottery tickets contained provisions
for putting down all private lotteries, and for rendering illegal the sale
in this country of all tickets in any foreign lottery, a provision which
does not even now prevent the circulation of such tickets every now and
then by means of the post. Lotteries were absolutely abolished in 1826
in England; a few years later France followed a similar course with

CHARLES EDWARD, THE YOUNG PRETENDER. 73

regard to her state lotteries, and subsequently they were prohibited by
the German states and by Prussia; but the Papal states kept them up.
Art-unions, which are supposed to have the effect of cultivating taste,
are carried on under a special statute.

CHARLES EDWARD, THE YOUNG PRETENDER.

That son of James Francis Edward, whose birth at Rome in 1720
had again excited the hopes of the Jacobites, was twenty-five years old
when the reverses of the English in Flanders and at the battle of
Fontenoy led him to imagine that he could not only effect a rising
in Scotland, but achieve a victory in England which would secure for
him the throne to which he laid claim. Although it had been strongly
represented to him that it would be useless to attempt even a rising
in the Highlands unless he took with him a force of 6000 disciplined
troops and 10,000 stand of arms, he failed to obtain any real assistance
from the French, who cared little what became of him ; and with ^"6000
of borrowed money, and such jewels as he could pawn for a further
sum, he obtained an eighteen-gun brig, the Doutelle, in which he and
the gentlemen who accompanied him embarked, and an old man-of-war,
which carried such arms and ammunition as he had been able to pro-
cure. This vessel was disabled after being left to attack a British
man-of-war, which had engaged both ships, so that the Doutelle with
the prince and his companions had to pursue its course alone, and at
last came to anchor at an islet between Barra and South Uist.

The romantic story of the hopeless enterprise, which was sustained
by the unflinching faithfulness and bravery of the chiefs and their
clans; the gathering of the Camerons; the raising of the standard
in the vale of Glenfinnan; the treachery to the Government of the
old fox Lord Lovat, Macpherson of Cluny, and others who dis-
regarded oaths and obligations; the rapid gathering of the armed
bands who marched to Edinburgh; the receptions and balls at Holy-
rood; the battle of Prestonpans and the disgrace of Cope: the capture of

VOL. n. 33

74 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

money, stores, and arms; the arrival of aid from France, and the fierce
requisitions made by the Highlanders as the army, now better pro-
vided, marched onward far across the border: the retreat to'Falkirk,
and the defeat at Culloden, has been told a hundred times.

The Pretender had at first to meet only incompetent generals and
cowardly opponents, and it was not till his cousin, the Duke of Cum-
berland, arrived in Edinburgh with his forces that a tragic ending
came to this wild enterprise; which, in the fear that it caused of a
French invasion, added to an insurrection and the overrunning of the
north of England with the horrors of a civil war, called almost the
whole country to arms, in a determination to resist the return of the
Stuarts to power.

From the first hour that this rash young man landed in Scotland to
the battle of Culloden, and the subsequent reprisals by which Cumber-
land earned the name of " the Butcher," the cause was really hopeless,
though even with a scanty, ill-armed, and desultory force so many
successes were at first achieved.

Charles Edward, like his father, had a kind of romantic daring,
but he lacked the personal courage to retrieve defeat or to pledge
his life on the result, to obtain which cost so many brave lives, either
on the field, in prison, or on the scaffold. At Culloden the army of
the prince, exhausted by hunger, fatigue, and continued marching, were
little more than half the number of the army of Cumberland, which
was in good condition to take the field. The Highlanders and their
French and Irish allies may have been 4000, while their opponents
were probably at least 7000 to 8000. The ranks of the rebel army
were broken by an attack of the dragoons on their flank. They were
outnumbered and out-generalled, and though they fought desperately at
first, they began to retreat from the field broken into small parties.
Charles fled; and though before the engagement was quite over Lord
Elcho implored him to lead a general and desperate charge in person,
he turned pale and refused, upon which Elcho called him an Italian
coward and scoundrel, and swore he would never serve him or speak
to him again: a promise which he kept, although he had to live in
exile for the Stuarts' cause.

Of the subsequent wanderings of the prince, who was unable to
escape because of the close watch set upon the coast, and therefore
kept in hiding in the fastnesses of the Highlands, the tale is romantic

CHARLES EDWARD, THE YOUNG PRETENDER. 75

and melancholy enough; but it is distinguished chiefly for the courage,
fidelity, and exquisite integrity of the poor mountaineers- the hun-
dreds df persons none of whom betrayed him though ,30,000 was
offered for his apprehension.

It was while he was in hiding in the island of South Uist that
Flora Macdonald, a young lady who was the daughter of Macdonald
of Milton, undertook to contrive his escape to a safer locality, the
island being watched on all sides, while companies of soldiers were
searching everywhere for the fugitive. Flora Macdonald was related
to Clanronald, the Chevalier's host, who had contrived to conceal him
during the month of June, and she was on a visit to the house, where
she was distressed day after day by seeing the danger that beset the
prince, and by hearing accounts of his condition from his constant
attendant O'Neill, who visited the house clandestinely for food and
advice.

She expressed an earnest desire to see the prince in person, and
declared that if she could in any way save him from his enemies she
would do it. Upon this O'Neill ventured to propose that she should
take Charles, dressed in woman's clothes, as her maid, and conduct
him out of South Uist to Skye. At first Flora Macdonald thought
the scheme fantastical and dangerous, and positively declined it; but
soon after this conversation means were found to introduce to her,
at a solitary farm-house, the prince in person, and then his sad con-
dition, his thin and wasted habit of body, and his arguments went
to her heart and removed all scruples, and she went forthwith from
this interview to put the scheme into execution. Nobody could pos-
sibly leave the island, or escape the cruisers' row-boats and guards,
without a passport. Flora asked and obtained from her stepfather,
Hugh Macdonald, who commanded part of the troops assembled in
South Uist, a pass for herself and her lady's-maid, Betty Burke; and
she further induced the captain to recommend to his wife, residing in
the Isle of Skye, the said Betty as an excellent spinner of flax and
a faithful servant.

We are following Flora Macdonald's own account of the trans-
action, which is believed to have been written or dictated by herself.
It is said there, or rather it is left to be inferred, that her stepfather
was not admitted into the dangerous secret, but deceived by Flora's
ingenuity; but neither Captain Hugh Macdonald, nor other Macdonalds

76 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

in South Uist and Skye, were really imposed upon by the young lady.
Having obtained the passport, a boat, six boatmen, and some pro-
visions, and sent a dress to Charles, she walked along the sea-shore
with Lady Clanronald, and met the proscribed Stuart in his female
attire. On the following morning, the weather being calm and serene,
Charles, Flora, and the six boatmen set out for Skye. The generous
lady and her maid, the prince, landed safe at Mugstole, the seat of
the Macdonalds, where Lady Margaret Macdonald was then residing.
This lady, who, like her husband, Sir Alexander, had once been a
Jacobite of the deepest hue, gave the lady and her mock maid a
good dinner, and, as her house was open to the visits of officers and
troops, she sent them forward to her kinsman and factor, Macdonald
of Kingsburgh, more in the interior of the island. Near to this place
the Chevalier put on a Highland dress, and then Flora left him to
the care of Kingsburgh, and went home to her stepfather's house.

The day after his arrival at Kingsburgh's house in Skye the
Chevalier left that island and went over to the small island of Rasay,
which was only six miles off. The chief, Macleod of Rasay, who
had fought for the Pretender both at Falkirk and Culloden, was lying
hid somewhere on the mainland, but his sons were at home, and they
accommodated Charles in a cowshed. They had no better lodging
to give him there was nothing better left on the island; for a
detachment of King George's army had been there a few days before
with fire and sword, had carried off all the cattle and burned every
house in Rasay. While the Chevalier was lying pinched with hunger
in the cowshed at Rasay, his generous deliverer, Flora Macdonald,
was apprehended by some of the militia in Skye, put on board a
king's ship, and carried as a prisoner and dangerous rebel to London.
Her secret had been forced from the poor boatmen who had ferried
her and Charles from South Uist. Kingsburgh also was laid in
durance, and threatened with nothing less than death.

Still the Pretender roamed through the Isle of Skye, whither he
had sought to escape from the troops who were watching every ravine
and pass. Here he was conducted through the wildest part of the
country, and at length found a refuge with a company of freebooters
who dwelt in a cave, and lifted not only cattle for his food but the
Baggage of the officers of Fort Augustus, in order to provide him
with clothes and clean linen. At last, after above five weeks, the

CHARLES EDWARD, THE YOUNG PRETENDER. 77

royal fugitive became tired of this concealment, and Peter Grant, one
of the seven men of the cave, went at imminent risk into Lochaber,
where he found the brave chief, Cameron of Clunes, who sent word
back that he would meet the prince at the head of Glenquoich, where
he had a little hut in a secret place.

In the state in which matters now were, the wisest and best thing
to do was to scare the wretched fugitive back to France to permit
and connive at Charles' escape. George II. was not a bloodthirsty
prince, and even if his nature had been more severe he would not
have chosen to draw down upon himself the odium of Europe and
the criticism of every civilized court, by putting to death as a felon
and traitor the descendant of many kings. To have kept Charles
as a state prisoner either in Scotland or England, or even in the
American plantations, would have been very troublesome, and might
have proved extremely dangerous. For the safety, for the honour of
the house of Brunswick, it was better to let him go than to catch
him; probably this was the opinion of a considerable portion of the
English cabinet, and of not a few of the officers that were serving
in Scotland.

Charles instantly left the cave and travelled along the tops of the
mountains in a very stormy night; but as he thought it necessary
to lie concealed by day, he did not reach Glenquoich and the little
hut at the time appointed, and when he got there he found neither
the chief nor food to eat. Peter Grant, however, supplied both these
deficiences: he killed a deer and found out Clunes again, who forth-
with came to the hut with his three sons. The chief informed Charles,
who wanted to get to Badenoch, where the gentle Lochiel and Cluny
were lurking, that the troops and scouts of government were exceed-
ingly numerous, and that all the ferries of the rivers and lochs were
so strictly guarded that a journey was for the present impossible.

It was therefore resolved to keep close for a time in or about the
little hut in Glenquoich. They were in this situation when Macdpnald
of Lochgary, and Dr. Cameron, Leonid's own brother, penetrated into
the district in search of the prince; for Lochiel and Cluny had both
concluded that he must be somewhere to the north of the lakes.
These two gentlemen found out Charles, and after many more dangers
and hardships they succeeded in conveying him to Badenoch, where,
at a place called Mellanauir, he met Lochiel and Cluny. The gentle

78 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

Lochiel was still lame, and suffering from the wounds he had received
in the battle of Culloden. After staying a day or two in the hut
called Uiskchibra, the two chiefs conducted the prince to a still better
hiding-place in the great mountains of Benalder, on the banks of Loch
Ericht, which Cluny had fitted up some months before for his own
use and that of his wounded friend. It was very appropriately called
the "cage."

"The cage," says Cluny, "was no larger than to contain six or
seven persons, four of whom were frequently employed playing at
cards, one idle looking on, one baking, and another firing bread and
cooking" Here the party remained caged till the i3th of September,
when a message arrived from Cameron of Clunes to inform Charles
that two French frigates had put into Lochnanuagh, and were waiting
there to convey him and his friends off. The Chevalier set out
immediately, but as he only travelled by night he did not arrive at
the port till the iQth. Other messages had warned other gentlemen
lying in concealment up and down the country; and besides Lochiel,
Cluny, and Colonel Roy Stuart, about one hundred embarked with
Charles on the 2Oth of September, and thence proceeded to Paris.
But before this time many of those who had ventured for him had
been hanged and beheaded, with the usual and revolting accompani-
ments of drawing and quartering; and afterwards, while Charles was
showing his face in the French opera, the heads of braver and better
men were exhibited at Temple Bar, on the walls of Carlisle, York,
and other places. 1

Flora Macdonald was released after twelve months' confinement,
and went back to the Highlands with some ^1500 in her pocket,
which had been collected for her chiefly among Jacobite ladies in
London. She afterwards married the son of Kingsburgh. At the
time when she smuggled the Young Pretender in her train she was
about twenty-four years old. Dr. Johnson saw her in the year 1773,
when Boswell contrived to get the great moralist to the Highlands
and to the Isle of Skye. Flora, or as she spelled her name, Flory,
was then past her seventh climacteric; but Johnson describes her as
"not old, of a pleasing person and elegant behaviour;" and his
companion, Boswell, sets her down as "a little woman, of a genteel
appearance, and uncommonly mild and well bred." Johnson says, in

1 Comprehensive History of England.

RELICS OF PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD,

THE YOUNG PRETENDER.

1. Folding Spoon and Case; in the possession of Joseph Mayer, Esq., F.S.A., Liverpool.

2. Dress Sword ; in her Majesty's Collection, Windsor Castle.

3. Silver-hilled Broadsword ; in the possession of the Duchess of Gordon.

4. Silver Goblet ; preserved in Castle Cluny, Scotland.

5. Travelling (folding) Knife, Fork, and Spoon.

6. Shield. ^

7. Sporran. f

g TV u > Preserved in Castle Cluny, Scotland.

q. and 10. Pistols. 1

RKT.ICS OF 1'RIXC'K CHAR1,KS KDWAKJ).

'i'HTi; YOUNG

CHARLES EDWARD, THE YOUNG PRETENDER. 79

a letter to Mrs. Thrale, " She was carried to London, but dismissed
without a trial, and came down with Malcolm Macleod, against whom
sufficient evidence could not be procured. She and her husband are
poor, and are now going to try their fortune in America Sic rerum
volvitur orbis." They did emigrate to America, but returned to
Scotland during the war of independence, and Flora died in the
Isle of Skye on the 4th of March, 1790.

Since the time of CEdipus no royal line has equalled that of the
Stuarts in its calamities. The first James, adorned with the graces
of poetry and chivalry, a wise legislator, a sagacious and resolute
king, perished in his forty-fourth year. His son, the second James,
was killed in his thirtieth year, at the siege of Roxburgh Castle,
by the bursting of a cannon. The third James, after the battle
of Sauchieburn, in which his rebellious subjects were countenanced
and aided by his own son, was stabbed, in his thirty-sixth year,
beneath a humble roof by a pretended priest. That son, the
chivalrous madman of Flodden, compassed his own death and that
of the flower of his kingdom, while only forty years of age, by
a foolish knight-errantry. At an age ten years younger his only
son, James V., died of a broken heart. Over the suffering and
follies, if we may not say crimes, and over the mournful and un-
warrantable doom of the beauteous Mary, the world will never cease
to debate. Her grandson expiated at Whitehall, by a bloody death,
the errors induced by his self-will and his pernicious education. The
second Charles, the Merry Monarch, had a fate as sad as any of
his ancestors; for though he died in his bed, his life was that of a
heartless voluptuary, who had found in his years of seeming prosperity
neither truth in man nor fidelity in woman. His brother, the bigot
James, lost three kingdoms and disinherited the dynasty, for his blind
adherence to a faith that failed to regulate his life. The Old Pre-
tender was a cipher, and the Young Pretender, after a youthful flash
of promise, passed a useless life, and ended it as a drunken dotard.
The last of the race, Henry, Cardinal York, died in 1804, a spiritless
old man, and a pensioner of that house of Hanover against which
his father and brother had waged war with no advantage to them-
selves, and with the forfeiture of life and lands, of liberty and country,
to many of the noblest and most chivalrous inhabitants of our island. 1

1 Prater's Magazine.

PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

THE DEATH OF GENERAL WOLFE, 1759.

Walpole had lost his influence, and all the power of the government
seemed to be in the hands of Pitt, the first Earl of Chatham. Louis
XV. was defeated and impoverished, and it was time to make another
decided effort against those Canadian possessions which were still
held by the French, and where we had hitherto been unsuccessful
in our attempts to make them our own. For this enterprise Pitt
determined to put forward ^protegte of his own, a young major-general,
James Wolfe, who had already distinguished himself no less by his
courage and ability, than by the perfect discipline which he had
introduced into his regiment the 6;th which took a prominent part
at Minden.

The Canadian campaign was so arranged that Wolfe was to
advance with a part of our forces and seize Quebec, the capital of the
French provinces; General Amherst, with a second division, was to
occupy Crown Point, reduce Fort Ticonderoga, then cross Lake
Champlain, fall down the St. Lawrence, and join Wolfe under the
walls of Quebec; while General Prideaux, with a third division and
a considerable body of wild Indians, was to invest Niagara, then
embark on Lake Ontario, besiege and carry Montreal, and then form
his junction with Wolfe and Amherst under the capital. These
combined movements had generally failed, even when natural obstacles
were far less numerous, and the distances to be traversed by the
different corps far shorter; and when Wolfe got near to Quebec he
found himself alone with the division he had brought.

About the last day in June Wolfe disembarked his troops upon the
large and fertile island of Orleans, a little below Quebec. Here he
erected some batteries, which Montcalm, the French general, vainly
attempted to prevent by throwing a strong detachment across the river.
Wolfe also prepared a military hospital and works to secure his stores.
He attempted to reconcile the Canadians on the island by friendly
proclamation; but those rough people joined scalping parties of wild
Indians that were skulking among the woods, and butchered all the
English stragglers they could surprise. While the fleet lay at the

THE DEATH OF GENERAL WOLFE. 8 1

isle of Orleans it was exposed to great danger; and if once the fleet
had been destroyed, or even driven from its post, nothing would have
remained for Wolfe but a surrender. The troops were scarcely landed
when a terrible storm blew down the river, driving several of our large
ships from their anchors, and making the transports run foul of one
another. Some of the smaller craft foundered, and a considerable
number of boats were swamped. While they were in this confusion
the enemy sent down from Quebec seven fire-ships towards the
thickest part of our shipping; but the British sailors grappled them,
towed them away to the banks, and left them fast aground, where
they lay burning to the water's edge without doing any mischief;
and some radeaux or rafts piled up with combustible materials, and
sent down after the fire-ships had failed, were treated in the same
manner by our seamen, who behaved with admirable spirit.

Quebec by this time was strongly fortified, and its natural situation
always rendered it formidable to an assailant, for it stands on a steep
rock at the confluence of the St. Charles and St. Lawrence, and these
rivers, rocks, and ravines render it inaccessible on three of its sides.
Montcalm, as brave an officer as Wolfe, covered the town with 10,000
men, having posted himself on the left bank of the St. Charles with
encampments extending as far as the river Montmorenci, and with
entrenchments thrown up at every accessible place. With an inferior
force Wolfe resolved to attack Montcalm in this position. " When,"
he says in a letter to Pitt, " that succours of all kinds had been thrown
into Quebec, that five battalions of regular troops, some of the troops
of the colony, and every Canadian that was able to bear arms, besides
several nations of savages, had taken the field in a very advantageous
position, I could not flatter myself that I should be able to reduce the
place. I sought, however, an occasion to attack their army, knowing
well that with these troops I was able to fight, and that a victory might
disperse them."

At last, on the 3ist of July, Wolfe assailed Montcalm in his
entrenchments. Leaving Brigadier Townshend to ford the Mont-
morenci and attack in flank, Wolfe, with the help of the ships and
their boats, threw himself on the beach and attacked in front. The
Centurion man-of-war was so placed as to check the fire of a French
battery which commanded the ford of the Montmorenci, and two
transports drawing little water were furnished with guns and sent close

VOL. II.

82 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

in shore to cover the spot which Wolfe had selected for his landing;
but these two vessels, light as they were, could not get near enough
to be of much use; a number of boats crowded with soldiers grounded
upon a ledge of rocks, time was lost in getting them off, and Wolfe
was obliged to send an officer to stop Townshend, who was already
crossing the ford. The French, meanwhile, had united their artillery
on the point menaced a rising ground beyond the river bank and
galled by their fire, the English grenadiers, so soon as they were
landed, rushed tumultuously up to the formidable entrenchments
without waiting for the corps which were to sustain them and join
in the attack. In fact, Townshend, though steadily upon his march,
and perfectly in order, was still at some distance; and Brigadier
Monckton had not got his men out of the boats. The grenadiers were
met in the teeth by a fire too terrible for the bravest of them, and
they fell back in confusion after sustaining a serious loss. Still further
deterred by the approach of night, and the ominous roaring of the
St. Lawrence, for the mighty tide was now ebbing and a storm was
setting in, Wolfe gave up the attack, and withdrew his brave men.
"The French," he says, "did not attempt to interrupt us; but some
of their savages came down to murder such wounded as could not be
brought off, and to scalp the dead as their custom is."

Wolfe's situation now seemed almost desperate, and his health
began to fail him. In a letter to Pitt, written from his head-quarters
at Montmorenci more than a month after this failure, he confessed
that he had descended to the dubiousness and despondency of consult-
ing a council of war. " I found myself so ill," said he, " and am still
so weak, that I begged the general officers to consult together for the
public utility. To the uncommon strength of this country, the enemy
have added, for the defence of the river, a great number of floating
batteries and boats. By the vigilance of these, and the Indians round
our posts, it has been impossible to execute anything by surprise. We
have almost the whole force of Canada to oppose. In this situation
there is such a choice of difficulties, that I own myself at a loss how
to determine. The affairs of Great Britain require the most vigorous
measures, but then the courage of a handful of brave men should be
exerted only where there is some hope of a favourable event."

He declared that he would rather die than be brought to a court-
martial for miscarrying; and in conjunction with Admiral Saunders,

THE DEATH OF GENERAL WOLFE. 83

he concerted a plan for scaling the Heights of Abraham, and gaining
possession of the elevated plateau at the back of Quebec, where the
fortifications were the weakest, as the French engineers had there
trusted to the precipices and the broad river beneath. In order to
deceive the enemy, the admiral sailed some three or four leagues higher
up the river, lay there as if with some other intention, and then,
on the night of the i2th of September, glided down the river, and
put out all his boats to land the troops under the Heights of Abraham.
Through the darkness of the night, and the skill and caution of the
seamen, the French outposts and sentinels were all passed without
disturbance, and the English soldiers were landed at the appointed
spot by boatfuls at a time. The first that landed were some nimble
Highlanders, who climbed the steep face of the rock like goats. The
English light infantry followed the Highlanders, and were in their turn
followed by the troops of the line. There was a French guard over
their heads, and hearing a rustling noise, but seeing nothing, these
fellows fired down the precipices at random. Our men then fired up
into the air, and also at random; but terrified at so strange and
unexpected an attempt, the French picket ran off, all but the captain,
who was wounded and taken prisoner, and who begged our officers
to sign a certificate of his courage and steadiness, lest he should be
punished as a traitor, since the English general's bold enterprise would
be believed impossible without corruption and connivance.

Wolfe now stood on the long-desired Heights of Abraham. He had
no artillery with him, and excessive fatigue and disease, the French and
the wild Indians, had reduced his army to less than 5000 men. His
light infantry, however, seized four guns which the French had placed
in battery, and the English sailors, by dint of extraordinary exertions,
hauled up one gun from the landing-place. On the other side, Mont-
calm came on in too great a hurry to allow the French to wait for their
artillery, and they brought up no more than two small field-pieces.

At first the French general could hardly credit the evidence of his
senses; so impossible did it seem for an army to have ascended those
dangerous cliffs. At last he said, " I see them where they ought
not to be; but since they are there, we must fight. I will go and
crush them." Quitting his entrenchments, he advanced with confident
haste to the field where Wolfe had already formed his little army
in order of battle, within long cannon-shot range of the outworks

84 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

of Quebec. After lining the bushes with detachments of Indians, the
French and Canadians advanced, as if to charge, in very good order,
and with great vivacity; but they opened an irregular fire before they
got within musket-range. The English reserved their fire until the
enemy were within a few yards of their front, and then they poured
in a terrible discharge. This first volley was succeeded by a most
steady, deliberate, and sustained fire, and in less than half an hour the
French and Canadians began to waver. As Wolfe stood conspicuous
in the front line, cheering his men, a musket-ball struck his wrist. He
wrapped a handkerchief round the wound, and soon put himself at the
head of his grenadiers, who had fixed their bayonets for the charge.
He was hit by a second ball in the upper part of the abdomen; but
he seemed scarcely to heed this more serious wound, and was in the
act of cheering the grenadiers when a third musket-ball hit him and
brought him to the ground. His grieved men picked him up and
carried him to the rear. He was dying fast, yet he still continued
intent on the battle. As his eyes were growing dim he heard a
wounded officer near him exclaim, "See how they run!" "Who run?"
cried Wolfe. " The French," replied the officer; " they give way in
all directions." "Then," said the hero, "I die content!" and after
giving an order for Webb's regiment to move down to Charles's River
and secure the bridge there in order to cut off the enemy's retreat, he
calmly expired on the ground among his officers and faithful soldiers.

General Monckton, the second in command, was dangerously
wounded, but Townshend nobly and speedily completed the victory.
General Montcalm received a mortal wound in attempting to rally the
discomfited French, and his second in command was made prisoner,
and so badly wounded, that he died on the following day. The city of
Quebec capitulated five days after the action, and the disheartened
remnant of the French army of Canada retired to Montreal, where
they could not maintain themselves. In effect the project of Pitt was
realized, and one battle gave us the dominion of that immense country.
One despatch conveyed to England intelligence of the unexpected
victory on the Heights of Abraham, of the death of Wolfe, and of the
surrender of Quebec.

GEORGE THE THIRD. 85

GEORGE THE THIRD.

The character of George III. cannot be justly estimated without
reference to two conditions, which must considerably modify our opinion.
First, the circumstances attending his early training and education; and
secondly, the mental aberration to which he was liable, and to which he
succumbed at intervals, even before the severe attack which, in 1810,
made it necessary for him to be secluded from society, and left the
throne no more than a name, and the government in the hands of the
ministry. After the death of his father, Prince George was brought
up entirely under the influence of his mother, and had little companion-
ship but that of waiting-women and grooms of the household. If it
was thought probable that the restrictions to which he was subject
would have the effect of rendering him pliable and easily influenced
by those who ought to take the upper hand when he came to the
throne, there never was a greater error. It soon became evident
that he had all the obstinacy of his grandfather without much of his
ability, but with a great deal of his courage and pertinacity.

For a short time Lord Waldegrave was his " governor," and seems
to have had a complete insight into his character. He says, "He is
strictly honest, but wants that frank and open behaviour which makes
honesty appear amiable. When he had a very scanty allowance it was
one of his favourite maxims that men should be just before they are
generous; his income is now very considerably augmented, but his
generosity has not increased in equal proportion. His religion is free
from all hypocrisy, but is not of the most charitable sort; he has rather
too much attention to the sins of his neighbour. He has spirit, but not
of the active kind; and does not want resolution, but it is mixed with
too much obstinacy. He has great command of his passions, and will
seldom do wrong, except when he mistakes wrong for right; but as
often as this shall happen it will be difficult to undeceive him, because
he is uncommonly indolent and has strong prejudices. His want
of application and aversion to business would be far less dangerous
was he eager in the pursuit of pleasure, for the transition from pleasure
to business is both shorter and easier than from a state of total

86 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

inaction. He has a kind of unhappiness in his temper, which if it be

not conquered before it has taken too deep a root will be a source

of frequent anxiety. Whenever he is displeased his anger does not

break out into heat and violence, but he becomes sullen and silent, and

retires to his closet, not to compose his mind by study or contemplation,

but merely to indulge the melancholy enjoyment of his own ill humour.

Even when the fit is ended, unfavourable symptoms very frequently

return, which indicate that on certain occasions his royal highness

has too correct a memory. Though I have mentioned his good and

bad qualities without flattery and without aggravation, allowances

should still be made on account of his youth and his bad education; for

though the Bishop of Peterborough (Dr. John Thomas), now Bishop

of Salisbury, the preceptor; Mr. Stone, sub-governor; and Mr. Scott,

the sub-preceptor, were men of sense, men of learning, and worthy good

men, they had but little weight and influence. The mother and the

nursery always prevailed. During the course of the last year there

has indeed been some alteration; the authority of the nursery has

gradually declined, and the Earl of Bute, by the assistance of the mother,

has now the entire confidence."

This estimate of character, which reads almost like the professed
diagnosis of a modern phrenologist, was so shrewd that it will fairly
illustrate the obstinacy, the parsimony, the sullenness, the general
conscientiousness, the self-assertion, and even the arbitrary determin-
ation of the king, who during a long reign, till the time that he
disappeared from public affairs in 1810, contrived to get so much of his
own way that the country was again under the personal rule of the
throne, or was governed in turns by a sovereign who occasionally
thwarted his cabinet, and by able ministers wh'o were strong enough
to control him. It is even now difficult to understand how large a part
this common-place, obstinate, and prejudiced man took in public affairs
during years when England had to hold a foremost place while the
continent of Europe was in the throes of revolution, and when her
own great and growing colony of America was irritated into an armed
resistance which resulted in unexpected separation and a declaration
of its national independence.

The education of George III. when he was Prince of Wales was
bad enough. His mother had continually kept him within the narrow
compass of her own small and tyrannical disposition that she and Bute

FROM THE PORTRAIT BY ALliAlSI RAMSAY.

T*IE CIT^ I.IBB.A.T<-V. GTJ 1 L TD H-A-J 1 1 , , TjOINJD

SG-O"VT, A KD3NHUROH

GEORGE THE THIRD. 87

might have the power to rule. But in order to assume this power
more effectually she had taught him that he was above the interference
of parliaments and ministries; and he was so ready to accept this
lesson, that, directly he came to the throne, he began to act for himself.
For some time he continued to be guided by Bute, and the country
often resented the interference of this unpopular minister; but Bute
could neither restrain . the arrogance of his pupil nor initiate a policy
which would be acceptable to the nation, and he ultimately disappeared
from the political arena. This disappearance, however, was only just
in time to save the country from a conflict with the throne, for Bute's
endeavour to raise the royal prerogative was so near raising a
revolution that he retired in terror from the hatred of the people and
in fear lest he had involved the king in ruin. It is impossible here
even to indicate the tremendous series of events amidst which
successive administrations had to contend for the position which
England maintained after protracted political struggles and repeated
wars, but the relative position of the people and the political leaders
is to be gathered from the lampoons, the caricatures, and the broad-
sides that were constantly issued, and the coarseness and vituperation
of which are amazing to us, who live under a wider constitutional
freedom, and a more regular administration in which the mass of the
people are acquiring a decided influence.

The king himself was a most diligent man of business. No per-
manent secretary ever knew more, few half so much, of the minutiae
of official life and \\-\e personnel of the civil and other services. " George
III. worked as hard as a government clerk is supposed to work, and his
interest in such bureaucratic details corresponds well with the type of
his intellect. With two or three fixed ideas, or rather prejudices, held
and pursued with the intensity of monomania, he had neither the capacity
nor the inclination to form any wide or elevated views. His education
had been grossly neglected, or rather he had been allowed or encour-
aged to neglect it, and his mind, sharp and retentive, but narrow and
essentially unphilosophical, contented itself within a sphere as narrow
as it was well explored. His idea of personal government was that
of not being thwarted in his own wishes, and of knowing and sanction-
ing everything that was done. He had severe ideas of discipline and
legal and official authority, and nothing must be done to unduly relax
the one or to weaken the other. He had a horror of popular politics

38 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

and popular interference in government, except in support of the rights
and under the leadership of the crown. He was fond of the lower
orders in their proper place; he loved to mix familiarly with them
in the spirit of paternal condescension in which a German potentate
chats with a peasant; but he resented all independent action or thought
on their part as subversive of authority and government. He wished
them to be paid and fed according to their condition, and educated
in a manner appropriate to the state of life 'unto which it had pleased
God to call them.' He had a sincere and strong desire for the happiness
of his people and the welfare of the nation : but it was essential that
there should be a general spirit of subordination, the proper and
necessary amount of taxes duly paid, and the full number of persons,
young and old, as determined by the fixed processes of justice, whipped,
imprisoned, or hung every year, if government was to be carried on at
all. All ideas beyond these were sedition and anarchy.

During two periods of his life George III. had the opportunity
of putting these ideas of order and justice into operation. In 1770 he
found in Lord North a pliant though not always a sympathizing agent
of his views, and everyone knows how disastrous was the personal
administration of that period: how incapable was the administration
at home, and how disastrous the events abroad which robbed us of an
empire. In the younger Pitt no doubt George III. expected to meet
with a second pliant tool, like the easy-tempered North; but he met
with a mind which, though compliant on many points with the royal
prejudices, to the injury of his lasting reputation as a statesman, had
naturally as stiff and proud a nature as his own, and was as little
satisfied with the name without the reality of power. The king could
not venture to order about such a man in the insolent manner in which
he had treated George Granville, and he was wise enough to perceive
this. The result was a tacit compromise, by which the king for many
years always consulted Mr. Pitt, was much influenced by his views, and
left him a considerable share of administrative power and influence; but
by which Mr. Pitt, on his side, gave up all idea of a really great
domestic and foreign policy, in deference to the king's rooted prejudices.
The French revolution greatly assisted king and minister in holding
their own against all opponents, by annihilating the Whig party, and
driving the terrified nation into a fanatic admiration of the personal
government of the sovereign. Every needful reform was refused or

WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE. 89

postponed indefinitely, and people were educated into a state of public
abuses and general jobbery and corruption as the normal condition
of life. It has tasked all the ability and energies of the statesmen
of William IV. and Victoria to remedy the effects of this long mal-
administration." 1

WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE, 1776.

Amidst the momentous events which distinguished the reign
of George III., the most important to the history of the world was
the declaration of independence by the Americans and the separation
of that great colony from British government. It would be impossible
within our present limits even to trace the outlines of those successive
misunderstandings which led to repeated hostilities and the final sever-
ance of the two nations; but it is remarkable that while the duplicity
of Benjamin Franklin and some other leaders of the democratic section
of Americans hastened on a separation which they pretended to depre-
cate, the settlement of the republic was achieved by George Washing-
ton, a loyal and honest Virginian gentleman, who, having in his youth
emerged from the quiet life of a country squire or land-owner to com-
mand a militia regiment, became the successful general of the American
forces and the first magistrate of the States which overthrew and aban-
doned British rule.

While Franklin, their agent in England, was still professing a desire
for pacification, and before the Earl of Chatham had proposed his
" provisional bill for settling the troubles in America," a measure which
would have been rejected by the insurgent Americans as it was rejected
by the British House of Lords, the Bostonians, the Virginians, and
the states which had joined their confederacy, were already committed
to hostilities. While the Houses of Parliament in England had been
echoing with the sonorous periods of oratory, the hill sides and river
banks of America had been ringing with sharp and dissonant peals
of musketry. The colonists had fired their first shot, and blood had

1 Sanford. Estimates of the English Kings.

VOL. n.

O PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

been flowing in no diminutive stream. They had passed the winter
in making preparations for the General Congress which was to meet
at Philadelphia in the month of May, in fabricating and preparing
arms, in drilling the militia, and in keeping up their spirits by the
production and interchange of irritating manifestoes and proclama-
tions. Washington, like the majority of the revolted American people,
had maintained his loyalty both to the crown and to the mother
country, and had demanded only that the colony should not be subjected
to heavy taxation by the British government, but should regulate its
own fiscal burdens by the votes of the state assemblies. Even when
actual hostilities had commenced he seems to have thought that
a determined attitude, and a demonstration of the ability of the
Americans to withstand the demands made upon them by force of arms,
would lead to the repeal of obnoxious measures, and the return of the
states to their allegiance under just and favourable conditions.

It is not easy to determine that this was the opinion of Jefferson,
Samuel Adams, and the other leaders, and it is quite certain that
a number of the men who exercised considerable influence, intended
from the first to revive republican sentiments, and to do all that lay in
their power to commit the country to a republic. The reverses to the
American forces which for some time followed were themselves instru-
mental in bringing about the final result. The generals who were sent
out against the colonists were themselves so inefficient, that only the
ignorance of those to whom they were opposed on the subject of
military strategy could have enabled them to claim the advantages which
they gained; and the result was an increasing determination on the part
of the insurgents, which at length took the shape of an almost general
resolve on the part of the insurgent states, to fight not so much for
colonial as for national independence.

As late as the gth of October, 1774, Washington wrote to a friend
serving in the king's army : " You are taught to believe that the people
of Massachusetts are rebellious; setting up for independency, and what
not; give me leave to tell you, my good friend, that you are abused
. give me leave to add, and I think I can announce it as a fact,
that it is not the wish or interest of that government or any other upon
this continent, separately or collectively, to set up for independence."
A little more than two years afterwards, when a series of engagements
and reverses had been accompanied by repeated divisions, difficulties,

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WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE. 9 1

and disaffections which had almost threatened to break up and divide
the colony, Washington himself, who had long been in command of the
revolutionary army, was crossing the Delaware after reverses which his
courage more than his generalship enabled him to overcome.

After the accession of Georgia to the rebellious states Congress had
assumed the style of "the thirteen united provinces;" and not only were
means of communication opened up, but a post-office was established
between Falmouth in Massachusetts and Savannah in Georgia, the
postmaster being Benjamin Franklin, who had returned to aid them in
their organizations. The battle of Bunker's Hill had been fought, and
the Americans were short both of muskets and gunpowder, they were
also without tents, and had no supplies of shoes and clothing. Wash-
ington soon obtained fresh supplies from Congress, and the dilatoriness
and fatuity of the English generals allowed him time to procure powder
from New Jersey and other places, while the appointment of a com-
missary-general insured a better provision of the means of living.
General Gage had been recalled from Boston, General Howe taking
the chief command. The coast was swarming with privateers, which
waged a desultory warfare with English ships.

The American forces soon began to retrieve some of the previous
disasters. They made advances on the town, and besieged the British
army there by well - executed stratagems. Gage and Howe had
neglected to occupy the hills, which their opponents successively con-
verted into points of attack which commanded the town, and from which
they drove away the British floating batteries from their stations.
Howe had already received instructions to evacuate Boston and to
proceed to New York; but before he commenced to move, the Americans
began the bombardment of the British position, and after ineffectual and
feeble attempts to dislodge them he was obliged to make a compromise
by which he was permitted to leave with his troops, in return for his
promise to abstain from burning and destroying the town.

Yet if the British generals had exhibited incapacity when they were
at Boston, Washington displayed little greater ability after Howe had
taken his troops to New York. The American army under their brave
general could prevent the British forces from operating successfully at
different places at the same time, but the contest itself was prolonged
and difficult. It must be admitted, however, that the people of New
York as a whole were so little in favour of the Congress that after severe

02 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

fighting, and the danger of losing half his army, which he had placed on
Long Island, but which both the general and admiral were too slow to
shut up there, as they might have done, Washington found it impossible
to defend the city, and evacuated it when the British were just closing
around him on all sides. Howe had scarcely taken possession of it
when a conflagration, commencing from different points, destroyed a
large portion of buildings, and would have spread but for the soldiers,
who were beat to quarters, and the sailors from the fleet, who succeeded
in putting it out with great difficulty. Of course the fire was the work
of incendiaries, many of whom were taken and killed, and might have
been regarded as martyrs, had it not been that New York was unfavour-
able to the Congress, and that the property was destroyed by those who
had little sympathy either for the entering army or the abiding royalists.
Washington then took up his position on White Plains, and from
White Plains retreated to Croton River, taking up a position at North
Castle. Fort Washington and King's Bridge were carried with the loss
of a large contingent of Washington's army. On the i8th of November
Lord Cornwallis crossed the Hudson, drove the Americans from the
remaining forts, and advanced into the Jerseys. Washington then fell
back on the Delaware River. After raising reinforcements Cornwallis
marched on towards Brunswick, and Washington determined to attack
Trenton, which was held by a brigade of German mercenaries. It was
a bold undertaking to attempt to cross the Delaware; but on
Christmas night (1766) he embarked in a storm of snow and sleet, lead-
ing his small force of 2400 men and 20 cannon by boats through the
floating ice. At daylight they had reached Trenton, which they
attacked by two divisions. The garrison, alarmed by the firing on the
outer picket line, hastily formed and began to advance; but their com-
mander was mortally wounded, and the American columns converged
upon them, charged into their ranks, and seized their artillery. In this
charge the Americans suffered some casualties. Lieutenant Monroe, after-
wards president of the United States, was wounded, but the ranks of
the garrison force were broken and a panic soon spread amongst them.
Six hundred of the Germans escaped, but 1000 were made prisoners;
while the colours of the Anspach, Kuyphausen, and Rail regiments
were captured. This success led to the investment of New Jersey,
by which the position of Washington was better secured and his
ultimate achievements supported.

DEATH OF MAJOR PIERSON. 93

DEATH OF MAJOR PIERSON, 1782.

The reign of George III. was one long contest not only in the
political arena, where factions were fierce and party spirit ran high, but
by the relation which England was compelled to sustain towards the
rest of Europe. We were continually at war, and on some occasions
appeared to rush into conflict against half the world. The protracted
struggle in America was accompanied with hostilities in the East and
the West Indies, with France and with Spain either separately or as
allies, and at last with France, Spain, and the American republican
forces, to support which the corrupt government and the doomed
monarchy of France were oppressing the half-famished peasantry by
new taxes and almost unbearable imposts.

It was after the battle of Ushant, and after the pirate Paul Jones
had attempted his expedition on the Scottish coast with a mixed
squadron of French, Spanish, and American vessels, that an attack
was made upon the island of Jersey by the Baron de Rullecourt; an
invasion that would have been successful had there been no braver and
more determined defender than Major Corbet, the lieutenant-governor
of the island. On two former occasions attempts had been made to
gain possession of the island, first in May, 1779, when an armament with
a force of above 5000 men under the Prince of Nassau was repulsed and
had to relinquish the enterprise, and again when the French fleet was
defeated by Sir James Wallace.

This third effort was in December, 1780, and the Baron de Rulle-
court, who perhaps had been informed of the character of the lieutenant-
governor and of the small force likely to be brought to oppose a landing,
contrived to disembark 700 men, and took possession of St. Heliers,
where he succeeded in taking Major Corbet prisoner, and causing him
to sign a capitulation surrendering the island. But both the invader
and the cowardly lieutenant-governor had misjudged the spirit of the
troops and the people, who were influenced by the patriotic insubordin-
ation of Major Pierson, a gallant officer, who was second in command,
and refusing to acknowledge the capitulation, summoned all the troops
and island militia whom he could collect in the market-place of St.

94 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

Heliers, and at once attacked the French, being assisted by the towns-
people, who kept up a fusilade from the houses. The engagement
was short, sharp, and decisive; a number of the invaders were killed,
and the remainder surrendered, the Baron de Rullecourt himself having
been so severely wounded that he died almost immediately, while the
gallant young Pierson was killed by the last shot fired by the French.

NELSON BOARDING THE SAN JOSEF AT THE
BATTLE OF ST. VINCENT (1797).

It was sixteen years after the attempt to capture the island of
Jersey. All the momentous events which had been agitating Europe
had been dwarfed for a time by the stupendous horrors of the French
Revolution and the Reign of Terror. Rodney, Hood, and Howe had
successively maintained the supremacy of England in maritime warfare,
and now that Bonaparte was at the head of the army of France, and
had vain or vague thoughts of an invasion of Britain, the approaching
conflicts which were to mark the later years of the reign of George III.
were to be discerned both by statesmen and commanders. There had
been mutiny in the English navy, and yet its prestige had not suffered
when it had to fight the enemies of the country. Duncan's victory at
Camperdown had given such good proof of this, that an improvement in
the condition of the sailors, and the proclamation of a general pardon
to the mutineers of the Nore after the ring-leaders had been punished,
improved the spirit and discipline of the navy, enabled us to contend
against the combined fleets of France, Holland, and Spain, and prepared
for the series of victories which brought Nelson into the foremost place
while he was serving under Admiral Sir John Jervis.

It was on the I4th of February, 1797, that the Mediterranean fleet,
under this commander, fell in, off Cape St. Vincent, with the great
Spanish fleet just come out of Cadiz under the command of Don Jose
de Cordova. Sir John, beside his own ship the Victory, had two vessels
of i oo guns, three of 98 guns, nine of 74 guns, to one of which (the
Captain) Commodore Nelson had exchanged that he might be in the

P: ^

5 .?
<

NELSON BOARDING THE SA ,V JOSEF. 95

line of battle; one 64-gun ship, and three 32-gun frigates. The Spanish
force comprised the flag-ship, 1 30 guns, six of 1 1 2 guns, among which
was the San Josef, two of 89 guns, four of 74 guns, twelve frigates, and
one brig. The difference was serious, but with such a commander and
such captains as Nelson, Trowbridge, Collingwood, Saumarez, Towry,
and Calder, Englishmen were not likely to regard it with much anxiety.
As the dawn of day showed the strength of the enemy, Calder reported
the numbers of the vessels which came in sight. " Ten sail of the line,
Sir John." "Very well, sir." "Fifteen sail of the line, Sir John."
"Very well, sir." " Twenty sail of the line, Sir John." "Very well,
sir." "Twenty-seven sail of the line, Sir John; against such a force is
it advisable to - ." " Enough, sir, enough," broke in the stern old
admiral; "were there fifty sail of the line, sir, I'd go through them all."

Trowbridge led the attack after the opening fire of the British ship
Culloden i and it is said that the admiral, when he watched the seaman-
like skill with which the captain manoeuvred, exclaimed, " Look, look at
Trowbridge! does he not manoeuvre as if all England was looking at
him? Would to God all England were present to appreciate as I do
the gallant captain of the Culloden" At about half-past twelve the
leading ship of the lee division of the Spaniards, bearing the flag
of Vice-admiral Moreno, made an effort to cut the British line ahead
of the Victory, which was nearly the centre ship; but Sir John Jervis was
not to be deceived, and at once opened such a tremendous fire that his
antagonist was compelled to tack and abandon the attempt. The
commander-in-chief's flag-ship then opened a raking fire upon the
remaining ships of this division, which compelled all but one of them
to wear round and bear up.

At a quarter to one o'clock the Victory tacked, in order to follow
up the main body of the Spanish fleet, and a few minutes later
Admiral de Cordova bore up to join the ships to leeward. Commodore
Nelson, whose ship was in the rear of the line, immediately discovered
the Spanish admiral's design, and disregarding the signal flying on the
flagship that the ships were to tack in succession, gave the order to
wear ship, so that the Captain, passing between the Diadem and the
Excellent, the two rearmost ships, threw herself directly in the way
of the huge Spanish four-decker. The Spanish admiral, thus thwarted,
again hauled up on the larboard tack, but the Captain overtook and
engaged her till Trowbridge came up in the Culloden, when Nelson

puffhed on into the thick of the fight, which toon became general,
Coflingwood wa *oon after him, after having taken one of the enemy's
veffelff, and leaving another to be dealt with by the CJ*w, Very ffoo
the Captain was little l>etter than A wreck, but it wa* a victorious
wreck, She had lost her fore-top-mast; she had not a fail, shroud,
or rope left her whteh wa* not shot awayrand the was incapable of
further service in the line or in chase, She wa hotif engaged with the
San NI.I.I* t ''' yum, when Collingw^xJ in the ExcelUnt came
onward l>etwen the two veovrU, ari'l while ail^/wing the crew of die
Captain to replenish the feh*/t-l/x;ker#, poured a l^oadiide into the enemy
Mi/I f/4j<*e/l on, 1 luffing to aw/id this fire die San NicoUu ran fowl
of the ,V/ /w:// whkh l<;/i l/>t her mi^n-maft The Captain
renewed the combat, 1/ut her for^to|>-m,'i*t waff gone over die fide, and
it was neee^ary for Nelson either to take ome decisive action, or to
dro|>out of tJ*e l/4ttJe with hi* crif/pled fehip, 11 w resolve wa oon

n, an4 putting the (JafttMt helm a--#tarlx>ard he fan foul of die
ship, with }ter |x/rt cat--head striking the fftarboard quarter and her
il yard hiking the mizen-rigging. Meanwhile the San yoiefi
main-yard was l/x;ked in the fore-riggittg of the ^^ Nicolai, and if was
necessary to take both or neither,

Neiv/n himself thus de^ribes the achievement; -"The noldier*
of the 6oth 61/>ing duty as marines), with an alacrity which will ever do
them * M-'iii , and Lieutenant )'ears<^n of the fame regiment, were almost
the foremost on this service, The first man who jumped into the
enemy's mizen-chain* was Captain Ikrry, late my first lieutenant (Cap-
tain Miller was in the very act of going also, but 1 directed him to
remain); he was supported from our spritsail yard, which hooked in the
mizen-rigging* A soMirr ol the 091 h H^jiment havn
upper quarter-gallery win<lr/w, / jumped in myself and was followed by
others as fast as possible, I found th- r.il.in '\<><>i-. f..-.i r. d, and ffome

Spanish O^Cers fifd llcir pr.'/l-. ( l,ul l.-.vn.^ Li',! ' n ',j,' n tlir rloor-,,

fhe soldiers fired, and the Spanish brigadier (comrnod'/jr with a dis-
tinguishing (/ennant) fell as he was retreating to the quarter-deck. I
pushed onwards imm'-di.iHy for il'- '|n.n< > <\ V., where 1 found
Captain Berry in possession of the poop, and the Spanish ensign
hauling down, I passed with my people and Lieutenant Pearson along
the larboard gangway to the fore-castle, where 1 met two or three
Spaniih officers, prisoners to my seamen; they delivered their swords,

;

H
/

THE BATTLE OF THE NILE. 97

A fire of pistols, or muskets, opening from the admiral's stern gallery
of the San Josef, I directed the soldiers to fire into her stern; and
calling to Captain Miller, ordered him to send more men into the San
Nicolas, and directed my people to board the first-rate, which was done
in an instant, Captain Berry assisting me in the main chains. At this
moment a Spanish officer looked over the quarter-deck rail, and said
they surrendered. From this most welcome intelligence it was not
long before I was on the quarter-deck; when the Spanish captain, with
a bow, presented me his sword, and said the admiral was dying of his
wounds. I asked him, on his honour, if the ship was surrendered. He
declared she was, on which I gave him my hand, and desired him to
call on his officers and ship's company and tell them of it, which he did,
and on the quarter-deck of a Spanish first-rate, extravagant as the story
may seem, did I receive the swords of the vanquished Spaniards, which,
as I received, I gave to William Fearney, one of my bargemen, who
put them with the greatest sang froid under his arm. I was sur-
rounded by Captain Berry, Lieutenant Pearson (of the 69th), John
Sykes, John Thompson, Francis Cook, all old Agamemnons, and several
other brave men, sailors and soldiers. Thus fell these two ships."

THE BATTLE OF THE NILE, 1798.

Bonaparte had made Piedmont a French province. Rome was
occupied by French troops, and the arms of France threatened all
Europe. The so-called "army of England" still waited on the French
coast, but while the British fleet kept the seas there was little pro-
bability of that army effecting the vaunted invasion of Britain. There-
fore the "destiny" which the great general of the Republic of France set
before himself was the conquest of Egypt, which, while it would com-
pensate for the loss of the French possessions in the West Indies,
would enable him to harass if not to invade British territory in the
East. An army of 30,000 men, mostly composed of soldiers who
had defeated the Austrians in Italy, was at Toulon, ready to sail for

VOL. II.

98 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

Alexandria and the mouths of the Nile. The destination of this force
had been kept secret from the enemies of France; and though the
English blockading squadron was on the alert and watching the French
coast, a continuance of contrary winds had driven our ships from those
waters, so that on the iQth of May, 1798, Bonaparte had been able to
put to sea with a great fleet of men-of-war and transports, and to sail
up the Mediterranean.

The first important operation in the plan, which Bonaparte was to
carry out under the orders of the "directory," was to besiege and
capture Malta, still held by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem,
who had not acknowledged the French Republic, though there were
those among them who were ready to espouse French interests. It
is to the treasonable counsels of these men that the capitulation of
the island, two days after Bonaparte had summoned it to surrender,
is to be attributed. Hompesch, the grand master, was weak and old,
and finding himself surrounded by those who betrayed instead of sup-
porting him, he neglected to fortify and man the works at Lavalette,
which could have kept the French fleet at bay till the English came to
the relief of the island; for Nelson was already seeking everywhere
for the enemy, who escaped his observation because he was unpro-
vided with frigates with which to make more rapid observations.

On the 1 9th of June, after having plundered Malta, from which
he obtained a considerable sum of money, Bonaparte re-embarked for
Egypt, leaving General Vaubois and a garrison in the island. On
the 29th he came to Alexandria, and landed the next day in consider-
able haste and confusion, for it was known that Nelson was searching
the seas, and the French dreaded discovery. There was some reason
for this fear, for as they sailed from the coast of Caramania to the
north side of Candia they came close to the English fleet, which was
only prevented from seeing them by a thick fog. It is almost amazing
to reflect what a remarkable difference this fog probably made in the
history of the world; for had Nelson seen and borne down upon the
French, as he certainly would have done, they would have been
destroyed or captured, and Bonaparte himself would most likely either
have been killed or have been taken prisoner.

Nelson had gone hither and thither looking for the foe: he had
returned up the Mediterranean without instructions, and with no actual
knowledge of the expedition in which the French fleet was engaged.

THE BATTLE OF THE NILE. 99

Without light frigates to obtain information he groped his way by a
sort of instinct, and having heard of the capture of Malta, made the best
of his way thither, but too late; he immediately, by a shrewd guess,
sailed for the mouth of the Nile, and actually arrived at Alexandria
the day before it was sighted by the French. Finding no French
fleet there he steered along the southern side of Candia, where he
was close to the enemy without knowing it, crossed the Mediterranean,
and returned to Sicily. Six hundred leagues had been sailed with
incredible expedition. His ship, the old Vanguard, was nearly strained
to pieces; but only staying to re-victual and take in water, he once
more turned towards Egypt, and on the 28th of July, in the Morea,
learned that the French had been seen between Candia and the
Egyptian coast about four weeks previously.

It must not be supposed that the admiral had actually wasted
the time which had passed without meeting the French fleet, and
although he bitterly complained of the want of frigates, he continued
to make the best of circumstances. The men of his crews were so
constantly exercised in gunnery practice that they attained remarkable
proficiency, and evening after evening he assembled his captains
on board the Vanguard, and explained to them the different plans
he had formed for attacking the enemy, varying with the different
positions in which it was conceivable that he might encounter him.
He took great care of his youngest officers, looking on himself in an
especial degree as their instructor and guardian while they were afloat
under his command. One or two of his midshipmen always break-
fasted with him, and while entertaining them at his own table he put
off the great commander, and entered into all their boyish jokes, and
in manner and feeling seemed as gay-hearted and youthful as any
of his party. The amusement of the men also was not forgotten,
and when their practice in gunnery was over they were allowed
to join in various games, to dance, and to sing. It would, in fact,
be difficult to imagine how the men could have sustained such an
arduous service but for the cheerful courage and sympathy of their
commander.

Bonaparte, after landing his troops a considerable number of whom
were drowned in the haste with which they crowded on shore took
Alexandria without much difficulty, and from its walls proclaimed to
Egypt that he came as the friend of the Sultan to deliver the people

IOO PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

from the oppression of the Mamelukes, and that he and his soldiers
respected the Prophet and the Koran. On the 7th of July the army
moved to Cairo, marching over burning sands, from which they suffered
very considerably. On the 2ist, on arriving within sight of the Great
Pyramids, they had to give battle to the Mameluke force under Ibrahim
Bey and Murad Bey. The victory of the French was rapid and
decisive, and Bonaparte entered Cairo two days afterwards without
resistance, and assembled a divan of the Turkish and Arab chiefs, to
whom he proposed the civil administration of the country.

But these intentions were frustrated by the destruction of the fleet
which he had left at Alexandria. Nelson had crowded sail once more
for the mouth of the Nile, and his fleet of thirty-seven seventy-fours, one
fifty-gun ship, and a fourteen-ton brig was in sight of Alexandria on the
morning of the ist of August. At four in the afternoon Captain Hood,
in the Zealous, signalized the enemy's fleet at anchor in Aboukir Bay,
and Nelson, who had scarcely been able to eat or to sleep, at once
ordered dinner to be served, and gaily prepared for action. At half-
past five the signal was given to form in line, and before six o'clock
they were approaching the enemy, whose force consisted of one ship
of the line of one hundred and twenty guns, three of eighty guns, and
nine of seventy-four, moored in compact line of battle, describing an
obtuse angle, close in with the shore, while they were flanked by
four frigates, gun-boats, and a battery of guns and mortars placed on
an island in their van.

Nelson at once determined to take the inner side of the French line;
for where a French ship could swing a British ship could anchor. As
the two leading ships approached, the French opened fire, and the
guns on Aboukir island also began to play upon our vessels as they
rounded the shoal, though they ceased when the ships became closely
engaged, as they were then likely to strike the French van. By seven
o'clock eight of the British fleet had anchored and were in close action,
the first of them being Nelson's flagship the Vanguard, which was
within half-pistol shot of the Spartiate, the third ship in the enemy's
line. The Culloden, commanded by Captain Trowbridge, unfortunately
grounded on a ledge of rocks, whence no efforts could dislodge her,
and consequently she took no part in the action. At about half-past
nine eight of the French ships in the van had surrendered, and soon
afterwards the Orient, one of their vessels, was in flames.

THE BATTLE OF THE NILE. IOI

At about this time Nelson, who was always in a prominent position,
and exposed to the fire of the enemy, received a wound in the head
which caused the skin of the forehead to fall over his remaining eye,
and at first both he and those around him feared that he was seriously
if not fatally injured. He was on his quarter-deck scanning a rough
sketch of the Bay of Aboukir, which had been found in a prize recently
taken by the Swiftsure, when a piece of langridge shot struck him
and inflicted the wound. The sudden darkness, and the extreme pain
from the injury to the bone, caused him to think that the hurt was
mortal, and as he fell into the arms of Captain Berry, who stood near
him, he exclaimed, "I am killed; remember me to my wife." When
he was carried down into the cockpit, the surgeon, who was attending
to a wounded seaman, would have left his patient to attend to the
admiral; but Nelson, with that unselfish fortitude which distinguished
him and endeared him to the men, motioned to him to keep away,
saying, "No, I will take my turn with my brave fellows." When his
turn came, the wound was found to be painful but not dangerous. It
was properly bound up, and he quickly reappeared on the quarter-deck,
giving orders for the boats to go to the assistance of the enemy's burning
vessel, many of the crew of which were saved either by the boats or by
being dragged into the ports of the British vessels by our seamen. The
French Admiral Brueys was already dead, and among several hundreds
who perished was the brave Commodore Casa Bianca and his son,
a boy of only ten years of age. Both of these were seen floating by a
shattered mast when the ship blew up, with such an awful explosion,
that the battle ceased, for full ten minutes not a gun being fired, until
the French ship Franklin recommenced, to be quickly silenced. By
midnight the Tonnant was the only vessel on the enemy's side which
continued actively engaged; but her masts were shot away, and she
was compelled to veer cable and take up a station in the rear.

Again the battle ceased till day broke, when four of the French
ships resumed the engagement with two of the English, which were
soon joined by others. The French frigate Artemise fired a final
broadside and then struck her colours. She soon afterwards blew up,
and the four French line-of-battle ships and two frigates dropped so far
to leeward that they were almost out of gunshot. Two of them ran on
shore and afterwards struck their colours. The two others escaped,
only one of our ships, the Zealous, being in a position to chase them,

IO2 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

but they were afterwards taken, with one of the frigates, by the British
squadron in the Mediterranean. Eight of the thirteen French ships
of the line had surrendered, two had escaped, and two were on shore
with their colours flying. One of these was afterwards taken, and the
other was set on fire by the crew, who escaped to shore. Thus eleven
line-of-battle ships were lost to the French. The British loss in killed
and wounded was 896, Westcott of the Majestic being the only captain
who fell in the engagement. Of the French, 3105, including the
wounded, were sent on shore by cartel, and 5225 perished.

"Victory," said Nelson, "is not a name strong enough for such a
scene." He called it a conquest. The French navy was almost
destroyed. The British fleet had swept the seas. The hopes of
Europe to oppose the hitherto successful arms of the French were
revived. Malta was blockaded, to be subsequently taken by the
British, and Bonaparte, after a long struggle in Egypt, began a new
scheme of conquest, after the temporary rest of the peace of Amiens,
by which the war, instead of being concluded, was only postponed.

THE DEATH OF TIPPOO SULTAUN.

The pictures of scenes of English history during the middle and
latter portion of the reign of George III. are almost necessarily
representations of battles by sea or land, or of incidents associated
with that state of war in which the nation continued for so many years.
It would therefore require considerable space to describe in detail
those successive military and naval operations which gave to this
country such immense influence in Europe, and at the same time
compelled our statesmen to lay a heavy burden of taxation upon the
people. Not on the Continent only, but in India, our troops were
engaged in a long-continued struggle against the enormous influence
of France, stimulated by the victorious career of Bonaparte, whose
ambition, but for the constant and impregnable opposition of the
English, would have led him to assume the dictatorship of every

THE DEATH OF TIPPOO SULTAUN. 1 03

country to which he could carry his successful battalions. It is certain
that the serious check which he had received in Egypt had prevented
Bonaparte from turning his immediate attention to India. Affairs
in Paris demanded his return, and he reached the capital of France
to take steps for having himself proclaimed First Consul of that republic
for which he was to pronounce a new constitution before he finally
converted it into an empire.

That he looked forward to the possibility of supplanting us in the
East is shown by the letter which he sent to Tippoo Sultaun from
Egypt, requesting him to send a confidential person to Suez or Cairo
to confer with him and concert measures for "the liberation of India."
It is doubtful whether the letter reached the Sultaun, but it is certain
that this warlike prince, whose remorseless cruelties had already roused
the indignation of many of the native chiefs as well as of the British
in India, had previously made overtures to form an alliance with the
French republic. In 1797 he had sent an embassy to Cabool to bring
down the Afghan tribes, and had negotiated or intrigued with the
Nizam of the Deccan and other native princes to help him to recover
what he had lost in previous engagements with the English; and
finally he sent two representatives to the Isle of France to obtain the
co-operation of the French, requesting that he might have an
immediate supply of troops (30,000 or 40,000 men) to expel the
English from every part of Hindostan.

A few Frenchmen were sent to Seringapatam; but their arrival and
the other preparations made by Tippoo were known to the government
at Calcutta. The Earl of Mornington (afterwards Marquis of
Wellesley), who was governor-general, determined to anticipate the
movements of the Sultaun, and after demanding explanations, which
were never given, sent General Harris into the Mysore country with
24,000 men, and called up General Smart with the Bombay army
of about 7000 men to co-operate with Harris. The general was
also joined at Vellore by a strong British detachment serving with
the Nizam, and by some regiments of Sepoys which the Nizam had
raised, and who fought admirably under the command of British officers.
Harris entered the Mysore territory on the 5th of March, 1799, and
moved straight for Seringapatam, reducing all the forts in his way.
General Smart advanced with greater difficulty, for he was encountered
by the main army of the Sultaun; and when on the 27th Harris was

PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

within two days' march of Seringapatam he found Tippoo already there
with his troops drawn up to oppose him.

It was in this action that great distinction was first achieved by
a colonel who, though then known only as a promising and able officer,
afterwards became the chief military commander, not only in England,
but in Europe, and was destined to break the power of Napoleon
Bonaparte, and after twelve years of warfare to be instrumental in
restoring peace. Colonel Arthur Wellesley commanded the 33d
Regiment in the action before Seringapatam, and it was this regiment
which may be said to have decided the battle; while from that time
the career of Wellesley in India was an almost unbroken series
of brilliant successes, to be followed by a still more remarkable series
of achievements in Spain, France, and Belgium, when the English
nation had unanimously appointed him as their general.

The defeat of Tippoo Sultaun, however, was followed by his
retreat into the strong fortifications of Seringapatam, which was then
besieged by the British from the 5th of April till the 4th of May, the
numerous obstacles which prevented an approach o the walls having
been overcome by General Baird and Colonel Wellesley. Then the
actual siege commenced. A detachment of the Bombay army under
Colonel Hunt drove the enemy from the north side of the Cauvery,
and held a position in the ruins of an old redoubt and village from
which they could enfilade the enemy's entrenchment on the south side
of the river. On the evening of the 27th of April an attack was made
on the enemy's post on the front and right of the British line, and was
skilfully conducted by Colonel Wellesley, who thus kept the ground
where the breaching batteries were to be placed. Tippoo made a
desperate attempt to regain this post, but the troops had received
orders to hold it to the last extremity and could not be dislodged.
This seems to have caused the Sultaun to despond. He made no
further important effort to prevent the capture of the city, but after
some feeble attempt at resistance appears only to have determined
to fight to the last, and to fulfil his destiny by finding a grave amidst
the ruins of the stronghold.

The decisive assault was intrusted to Major-general Baird, who
fifteen years before had undergone a long and cruel captivity in the
fortress, under the orders of Tippoo's father Hyder AH, and whose
great courage and determination well fitted him for such a duty. He

SIR DAVID BATRD f ) I S C ( )V KlUNf ; THE BOD^Y OF TTPPOO STJLTALTN.

AE'TER TH] CAPTUS-E OF S'E RINCiA'PAT AVT .

M AV, 1799
F-ICTURE B"V SIR DAVID WILKIK, R -A AT NEWBVTH HOUSE- M IU -T.OTHIA

RT.gn. Hi t.; jt SOKi IjO'NDOlt. OIiABGOW. A

THE DEATH OF TIPPOO SULTAUN. 105

was instructed by General Harris to capture the ramparts first, and
therefore divided his force into two columns, one to move along the
northern and the other along the southern rampart until both should
join on the east face, thus making the whole course of the ramparts
before descending on the town. To do this secretly and effectually
the different corps were moved silently into the trenches during the
night. The attack was to be made on the following day. There
could be no delay, for the British troops were worn out with fatigue
and want. During the night the English batteries kept up a heavy
fire on the breach to prevent it being repaired. At one o'clock the
voice of Baird was heard like a trumpet exclaiming, " Now, my brave
fellows, follow me, and prove yourselves worthy of the name of British
soldiers!" They rushed across the river under a heavy fire of rockets
and musketry from the fort, they ascended the glacis, and reached the
summit of the breach, where they planted the British colours, and then
the two streams of red uniforms, like two trains of gunpowder simultan-
eously kindled, were seen to run along the northern and southern
ramparts, bearing every obstacle before them, and planting their colours
as they went, until they reached the point of reunion. On the left
Tippoo was present himself, and there the enemy made a desperate
resistance; but they could not withstand the determined onslaught
of the English, who were infuriated by the knowledge that the barbarous
chieftain had murdered the prisoners taken during the siege.

Resistance ceased when the two divisions met on the eastern
rampart. The slaughter was at an end, and Seringapatam was taken;
but the Sultaun was nowhere to be seen. It was reported that he had
been shot and was lying dead under one of the gateways, but even
his family could give no information, nor would they open the palace
gates without his permission. It was necessary that there should
be no doubt of Tippoo's fate, or the taking of the capital would be
of comparatively little advantage. Alive or dead he must be
discovered, and after some negotiations and delay, the palace officials
were induced to open the palace gates that search might be made.
Two princes, who had formerly been the captives of Cornwallis, aided
Baird and his officers in their quest, and at a gateway on the north
face of the fort, which was covered with hundreds of slain, an explora-
tion was made by torchlight. From the heap of dead the yet warm
body of Tippoo was brought out; the eyes were open, and it was

VOL. II.

!O6 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

thouo-ht that he was still alive, for the countenance was not distorted,

but his heart had ceased to beat, and three wounds in the body and
one in the temple from a musket-ball must have been fatal. His
turban, jacket, and sword-belt were gone, but the body was recognized
by some of his people to be that of the Sultaun. On the following
day his body was interred in the grave of his father with military
honours amidst a terrible storm of thunder and lightning, by which
several persons, Europeans and natives, lost their lives.

Sir David Wilkie's famous picture, reproduced in our engraving,
represents the scene after the discovery of the dead Sultaun. General
Baird, standing in the gateway beneath which Tippoo received his
fatal wounds, gives orders that the body shall be carried to the palace.
The grating beneath the step on which the victorious general
is standing serves to light the dungeon in which he was for nearly
four years immured by Hyder Ali and his son the same Tippoo
Sultaun who now lies prostrate, bereft of his crown, his kingdom, and
his life.

It is worth noting that the taking of Seringapatam gave occasion
to a young artist to introduce the first truly striking work of art which
had ever been exhibited in this country as a panorama. Robert Ker
Porter was then a student in the Royal Academy, and comparatively
unknown, though he afterwards obtained some distinction as Sir Robert
Ker Porter, author of Travels in Persia, while his two sisters, Jane and
Anna Maria, were among the best known writers of fiction in their day.
When Seringapatam was taken Porter was a mere lad, and with
remarkable ability and enthusiasm he at once began to cover a canvas
200 feet long with the successive scenes which accompanied the
capture of the great fortress. In six weeks he had completed the
work, and Benjamin West, who was then president of the Royal
Academy, obtained an early view of the picture, and pronounced it
to be a miracle of precocious talent. When it was arranged for
exhibition, vast numbers of persons of all classes flocked to see it,
and among them Dr. Dibdin, who says: " I can never forget its first
impression on my own mind. It was as a thing dropped from the clouds,
all fire, energy, intelligence, and animation. You looked a second
time, the figures moved and were commingled in hot and bloody fight.
You saw the flash of the cannon, the glitter of the bayonet, and the
gleam of the falchion. You longed to be leaping from crag to crag

THE " PRESS-GANG. IOy

with Sir David Baird, who is hallooing his men on to victory. Then
again you seemed to be listening to the groans of the dying and
more than one female was carried out swooning." Unfortunately
this picture was destroyed by fire, but engravings of it were made by
Vendramini.

THE "PRESS-GANG."

It is easy to understand that during a long period of successive wars
by land and sea, it became necessary to use constant efforts to find able
recruits for the army and to man the navy with efficient seamen.
The recruiting-officer and his party were frequently at every town
and important village in the kingdom, and all sorts of inducements
were offered to young fellows to enlist, while those who were not easily
persuaded were frequently made drunk and cajoled into taking the
bounty-money, after which they were quickly marched off in company
with others to the nearest military depdt.

While the army was thus increased for foreign wars, public security
in London and other towns was little improved. Highway robbery
and crimes of violence were of constant occurrence, and only a few
patrols and watchmen were appointed to guard the streets. In 1763
the numerous roads near London were protected by no greater force
than a patrol of eighty mounted constables, and in the metropolis itself
prisoners were frequently rescued from the lock-up houses. It may
be believed that as a system of rewards for the capture of thieves was
instituted, there was often great confusion and injustice in the
accusation and arrest of alleged ill-doers, and as hanging was the
penalty even for , comparatively small offences, condemned criminals
of not very atrocious character could be found to purchase their lives
or liberties by enlisting for military service in "the Indies." That
this system introduced among the recruits a number of atrocious
ruffians there can be little doubt, and the scenes on board the
" tenders," to which military and naval recruits were shipped, were

IO 8 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

of the most dreadful and revolting description. In almost every street,
especially by the waterside, crimps lay in wait to entice likely-looking
fellows into houses where they were locked up and regularly entrapped,
at the same time they were drugged with strong drink, or, if they
were too violent in their resistance, were knocked on the head and
left till it was time to take them off by the river. Men were even
"arrested for debt" by gangs of fellows, who took this method of kid-
napping them and carried them off without giving them the opportunity
of proving the falsity of the charge.

The method of manning the navy was immeasurably worse, for
men were kidnapped according to law by the press-gangs, or armed
bands of ruffianly sailors, who seized and carried off any able-bodied
fellow they could lay their hands on. Their operations were chiefly
carried on in neighbourhoods not far from the river, and though they
sometimes met with resistance they were usually successful in making
a haul of "pressed men," for they were armed with pistols and
cutlasses and did not scruple to use them. The allusions to the
press-gang in the writings of Smollett and other authors at the time,
show how utterly unscrupulous were the means taken to obtain hands
for the navy, and how horrible were the scenes that awaited the
unfortunate landsman, who was often stunned, flung neck and heels into
a boat, and taken on board the tender, where any attempt at resistance
was quickly and brutally repressed.

Of course the larger number of these enforced recruits was taken
from the rough part of the population, from wharf and dock hands,
market porters and labourers ; but men of a better class were frequently
pressed, especially as they could be kidnapped more easily, while the
rougher sort frequently combined for their own protection, and, armed
with hard and knotted bludgeons, were occasionally a match for the
press-gangs, especially as, after a quick and determined defence, they
could escape by the tortuous streets, where if the sailors followed them
and became separated they could often make terrible reprisals.

It is remarkable that both as volunteers and pressed men the
descendants of the French Protestants, who had settled about
Spitalfields and in some other parts of London, were frequently
to be found in the royal navy. Strange that, as at the battle of the
Boyne the Huguenot contingent had fought so fiercely against the
regiments of their countrymen, the children of later refugees were

THE .PFLES S GAKTG.

SEIZING A WATERMAN ON TOWER. HILL OH THE MORNING OF HIS MARRIAGE DAVT

I-ROM THE PI

" ALEX*? JOHKSTON IT* THE COliLECTIOH OT 1 JAJwIES
BENitORE. AJtOVLESHIRE.

. a, T5D3NBUF

THE " PRESS-GANG.

among the most active opponents of the French at sea. France
paid dearly for the persecution of the Protestants, who became
denationalized when they found protection and a home in England.

Many strange and pathetic stories could have been told of the
havoc made in poor families by the press-gang, both among the
Spitalfields weavers and others of the working-classes. Men had even
been known to cripple themselves in order that they might not be
seized and torn from their wives and children; while others learned
to simulate lameness or idiocy, or even went about dressed in
women's clothes, in fear of being pressed and sent abroad without the
least opportunity of remonstrance. Many, however, were taken, and
returned to tell the story. One man, a weaver, went out on a
Saturday night to fetch what was then, and still is, a favourite supper
of hot baked sheep's head for himself and his wife. He had scarcely
left his own street-door before he was pinioned, gagged, and taken
off to Tower stairs, whence he was sent to sea. He remained for
three years on foreign service without having had any opportunity
of communicating with his wife, though she may possibly have heard
of him through some friend. She was an industrious and helpful
woman, and as she could earn her own living as a clear-starcher,
remained living in the same place, and waited until hope nearly
failed, and she had given up her husband as killed or lost, when on
a Saturday night she heard a quick foot upon the stair, and in another
moment a bronzed, bearded man (whom she knew by his voice, in
spite of the change that three years of sea-service had wrought in him)
called out, "Well, Betty, I've brought the sheep's head at last, but
I've been a good while gone for it," and actually put a smoking supper
upon the table. He had heard that she was alive and had lived
in the same house, waiting for his return, and when his ship was
paid off, had, with a queer touch of humour, contrived to get home
on a Saturday night, and to take with him the dainty that had been
expected three years before.

More sad and tragical stories were told however stories of young
men captured and taken from the sides of their sweethearts at country
wakes and fairs, of athletic young Thames watermen who if they
were freemen were supposed to be exempt kidnapped, and then left
without the chance of making any appeal that would be likely to find
sympathetic listeners. One tale of a fine young fellow, who in spite

PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

of remonstrance was surrounded by a remorseless gang, and forcibly
taken from the side of his young and pretty bride on their wedding-
day, is among the annals of this fearful time.

But for the tremendous exigencies of the war, and the turbulent
condition of society, in which individual wrongs inflicted by the
government for the purpose of increasing the fighting power of the
country were regarded only as necessary evils, the brutalities of the
recruiting parties would have been sufficient to cause an insurrection.
As it was, considerable improvements had to be made in the provision
for the navy, and unless the crews were actually engaged in war
or on a voyage looking for the enemy there was mostly a mutinous
disposition, as might have been expected among men who were forced
into the service. Yet these were among the heroes who made the
English fleet feared all over the world. When it came to fighting,
the pressed men let loose their patriotism, and forgot their personal
wrongs in the honour of the country and their determination not
to be beaten. Nor were there wanting numerous instances of men,
who, having been first pressed, became voluntary sailors, adopting
as a chosen profession that to which they had at first manifested
considerable repugnance.

THE DEFENCE OF SARAGOSSA.

Even in an extended history it would be difficult to give a detailed
account of the various engagements in which Britain was called upon
to check the arrogant assumptions of France during the early part
of the present century. All that can be done in these pages is to
indicate some of the more remarkable episodes of those tremendous
conflicts in which the arms of England were conspicuous, and amidst
the pictures which more immediately arrest our attention that of the
"Maid of Saragossa" is one of the most prominent.

The siege of Saragossa, however, had been raised before the entry
of British troops into Spain, and even before Admiral Collingwood

THE DEFENCE OF SARAGOSSA. I I I

went to Gibraltar, and thence proceeded to Cadiz to take command
of the fleet that had assembled there. Indeed it was only when Spain
had risen against the French usurpers, and had begun to succeed in
a determined effort to break the yoke imposed upon her by Bonaparte,
that England, instead of being her enemy, became her ally. On
the 4th of June, the birthday of George III., a proclamation was
issued that his majesty, having taken into consideration the glorious
resolution of the Spaniards to deliver their country from the tyranny
and usurpation of France, and the assurances his majesty had
received from several of the provinces of Spain of their friendly
disposition towards England, he was pleased to order that all hostilities
against Spain should immediately cease. Bonaparte had thrust his
elder brother Joseph on the throne of Spain, had overrun the country
with French armies, and had taken possession of the principal fortresses.
All seemed to be confusion, and though the patriots had formed into
considerable bodies in various parts of the kingdom, they were destitute
of competent leaders, and while the defence was sustained by
insurrection, the mode of warfare consisted chiefly of irregular attacks
by bodies of peasantry, outlaws, and stragglers from the more regular
army, who formed into "guerilla" troops, and carried on a contest
which, though it obtained few great successes, harassed and perplexed
the invading forces, who were at first scattered over a wide extent
of country.

On entering Catalonia the French troops under Duhesme became
involved in a war which was waged by the peasantry and the
mountaineers; and on the 226. of July General Dupont, who had
endeavoured to penetrate into Andalusia, and who had been completely
surrounded and defeated in several combats by the Andalusian army
of Castanos, and by large bodies of armed peasants, was compelled
to lay down his arms. Above 18,000 were thus made prisoners,
and the artillery and baggage were also taken. The French troops
were thoroughly beaten, and when the news reached Madrid great
was the consternation of the king, Joseph Bonaparte, who, having
been obtruded to his new throne only a fortnight before, at once
called a council of war, which advised immediate retirement to
Vittoria, a city lying conveniently near to the French frontier. The
retreat of the French from Madrid began on the ist of August, but
the Spanish General Castanos did not enter until the 23d.

j i 2 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

One of the immediate results of the defeat of the French in
Andalusia and the evacuation of Madrid, was the raising of the siege
of Saragossa. The people of this city were distinguished by unyielding
bravery, which, although the place was badly fortified, enabled them
to withstand the assault of a considerable French army which had
invested and bombarded it, until the outworks and half of the city
itself were taken. The people had chosen Palafox as their commander,
and it was he who was summoned to surrender in the following laconic
message, sent by Verdier, the French general. " Head-quarters, Santa
Engracia: Capitulation." His answer was equally brief, and to the
purpose. " Head-quarters, Saragossa: War to the knife." (Guerra
al Cuchillo.) Palafox summoned a council of war, and it was
determined to defend the remaining portion of the city inch by inch;
to retire in case of defeat across the Ebro, and to destroy the bridge
after passing the river. The same night the French were attacked
by Palafox and the Spaniards with irresistible fury, and after eleven days,
during which Verdier could not hold his position and his decision was
hastened by tidings from Madrid of the disasters in Andalusia and the
retirement of Joseph Bonaparte the siege was raised.

So important was Saragossa as a position, however, that in
November, 1808, a large army under Marshals Moncey and Mortier
again invested it, in spite of the desperate valour of Palafox, who had,
perhaps imprudently, sallied out against the foe, and been twice
defeated, first at Tuleda, and again under the walls of the city. The
outworks were carried, and the French began a furious bombardment
amidst repeated combats. The besiegers could not estimate the
desperate valour of the people against whom they were fighting, for
not only men but women took part in the defence, and foremost among
the latter was a young, and as report says fair, maiden belonging
to the labouring class of the country. Known by her name of
Augustina, she was afterwards recognized throughout Europe as " the
maid of Saragossa," and is so called in history, which has preserved
a record of her courage and devotion. For she and her band of heroic
women served on the batteries amidst that scene of carnage and
of fire; and when at length, on the 2;th of January, 1809, a general
assault was made, and the French at last penetrated into the city, she
and her followers continued to aid in that desperate resistance, by
which even old men and children endeavoured to contest the progress

WATERLOO. I I 3

of the enemy, not only house by house, but room by room, so that the
very dwellings were fought for, taken and retaken, as desperately
as though each had been a separate fortress. Amidst the flame and
bloodshed the maid of Saragossa was a prominent figure, and her
valour was an illustration of the resolution that animated the whole
population. 1

An outbreak of fever and the losses they had sustained in the
conflict led the inhabitants and their commanders at last to listen
to terms of honourable capitulation; but by that time the war in Spain
was about to assume an entirely new aspect, for British bayonets were
already glittering on the shores of the Peninsula, and Sir Arthur
Wellesley was about to commence a career which did not end till
European politics had undergone a change, and a new era of English
history had been inaugurated.

THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO.

It is neither noble nor wise to lay too much stress on the observance
of the anniversaries of great victories, and even boastful allusion
to such warlike successes as may at the time have been fit subjects for
national rejoicing, is a custom " more honoured in the breach than the
observance." We live in times when the great battle on the field
of Waterloo, though it need not, and in truth cannot, be forgotten, and
may well be remembered by all those who were engaged in it as an
historical event fraught with enormous interest to succeeding genera-
tions, must no more be regarded with a revival of hostile feelings,
or with mean-souled triumph, than other battles which have passed
out of the region of strife, and should be looked at as we look at old
historical pictures portraying events that mark the struggles which
precede the fusion of races, or the conflicts that prepare for the lasting
amity of nations.

1 In our illustration, Augustina, "The Maid of Saragossa," has the match in her hand ready to discharge
the gun, of which the commander Palafox and Father Consolacion direct the pointing.

VOL. II. 38

I j^ PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

It may be remarked that the Duke of Wellington until his death
continued to celebrate the anniversary of " Waterloo " by a dinner at
Apsley House: but what a celebration it was! As years went on
there was little in it that could be called jubilant, even if that element
had ever had a place in the observance. Round the table of the
great commander were gathered his old comrades-in-arms, not to
vaunt of their deeds, or to indulge in defiant toasts and boastful
congratulations, but to meet each other a company becoming
smaller and smaller as the years went by and to contrast, perhaps
frequently with grateful hearts, the growing sentiments of peace with
a great nation which had passed through fierce and fiery vicissi-
tudes, and the long wars that had drained both England and France
of noble blood, of brave men, and of treasure that might have
been used to make the world better by the example of the
leading powers of Europe. The evil time has passed, and we- no
longer celebrate the great victory. We have even learned to speak
of it with some regard and with sincere respect for those who were the
vanquished; while, if the French have not entirely forgiven us for the
foremost part we played in breaking up the power of what threatened
to be a wide-spreading empire, they have most of them learned to be
glad that they were delivered from an ambition that would have led
France captive, and kept her in chains in the name of glory.

There seems to be little reason to believe that the orders given by
the Duke of Wellington to his officers, before the march to Waterloo,
were hastily communicated in consequence of sudden intelligence received
at a ball given by the Duchess of Richmond at Brussels. Byron's famous
lines have perhaps been chiefly instrumental in perpetuating what was a
mere report, and it was of course regarded as a romantic incident in the
first incomplete rumours of the event; but detractors of the great general
endeavoured to prove from his presence at the ball, that he was altogether
unprepared for the tactics of his opponents. Even if this had been the
case, it must have been consummate skill which could at once have
made such dispositions as contributed to so decided a victory; but as
a matter of fact the report was without foundation.

It was on the nth of June that Bonaparte quitted Paris to open
the campaign, saying, "Je vais me mesurer avec ce Villainton;" and
on the 1 5th of June he crossed the frontier. The duke's head-quarters
were at Brussels. On his left lay Marshal Blucher with the Prussian

WATERLOO. I I 5

army, whose head-quarters were at Namur. The question was, by
what roads will Bonaparte advance? His army was conducted by Ney,
Soult, and Grouchy, three experienced generals acting under his
directions, and while the British and Prussian forces were necessarily
far apart, the French might approach by either of four great high-roads
or by one of the numerous bye-roads.

It was the intention of Bonaparte to commence by taking the
Prussians by surprise, and if he failed to overpower them, at least
to separate them from the British, and then to overwhelm the latter
with his entire force. On the i5th of June, at two or three o'clock
in the morning, the foremost columns began their march, and at dawn
they had driven in the Prussian outposts. By the afternoon they had
divided into four bodies and crossed the Sambre, where Ziethen, who
commanded the advanced guard, was compelled to retire, but retreated
fighting step by step, so that the main army, under Blucher, might have
time to concentrate on the Sombref, where the forces afterwards occupied
the villages of St. Armand and Ligny, while Bonaparte's head-quarters
were established at Charleroi.

Early in the preliminary skirmishing Ney was detached by the
emperor with his left column of 45,000 men to continue his march along
the road leading from Charleroi to Brussels, to advance upon Quatre
Bras, and to separate the communication between Wellington and
Blucher. This Quatre Bras was a farm-house occupying the point
of junction of the roads from Charleroi to Brussels, and from Nivelles
to Namur. Prince Bernard of Saxe- Weimar, commanding a brigade
of Netherlanders, was stationed at Frasne, and there intercepted the
march of Ney, who drove him back by the force of superior numbers;
but the prince retreated upon Quatre Bras, the point to which Ney's
efforts were directed, and there having fortified the farm-house,
determined to make a stand, having been reinforced by the Prince
of Orange, who brought his troops to his aid.

These events rapidly succeeded each other on the i5th of June,
and the Duke of Wellington, so far from being unacquainted with the
threatened danger, was only waiting to learn upon which quarter the
enemy intended to commence the attack. On the first intelligence
that the Prussian outposts were driven in, he issued orders that the
army might be ready. It was not till he heard that the French troops
were being massed in the valley of the Sambre that he knew the attack

j j 6 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

was to be made on Charleroi, and when this was ascertained he issued
orders, from his hotel at Brussels, for the British troops to commence,
their march.

This was quietly done at five o'clock in the afternoon, and as it was
then necessary to wait for some hours till the orders could be distri-
buted through the various corps, and as it was probably important
to avoid the inevitable excitement and alarm which would be caused
in the city by a sudden demonstration, he went with a number of his
officers, to keep an engagement, to be present at a ball given by the
Duchess of Richmond. It was a brilliant assembly, and of course
the guests were unconscious of the tremendous events which were
so imminent. The "Iron Duke" preserved his usual equanimity, and
it was only at about midnight, when the enjoyment of the splendid
festival was at its height, that the word was quietly passed, first to the
general officers and afterwards to the subordinates. Without confusion
or excitement, and also without much of leave-taking, the officers left
by twos and threes, to take their places at the head of their musters,
so that they might be in readiness to march to the field of the great
battle that was to be fought on the i8th. This then was the occurrence
of which so much was made by the detractors of the great general,
and to which such a romantic interest was not unnaturally attached by
those who saw a picture of the scene in the lines of the poet, whose
verses were eagerly read and quoted, though they were but an imaginary
account of the event :

" There was a sound of revelry by night,

And Belgium's capital had gathered then
Her beauty, and her chivalry; and bright

The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men ;
A thousand hearts beat happily, and when

Music arose with its voluptuous swell,
Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,

And all went merry as a marriage-bell :

But hush ! hark ! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell !

***********

Ah ! then and there was hurrying to and fro,

And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress,
And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago

Blush'd at the praise of their own loveliness ;
And there were sudden partings, such as press

The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs
Which ne'er might be repeated : who would guess

If ever more should meet those mutual eyes,

Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise!

WATERLOO. I I 7

And there was mounting in hot haste ; the steed,
The mustering squadron, and the clattering car,

Went pouring forward with impetuous speed,
And swiftly forming in the ranks of war ;

And the deep thunder, peal on peal afar ;
And near, the beat of the alarming drum

Roused up the soldier ere the morning star ;
While throng'd the citizens with terror dumb,
Or whispering with white lips 'The foe! they come! they come!'" 1

The narrative of the great battle is an oft-told tale, and the mere
outline of some of its more prominent features is still sufficient to recall
to the imagination of many readers the picture of the whole tremendous
scene which was enacted during that wild and stormy Sunday. The
position of the British army at Waterloo had already been agreed upon
between Wellington and Blucher, in the event of the Prussians being
compelled to retreat from Ligny. The English troops, reinforced by
the Brunswickers, had held Quatre Bras, the farmhouse at the four
roads, where the fight was again and again resumed amidst fire and
smoke, in the ineffectual attempts of the enemy to carry the position.
At Ligny Bluchers retreat was slow and steady, for the old "Marshal
Forwards," as he was called, would only retire fighting, and contested
every inch of the ground. The British who had held Quatre Bras then
left it on the night of the 1 7th to join the main body at Waterloo, and
on their way the heavy household cavalry, under Lord Uxbridge,
charged and rode down a force of French cavalry which had left Ligny
and endeavoured to oppose them. On the same day and during the
night the junction was made between the troops of Ney and those
that had been at Ligny with Napoleon Bonaparte.

It was a night of violent storm and rain, and most of our men had
no place to sleep but on the miry ground or amidst the drenched corn-
fields. When the morning dawned the scene was dull and drear; for
though the storm had ceased, the sky was overcast with clouds, through
which the sun rarely broke. The position which Wellington had
taken up was in front of the village of Waterloo, and crossed the high
roads from Charleroi and Nivelles; it had its right thrown back to
a ravine near Merke Braine, which was occupied, and its left
extended to a height above the hamlet of Ter-la-Haye, which was
likewise occupied; and in front of the right centre and near the Nivelles
road our troops held the house and gardens of Hougoumont, and in

1 Byron. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, canto iii.

H8 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

front of the left centre the farm of La Haye Sainte. In the rear
of the British centre was the farm of Mont St. Jean, and a little further
back stood the village of that name. Behind the British position was
the famous old forest of Soignies. The duke's force was 72,720 men,
of whom 36,273 were British, 7447 Hanoverians, 8000 Brunswickers,
and 21,000 Belgians and Nassau troops.

Napoleon had occupied a range of heights in front of the British
position, and not more than a mile from it; his right being in advance
of Planchenois, his line crossing the Charleroi road at the farm of
La Belle Alliance, his left resting on the Genappe road. Behind
the French the ground rose considerably, and was skirted by
thick woods. His forces must have amounted to 75,000 men, and
their order of battle was grand, simple, and effective.

With sound of bugle, cheers, and warlike pomp and show, the troops
moved into action, and the two armies prepared for that tremendous
conflict which was to decide the fate of Europe. At a little after ten
o'clock a perceptible stir along the French lines showed that an attack
was about to be made, and at eleven began that tremendous assault
upon Hougoumont by 30,000 men under the command of Ney. Again
and again the French were repulsed, and again the awful conflict,
accompanied by a tremendous cannonade, was renewed, till, amidst the
flames of the corn-ricks, the farmhouse, and the out-buildings, the
French were driven out. Similar attempts were then made on La
Haye Sainte, which was afterwards carried by the enormous masses
of troops. But Napoleon could not succeed in following up his
successes by crushing the British infantry with repeated charges
of cavalry. The cuirassiers, sent to cut the British army in sunder,
fell beneath the close fire of those unshaken squares, in which every
gap was filled as soon as it was made. The cavalry attack became
a retreat, and whole squadrons were hurled against that close hedge
of steel without breaking it, though the veterans of France, the. light,
long-armed, Polish lancers, and the armoured horsemen of the heavy
cavalry stayed amidst the incessant fire that thinned their ranks,
walking their horses up and down in the effort to find a break by which
they might cleave their way through this wall of men.

At length came the word of command, and the British cavalry, who
had as yet done little except in the few brilliant charges to relieve the
defenders of the position, were called into action. The heavy brigade,

X !
b

2 S

> t

WATERLOO. 119

consisting of the Life Guards, the Royal Horse Guards, and the ist
Dragoons, under Lord Edward Somerset, went thundering forward upon
the French, and with irresistible strength, weight, and impetuosity, swept
down light troopers and steel-clad cuirassiers in one terrible onslaught,
leaVing none on the field but the wounded and the dead and the 2000
prisoners whom the brigade brought back with them after the decisive
charge.

The battle still raged, but the British still held their ground with
some of their reserves not yet called into action. The Prussians were
advancing, and it was necessary to make one more decided attack on
the left centre of Wellington's army near the already devastated
position of La Haye Sainte. The old Imperial Guard, the veterans
who had so often been regarded as almost invincible, were called up
and led by Napoleon in person as far as a hollow between La Belle
Alliance and the point of attack, a hollow sheltered from the British
artillery. Then Ney led them into action through a fire that thinned
their ranks, while the British were protected from the return fire
that covered the advance by the low range of hills behind which they
were ordered to lie down till the word of command was given. In two
massive columns the French veterans went on till they were approach-
ing the British position, when the duke gave the signal through
his aide-de-camp. The enemy was suddenly confronted by General
Maitland's brigade of guards, and by General Adam's brigade, who
rapidly moved over the brow of the hill, where they were formed five
deep by the duke in person and flanked with artillery. One tremend-
ous volley staggered the Imperial Guards of the French army, who
were not easily broken, and in a moment recovered themselves and
went on; but when they were within fifty yards, and in the act of
deploying, another volley was poured in among them, and before they
could form again, the heavy united charge of the English guards threw
them together, and drove them in confusion down the hill irretrievably
broken and ruined.

Napoleon, sitting on his horse, still as a statue, broke out with the
bitter cry, " They are mixed, they are mixed;" and almost immediately
afterwards Bulow's cannons were heard, the Prussian ranks were seen
advancing, and Wellington, moving forward with his whole line of
infantry supported by the cavalry and artillery, bore down upon the
shattered ranks of his opponents, and the battle was over. The French

I20 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

army was utterly defeated, and in its retreat was pursued by the
Prussians, who so completely disorganized it, that it was useless to
make any further attempt to bring it again into action. In these
three terrible days it had lost 30,000 men, and its leader, who had
brought all Europe into coalition against his assumptions, was the first
messenger who took back the news of defeat to Paris.

GEORGE THE FOURTH.

During the time of the regency and until the end of the reign
of George IV., the country was almost continually in a state of
political excitement, which occasionally rose to serious rioting. The
social questions which were allied to demands for a wider repre-
sentation of the people in parliament gave persistency to a general
feeling of dissatisfaction, not only among the lower orders of society,
but in many cases among the more intelligent and educated classes.
It cannot be said that the character or rather the conduct of
George IV. was such as to diminish these ebullitions of popular feeling.
Though his manners were mostly courteous and conciliatory, and he
had too much common sense to try to exercise the dogged authority and
to display the obstinate opposition that had been at one time con-
spicuous in the relation of George III. to his ministers and to the
nation, he never succeeded in obtaining the respect which had always
been manifested for the domestic virtues and simplicity of life that had
distinguished his father. The career of what was then called gallantry,
which was scarcely resented while he was Prince of Wales and before
he became regent, assumed a different aspect when he was virtually
the ruler of the nation, and carried on extravagant debaucheries, to pay
for which out of the revenue repeated demands were made to parlia-
ment. After numerous disreputable amours, he became associated
with Mrs. Fitzherbert, to whom (though it was strenuously denied at
the time) we now know that he had gone through the ceremony of
marriage, and for her sake he had at one time declared that he would

GEORGE THE FOURTH. 1 2 1

renounce his succession to the throne and retire from the country.
The alliance that he afterwards contracted with his cousin Caroline of
Brunswick resulted in a trial, the details of which, in the evidence
brought against the unhappy queen, had to be excluded from decent
households, and amazed and disgusted every court in Europe.

It would be to the last degree unedifying to inquire into the
grounds of the charges against Caroline; but it may be said that from
the very first it was remarked that her manner was characterized
by a kind of indelicate levity, which some persons actually attributed
to aberration of intellect. On the succession of George to the throne
he determined to exclude her from claiming to be royal consort,
and a bill was brought against her in the House of Lords, so that a
judicial proceeding took the form of legislative enactment; but she was
defended with extraordinary ability, especially by Henry Brougham,
whose great talents were first recognized during this trial, to which the
young advocate devoted all his vast powers of argument and rhetoric.
On the first reading of the bill it obtained a considerable majority, on
the second a smaller one, and on the third (taken on the loth of
November, 1820) the numbers were 108 to 99, so small a difference
that it was hopeless to expect it to pass the commons. It was there-
fore abandoned amid great popular rejoicings throughout the country,
some of the chief towns being illuminated.

At the time that George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales,
was appointed regent, he was less disliked than distrusted, for though
he was but twenty-six years old he had long before scandalized the
nation, and it was feared that the orgies of Carl ton House would be
transferred to the royal palace. He married Caroline Amelia Eliza-
beth of Brunswick, for the sake of the political alliance, to which he
was urged as a means of securing fresh advances from parliament for
the payment of his debts. The people were unwilling to believe
the alleged reasons for his subsequent separation from his wife, and
the ultimate charges brought against her, because of his own disre-
putable conduct. So large a section of the nation espoused her
cause, that during the long and harassing trial, and the repeated
attacks upon her character by which it was sustained, she was
regarded as a martyr to an endeavour to exclude her from the throne,
to share which she had come from abroad, where she had been living
after the separation which took place almost immediately after her

VOL. II. 39

I2 2 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

marriage, and even before the birth of the Princess Charlotte in

1796.

After his defeat in the attempt to pass the bill against the queen,
the next step of the king was to prorogue the parliament, and the
claim of the queen to be crowned was still denied. The evidence
given at the trial caused enthusiasm on her behalf to abate, and though
she endeavoured to gain admission to Westminster Abbey on the day
of the coronation, on the igth of July, 1821, her conduct was so
strangely violent that she was prevented from entering the doors. It
was of course never intended that she should be admitted, and
after wandering about for a time in the vain search for another
entrance, she retired amidst the mingled cheers and hisses, the applause
and the abuse, of the multitude which had assembled outside. Her
humiliation, her prostration, was complete. She did not long survive
it. On the 7th of August she lay dead at Brandenburg House, having
directed that her only epitaph should be, " Here lies Caroline of
Brunswick, the injured Queen of England." She was to be buried
at Brandenburg, and it was necessary to remove her body to
Harwich. The mob, having determined that the coffin should be
borne through the midst of London, barricaded the side streets, and a
serious riot ensued. The people had supported her cause against the
king, from sympathy with her sorrows, respect for her family and
lineage, and a deep sense of injustice that such charges should be
brought against her by a husband who was notorious for profligacy,
and was even at that time living an openly immoral life. The
public resentment against the king, however, seemed to take the
form of a scornful indifference.

At the time of the queen's death George was on a royal progress,
to which he had been advised as a remedy for his unpopularity.
His journey was first to Ireland, where an obelisk was erected on
the spot where he landed, and the following year he went to Edin-
burgh, where he was received with remarkable enthusiasm by a vast
concourse of people from most of the towns in Scotland, who had
crowded to the capital to see and welcome him. This was really the
last important public event in which he was personally concerned; but
there were already great changes in the political as well as in the social
aspect of the country; and at his death, on the 26th of June, 1830, his
brother, William Henry, Duke of Clarence, succeeded to the throne;

FROM THE PICTURE BY SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE , P. R A

lU THE WATERLOO GAIiXJSIW. TWINDSOB- CJiSTI/E.

OOW V JEIDJNBL'RGH

GEORGE THE FOURTH. 123

and as he was a good-humoured, easy-going man, with the reputa-
tion of having popular and liberal tendencies, and his queen, Adelaide,
was a charitable and amiable woman, respected and esteemed by the
nation, he was borne on the tide of those great social and political
reforms from which he derived a large amount of public credit, though
he personally did very little to promote them, except by sometimes
refraining from opposition, and from undue interference in the course
of events.

The lampoons and gross satires with which George was assailed
both as regent and as king show not only the dislike and the contempt
in which he was held, but the habitual license with which both public
acts and private reputations were assailed. Fines and imprisonment
were in many instances inflicted on the libellers of majesty; but as
usual, those who were punished most severely were not those who
were guilty of the coarsest invective. Examples were made, not
of those who most unsparingly abused the king, but among persons
whose expressions had political weight because of their literary or social
ability, and were therefore regarded as most dangerous to the royal
authority and to its supporters in the government. The prosecution
of John and Leigh Hunt for libel, for instance, was scarcely believed
to have been the penalty for referring to " the first gentleman of
Europe" as "a fat Adonis of fifty;" but the articles in the Examiner
were such dangerous contributions to the tenets of the growing liberal
party, that the fine and imprisonment of their author were determined
on, though, as it afterwards turned out, these punishments did as much
for the liberal cause as a hundred articles might have effected.

The articles in the Examiner and other papers of that period,
however, bore little resemblance to the coarse and almost revolting
vituperation which had characterized much of the political literature
of the latter part of the reign of George III. and the period of the
regency. The prevailing immorality of that time, the indecency
of female attire, the grossness which pervaded many of the habits
of society, had survived some other shameless disorders that preceded
and accompanied the French revolution. The atmosphere of aristo-
cracy appeared to be tainted with the disgusting orgies of men and the
immodesty of women who were too apt to share the dissipations and
encourage the debaucheries of a prince, who, having been placed under
strict governance in his early youth, broke through even the common

PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

decencies of his rank and station when he escaped from control and
was exposed to the allurements of vicious companions and the machina-
tions of rival political parties.

The fierce and bitter lampoons which appeared in the earlier days
before the regency seem, however, to have been emulated by later
writers. It is with a kind of shudder that we now read Byron's
scathing lines: "On the Occasion of His Royal Highness the Prince
Regent being seen standing between the Coffins of Henry VIII. and
Charles I. in the Royal Vault at Windsor:"-

" Famed for contemptuous breach of sacred ties,
By headless Charles see heartless Harry lies ;
Between them stands another sceptred thing,
It moves, it reigns, in all but name, a king :
Charles to his people, Henry to his wife,
In him the double tyrant starts to life;
Justice and death have mix'd their dust in vain,
Each royal vampire wakes to life again.
Ah ! what can tombs avail, since these disgorge
The blood and dust of both to make a George?"

The very coarseness of invective in these words detract from what
merit there is in the verse, and it cannot be regarded as worthy of the
poet's genius; but it is wonderfully illustrative of the unmitigated
detestation which was frequently expressed for the regent.

The extreme frugality of George III. and Queen Charlotte in
private life, and the meanness which often characterized their dealings,
had already become subjects of popular satire, and contrasted strongly
with the reckless extravagance of the Prince of Wales. This became

still more generally a subject of conversation, when, in the session
of 1786, an application was made to the House of Commons for a large
sum of money to clear off the king's debts, which, in spite of the
enormous civil list, he had lately incurred. As there was no visible
outlet by which so much money could have disappeared, people soon
made a variety of surmises to account for King George's heavy expen-
diture: some said that the money was spent privately in corrupting
Englishmen to pave the way to arbitrary power; and most people
believed that their monarch was making large savings out of the public
money and hoarding them up either here or at Hanover.

With the tradition of the family feuds which seemed inseparable
from the royal house, the prince was on very bad terms with
the king his father, and more especially with the queen. They disliked

GEORGE THE FOURTH. 125

him because he was profligate, they disliked his politics, and they
disliked him still more because he took for his companions the very
men towards whom King George nourished the greatest aversion.
In 1783, when the coalition ministry was in power and the prince had
just come of age, the ministers proposed that he should have a settle-
ment of a hundred thousand a year; but the king insisted on allowing
him no more than fifty thousand, making him dependent on his bounty
for the surplus. From this moment the prince became the inseparable
friend and companion of Charles Fox, and among his principal
associates were Sheridan and Lord North. The king and queen were
further irritated by the report of the prince's private marriage,
which, of course, could not be a legal one, with Mrs. Fitzherbert. As
might be expected, the prince was rapidly involving himself in debt,
and his difficulties had become so great in the summer of 1786 that he
found it necessary to apply to the king for assistance; but he met with
a peremptory refusal. In his distress the Duke of Orleans (proverbial
for his immense riches and for his dissipation), who had been in England
as Duke of Chartres in 1783 and 1784, and had then formed a close
intimacy with the Prince of Wales, and who was now again on a visit
to this country, offered his assistance, and the prince seems only to
have been prevented by the earnest expostulations of his private friends
from borrowing a large sum of money from the French prince.

When he found that no assistance was to be expected from the king
he determined to make a show of magnanimity, and adopted the
resolution of suppressing his household establishment, and retiring into
a life of strict economy. The works at Carl ton House were stopped,
the state apartments shut up, and his race-horses, hunters, and even
his coach-horses were sold by public auction. He at the same time
vested .40,000 a year the greater part of his income for the
payment of his debts. The prince's friends, and a large portion even
of the populace for in spite of his irregularities the prince was at
this time far from unpopular trumpeted him forth as the model
of honesty and noble self-denial. But the king was highly displeased,
and the prince's conduct was represented at court as a mere peevish
exhibition of spleen, and as an attempt to make the king and his
ministers unpopular. The press that portion of it which was under
government influence published forth the prince's failings in an
indecent manner; his riotous life, his relation to Mrs. Fitzherbert, and

126 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

all his promiscuous amours were commented on and represented in
not very decorous prints and caricatures, which again were imitated
in others of a far more vulgar character. 1 This was certainly not the
way to work a reformation in a young man who had already entered
on a career of debauchery, and who soon exhibited a reckless disregard
to reputation.

But the French revolution was approaching, and during the period
when thrones were in danger the satirists and caricaturists mostly
turned from the Prince of Wales against the king and queen, whose
avarice and homely economies were abused with unsparing virulence
that surprises modern readers. It was not till after the Prince of Wales
had become regent, and had changed his political but not his social
conduct, that the full tide of invective again assailed him.

THE BOMBARDMENT OF ALGIERS.

The peace which followed the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte was
concluded by a congress of the great sovereign powers and the formation
of what was afterwards called the Holy Alliance, a kind of treaty
or compact, originally suggested to Alexander, Czar of Russia, by the
Baroness de Krudener, afterwards adopted by Austria, Russia, and
Prussia, and subsequently endorsed by most of the other European
rulers. It was, of course, desired that England should join in this
religious association; but the forms of government in this country for-
bade (and happily forbade) subscription to a compact which, however
it may have professed to provide for the government of Europe by the
precepts of justice, Christian charity, and peace, was soon disregarded,
or was subjected to any interpretation that its promoters and supporters
chose to place upon it, even before it was suffered to fall into abeyance
for the purpose of suppressing popular rights and interfering with civil
and religious liberty.

The Prince Regent, afterwards George IV., was practically the

1 The Caricature History of the Georges, by Thomas Wright, F.S.A.

THE BOMBARDMENT OF ALGIERS. 127

sovereign of England, for George III. had fallen into that condition
of imbecility from which he never emerged until his death, on the 29th
of January, 1820, in the eighty-second year of his age, and after
fifty years of actual and ten of nominal sovereignty. At the close
of the war Britain, upon whom the chief burden of the tremen-
dous conflict had fallen, and who had expended nearly ^200,000,000
during the last three years in sustaining it, asked and obtained nothing
but what belonged to her already, or which she might have secured with
little effort. The republic of the seven Ionian Islands was placed under
British protection; she gained possession of Malta and the Cape of
Good Hope, and the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice.
She also held Gibraltar, and thus confirmed that naval superiority which
neither of the other powers called in question, especially as it had
saved them from ruin and maintained their commercial resources.

One demand, indeed, was made by Britain which may be regarded
as indicative of the dawn of a new era. The assent of the assembled
powers to the abolition of the African slave-trade was asked and con-
ceded. It was agreed that they should concert without loss of time
such measures as were necessary to prevent the continuance of that
inhuman traffic. In accordance with this determination was the naval
victory which we gained at a time when the country was greatly
impoverished, trade was almost at a stand-still, and the reaction following
the close of years of war threatened not only general necessity, bank-
ruptcy, and poverty, but, as a consequence, political and social disorder
approaching to insurrection. There was something in the motive for
which the Mediterranean fleet was again brought into action which
served to elevate the spirit of the nation, and the rapidly gained and
complete victory had much to do in raising the people from their
despondency. The piracies, man-stealing, cruelties, and plunder which
the Barbary States on the Mediterranean had been allowed to practise
had been for ages a reproach to Christendom, and tales of the atrocities
of the Barbary corsairs had been handed down from generation to
generation, who had learned to regard "barbarian" as the equivalent
of savage. The dread of the naval power of England had for a long
time secured British ships and British subjects from the attacks of
these pirates, and if, now and then, a British sailor was captured
and sold into slavery, it was while serving under some foreign flag.
Yet Britain determined to take measures at once to abate a monstrous

128 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

evil from which she herself did not suffer and which she had no need
to fear.

Early in the spring of 1816 Admiral Lord Exmouth, commanding
in the Mediterranean, received orders to demand from the Beys of
Tripoli and Tunis, and the Dey of Algiers, satisfaction and protection
for the flags of the Ionian Isles, " which the Congress of Vienna had
left under our protection," and the flags of Naples and Sardinia,
together with the total abandonment of Christian slavery. Tripoli
and Tunis were too weak to think of resisting, and implicitly complied.
But the Dey of Algiers, relying on the great strength of his fortifi-
cations, offered only a partial satisfaction for past offences, and refused,
or endeavoured to evade all promises for the future.

Before taking any steps in fulfilment of his instructions, Lord
Exmouth made the arrangements necessary for an attack, which was
to be the alternative if negotiations failed a result to be expected at
Algiers, which had hitherto withstood so many formidable armaments.
His lordship ordered Captain Warde of the Banter er to proceed to
Algiers, carefully to observe the town and the nature of its defences,
to draw a plan of the works on the seaward side, to take soundings,
and to make his observations on the anchorage. Lord Exmouth's
instructions, written with his own hand, were an admirable illustration
of the forethought with which he provided for every contingency, and
which was the chief secret of his constant success. Captain Warde
performed his difficult and important service with wonderful skill and
secrecy.

The admiralty were greatly surprised when Lord Exmouth pro-
posed to attack Algiers with only five sail of the line. Many naval
officers, upon being consulted by the board, considered those works
as altogether unassailable by ships. His lordship was offered any
force he required, but he firmly adhered to his first demand; for he had
satisfied himself that five ships could destroy the great fortifications
on the mole as effectually as a greater number, and with far more
safety to themselves. After he had explained his plans, and marked
the position which every ship was to occupy, the admiralty allowed
him to act upon his own judgment. "All will go well," said this
brave sailor and most excellent man; "all will go well, as far at least
as it depends on me. I know that nothing can resist a line-of-battle
ship's fife."

THE BOMBARDMENT OF ALGIERS. 1 29

On the 9th of August the veteran was at Gibraltar. Here he
found a Dutch squadron of five frigates and a corvette, commanded
by Vice-admiral the Baron de Capellan, who, on learning the object
of the expedition, solicited and obtained leave to co-operate. On
Tuesday, the 27th of August, they came in sight of Algiers. As the
ships lay becalmed Lord Exmouth sent Lieutenant Burgess in a boat,
under a flag of truce, with the terms dictated by the prince regent,
and a demand for the immediate liberation of the British consul and
some other persons whom the dey had cast into prison. At eleven
o'clock A.M. Lieutenant Burgess was met outside the mole by the
captain of the port, who received the communication, and promised
an answer in two hours. In the meantime a breeze springing up the
fleet stood into the bay, and lay to, about a mile from the town. At
two o'clock Lieutenant Burgess and the boat were seen returning with
the signal that no answer had been given.

The admiral's ship, the Queen Charlotte, instantly telegraphed to
the fleet, "Are you ready?" and the affirmative signal was immediately
displayed from every ship. They all, English and Dutch frigates and
ships of the line, bore up to their appointed stations. The Queen
Charlotte led the attack. There was to be no firing from her until she
came to anchor. The Algerines, confident in the strength of their
works, also reserved their fire ; indeed, they expected to carry the
flag-ship by boarding her from their numerous gun-boats. The
Queen Charlotte proceeded silently to her position; and at half-past
two she anchored by the stern, just half a cable's length from the
terrible mole-head.

The mole was crowded with troops, many of whom got upon the
parapet to look at the ships; and Lord Exmouth, observing them as he
stood upon the poop, waved to them to move away. As soon as the
ship was fairly placed, and her cables stoppered, the crew gave three
hearty cheers, such as Englishmen only can give. Scarcely had the
sound of the last died away when a gun was fired from the upper
tier of the eastern battery, and a second and a third followed in quick
succession. One of the shots struck the Superb. At the first flash
Lord Exmouth gave the order, "Stand by!" at the second, "Fire!"
The report of the third gun was drowned in the thunder of the Queen
Charlottes broadside.

The Algerines replied with the fire of nearly 500 guns. The mole

VOL. II. 40

PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

was filled with cannon, like the side of a line-of-battle ship, mostly
disposed in a double tier, with ports below and embrasures above;
but the eastern batteries next the lighthouse had an inner fortification
with a third tier of guns, making sixty-six in these eastern batteries
alone. These different batteries on the mole mounted altogether
about 220 guns, eighteen being twenty-four or thirty-two pounders,
and two of them being sixty-eight pounders, upwards of 20 feet long.
All these guns were brought to bear point-blank upon Lord Exmouth's
ships of, the line. Some of his lordship's frigates and some of the
Dutch frigates took up positions which three-deckers might have
been justly proud of. There were a few bomb-vessels, whose shells
were thrown with admirable precision by our marine artillery. There
was no lack of courage and resolution on the part of the corsairs.
Shortly after the commencement of the battle their flotilla of gun-
boats advanced to board the Queen Charlotte and the Leander.
At first the smoke covered and concealed them, but so soon as they
were seen a few well-directed shot sent thirty-three out of thirty-seven
of these Algerine gun-boats to the bottom. At four o'clock a large
Algerine frigate was boarded and set on fire. As she burst into
a flame Lord Exmouth telegraphed to the fleet the animating signal,
"Infallible!" Before seven o'clock all the vessels in port, except
a brig and a schooner, were burning fast to the water's edge. As for
the tremendous works on the mole-head, they had been ruined by the
single fire of the Queen Charlotte a very few minutes after the combat
had commenced. The fleet slackened their fire towards night, while
the guns of the enemy became silent. Then the necessity was felt
for husbanding the ammunition. The expenditure had been beyond
all precedent. Our ships had fired nearly 118 tons of powder, and
50,000 shot, weighing more than 500 tons of iron, besides 960 thirteen
and ten inch shells. Such a fire, close, concentrated, and well directed,
nothing could resist. The mighty sea-defences of Algiers, with great
part of the town itself, were shattered and crumbled to ruins.

As the night darkened the breeze freshened, and a tremendous
storm of thunder and lightning came on, with torrents of rain; while
the flaming ships and store-houses illuminated all the ruins on shore.
In scarcely any former general action had the casualties been so
great in proportion to the force employed. In the British ships 128
were killed and 690 wounded; and the Dutch, who had behaved most

THE BOMBARDMENT OF ALGIERS. 13!

gallantly, had 13 killed and 52 wounded. The veteran commander-
in-chief had a narrow escape; he was struck in three places, and a
cannon-shot tore away the skirts of his coat, breaking one of the glasses
and bending the rim of the spectacles in his pocket.

On the 28th, at daylight, Lieutenant Burgess was sent on shore
with a flag of truce, and with the same demands he had carried the
preceding morning; our bomb-vessels at the same time resuming their
positions. Lord Exmouth was immediately given to understand that
all his demands would be submitted to. On the morning of the 2Qth
Captain Brisbane of the flag-ship went on shore, and had a conference
with the humbled and astounded dey.

The negotiations were intrusted to Sir Charles Penrose. They
were very short, for the Algerines could do nothing but submit and
agree. The chief conditions were the abolition of Christian slavery
for ever; the surrender of all their slaves of whatever nation; and the
dey's humble and public apology in person for the insult he had given
to the British flag.

Three thousand Christians were delivered from slavery, and sent
to their own countries and homes. Leaving a ship to receive a few
more, Lord Exmouth sailed for England on the 3d of September.
Scarcely Nelson himself had been in hotter fires than Exmouth, yet his
lordship declared that he had never been under a fire so hot and terrible
as this at Algiers. " The fire all round the mole," said he, " looked
like Pandemonium. I never saw anything so grand and so terrific;
for I was not on velvet for fear they would drive on board us. Their
copper-bottoms floated full of fiery hot charcoal, and were red-hot above
the surface, so that we could not hook on our fire-grapnels to put the
boats to, and could do nothing but push out fire-booms, and spring the
ship off by our warps, as occasion required. ... I never saw any
set of men more obstinate at their guns, and it was superior fire only
that could keep them back. To be sure, nothing could stand before
the Queen Charlottes broadside. Everything fell before it; and the
Swedish consul assures me we killed above 500 at the very
first fire, from the crowded way in which their troops were drawn up,
four deep above the gun-boats, which were also full of men. . . .
I believe they are within bounds when they state their loss at 7000
men."

132 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

WILLIAM THE FOURTH.

At the beginning of the present century England had made great
and rapid strides, not only in the development of her vast commercial
resources, but in the direction of social and political reforms which
advanced both civil and religious liberty. It was also a period during
which such enormous progress was made in scientific discovery,
in mechanical inventions, in the industrial arts, and in the apparatus
of manufacture, that the resources of the country were indefinitely
multiplied, and we seemed to enter upon a new era in which the fine
arts, poetry, and general literature also advanced and were sustained
by the growth of political freedom and by economic changes which
encouraged the publication of numerous magazines and newspapers.

Of course the invention of steam machinery, and its increasing
application to all kinds of industrial purposes, as well as to locomo-
tion, were potent elements in these improvements. Not only was
production enormously increased, but the means of rapid com-
munication at once gave markets to the manufacturer, and brought
food to the producer. In 1780 there were probably only about
13,800,000 inhabitants in Great Britain and Ireland, and the productive
force was represented by the manual labour of about 32,000,000
labourers. In 1826 the population amounted to 22,500,000, while the
productive power was equivalent to the labour of above 60,000,000
men. In 1769 our cotton manufactures did not exceed in annual
value ,200,000; in 1824 the annual value had risen to ,33,500,000;
in 1827 to ,36,000,000; and in 1830 to little less than ,40,000,000.
In 1780 the quantity of coal raised for general use was about 2500 tons;
in 1833 it was about 18,000,000 tons.

This was during the infancy of steam locomotion, and a still further
enormous increase of trade and commerce followed the establishment
of railways. Hitherto steam-boats on canals and rivers had formed the
improved means for transit of goods and passengers. In 1830 the first
great railway with locomotive engines, that between Liverpool and
Manchester, was finished, and the success of the great experiment led
to the immediate construction of other lines. The revolution caused

WILLIAM THE FOURTH. 133

by this wonderful invention was more complete than any that could
have been effected by political combination or by the coalitions of
European states. Even during an eventful year, the climax of a
period of political excitement, when events were moving with rapidity
towards complete constitutional freedom and the direct representation
of the people in the legislature, the establishment of the railway system
was recognized as a tremendous power on the side of the general
advancement.

On the proclamation of William Henry, duke of Clarence, as King
of England, no immediate alteration took place in the government, his
majesty signifying to the Duke of Wellington and the ministers of his
cabinet that he was anxious to retain their services. On Friday the
23d of July his majesty went in state to the House of Lords and
prorogued parliament, the necessary dissolution was made next day by
proclamation, and writs were ordered for the election of a new parlia-
ment, to be returnable on the i4th of September. A portion of the
Whigs had been for some time contemplating a coalition with the Wel-
lington and Peel party, but their advances were not met half-way, and
the Whig party more resolutely than before took up the cry for reform.

On the 28th of July the revolution in Paris which ended in the
abdication of Charles X. was hailed by the ultra-reformers in England
as an event promising a new era in the history of nations. Public
meetings were held to pass resolutions, commending the spirit with
which the Parisians had shaken off encroaching despotism, deputations
were sent to congratulate them on their triumph, and subscriptions
were proposed to relieve the families of those citizens who had suffered
in the cause. At some of these meetings, and in some of the more
radical newspapers and other periodical publications, the people were
called upon to consider how little was to be feared from military power,
and how much could be done by pikes, barricades, and reversed coaches,
carts, and omnibuses. As in the year 1 790, the French declared that
their revolution would make the tour of the globe. It very soon
travelled into Belgium and into Poland, and its effects were felt in Italy,
Saxony, Brunswick, Switzerland, and other countries. The Belgians
had long been dissatisfied with their union with the Dutch, but that
union might have lasted many a long year but for the events of Paris.
On the 25th of August a riot broke out at Brussels which very soon
assumed a character of political insurrection. The flame spread to

134 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

Liege, Namur, and other cities. The Dutch troops, numerically weak,
could not maintain themselves in Brussels ; that capital was evacuated
after very little fighting, and Belgium was declared to be a separate
and independent nation.

On the 8th of September the coronation of William IV. was
solemnized in Westminster Abbey; and even on this occasion the
change of times and fashions was marked by the plainness of the cortege
and the simple but grand and solemn religious service of which the
ceremony mainly consisted. The carriages which conveyed the king
and his queen, Adelaide, from St. James' Palace to the abbey were the
principal objects of attraction to the people assembled in the streets
William wore his naval uniform, and this contributed to the satisfaction
of his subjects as an appropriate token of our naval supremacy, and
stimulated the hearty acclamations with which he was received.

Before the close of 1830 the demand for parliamentary reform had
assumed a new character and aspect. It was no longer the mere war-
cry of a political party, that could be silenced by contradictions or trivial
concessions. It was no longer limited to the disfranchisement of a few
close or corrupt boroughs, and the transference of the forfeited suffrage
to certain towns and communities that were still unrepresented.
Neither could it be postponed, as had hitherto been the case, to a more
convenient season, when circumstances would be more favourable for
change and the public mind in a more tranquil state for its accomplish-
ment. These were the hopes of reasonable and yet ardent reformers;
but there was a considerable difference between the views which were
held by Earl Grey and the ministry and those of the people and
their political leaders. When Lord John Russell attempted afterwards
to introduce a wider measure the debates were prolonged and fierce,
the second reading was only carried by a majority of one, and a division
on a motion in the next debate left the ministry in a minority of eight.

On the assembling of the next parliament the king's speech, calling
the attention of the legislature to the necessity for reform and for the
adoption of measures to secure the prerogative of the crown, the
authority of both houses of parliament, and the rights and liberties
of the people, was applauded to the echo; and this elderly gentleman,
who, with a certain good humour and plainness of address, had always
been popular, was now cheered as the "Patriot King," the "Sailor King,"
and the friend of the people. These sentiments were somewhat

FROM THE PICTURE BY SIR DAYID WILKLE. R.A.

IN THE WATERLOO GALLERY, W1NDSOB- CASTLE.

S.CKIE SL SCTN.LOWDOM GLASGOW*

WILLIAM THE FOURTH. 135

changed afterwards, when the opposition, led by Wellington, Mansfield,
and Ellenborough, refusing to vote such changes in the constitution as
the Reform Bill implied, the ministry resigned their office, and the
king, unable to induce any statesman of influence to accept the post of
prime minister, was compelled to ask Earl Grey and his adherents to
return to power.

The whole country was then in a state of insurrection, and it was
thought that the "bloodless revolution," by which Charles X. had
just been compelled to relinquish the throne of France, might be
repeated in England. But the Reform Bill was at length passed in the
House of Lords, after fierce debate, during which not only London, but
every important town in England, was in a state of wild excitement.

William was nearly sixty-five years old at the time of his acces-
sion, and may be said to have earned the title of "our Sailor
King," inasmuch as all his public life had been in one way or
another associated with the naval service. Before he was fourteen
he had been rated a midshipman on board the Prince George,
which soon after joined the Channel Fleet, under the command of
Sir Charles Hardy, and at the end of the year (1779) sailed as one
of the squadron sent out with Rodney to Gibraltar with supplies for
the garrison. On the passage they fell in with a Spanish fleet of store-
ships under the convoy of seven men-of-war and took them all, twenty-
two in number. The largest of these, the Guipuscuano, of eighty-four
guns, Rodney named the Prince William, " in respect to his royal
highness, in whose presence she had the honour to be taken." There
was no fighting on that occasion, so that the prince could scarcely be
said to have "smelt powder;" but eight days after, a Spanish squadron
was encountered off Cadiz, and after a sharp engagement several of the
enemy's ships were captured and the rest dispersed. Rodney then pro-
ceeded to the Bay of Gibraltar with his supplies, and stayed there for
about three weeks, after which the Prince George returned in the divi-
sion which, under Admiral Digby, took home the prizes, and his royal
highness was once more in England, after completing his first expedition.

He subsequently made two or three short cruises and went again to
Gibraltar with Admiral Darby, after which he sailed for New York with
Admiral Digby, who commanded the Prince George and three other
vessels. It was while he was lodging in the town during the winter
that a plan was formed to seize him and carry him off, and though no

PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

such attempt was ever actually made, it was declared at the time that
it was sanctioned by George Washington. In the autumn of 1782 he
was, at his own request, transferred on board the Warwick, commanded
by Captain Elphinstone, afterwards Lord Keith, but was soon after-
wards removed by the king's orders to the Barfleur, under Sir Samuel,
afterwards Lord Hood. It was while he was in this ship, when lying
off Staten Island, that he first became acquainted with Nelson, for
whom he always afterwards maintained a sincere friendship. After
being stationed for some time at Jamaica and Havanah, his royal
hip-hness set out on a continental tour attended by General Bude and

Captain Merrick. At Hanover he was joined by his brother Frederick,
then styled Bishop of Osnaburg. The two princes visited Frederick
the Great at Berlin, and spent a winter in Germany, after which William
went alone to Switzerland, Savoy, Piedmont, and Prague, and thence
to Italy, where he stayed the winter. On his return to England
he passed his examination as lieutenant, and soon afterwards received
a commission as captain of the Pegasus. In the following year, 1787,
when he was twenty-two years of age, he was ordered to Jamaica,
but took it upon himself to leave that station and return to Halifax,
an act of insubordination for which he was ordered to Quebec, but
he again committed a breach of discipline by leaving that place
and sailing for England. On his arrival at Cork he was ordered
to Plymouth, where he received instructions not to leave without
permission, and it was determined to keep him there for as long a
time as he had improperly absented himself from his station, after
which he was to return to Halifax and the West Indies. This sen-
tence was carried out by his being appointed to the command of
the Andromeda, in which he remained, principally at Jamaica, till the
spring of 1 789. It was impossible to permit a prince to set so bad an
example, and it was difficult to determine how he should be punished
for any probable insubordination in future, so on his return he was
raised to the peerage as Duke of Clarence and St. Andrews, and Earl
of Munster, with an income of ,12,000 a year settled upon him by
act of parliament. The next year, however, he commanded the
Valiant for some time, and on that ship being paid off was made rear-
admiral of the blue. In 1793 ne was promoted to be rear-admiral of
the red; in 1794, vice-admiral of the blue; in 1795, vice-admiral of the
red. In 1799 he was admiral of the blue, and in 1801 became admiral

WILLIAM THE FOURTH. 137

of the fleet. During all this time, however, he stayed at home, and
from 1797 usually residing at Bushey Park, of which he was made
ranger. Two years after he had returned home from his voyage in the
Andromeda, that is to say in 1791, he had formed a connection with the
celebrated Mrs. Jordan, which continued for twenty years, during which
time five sons and five daughters were born to them. The eldest son
was created Duke of Munster, the eldest daughter was Lady Delisle.

Mrs. Jordan, whose real name was Dorothy Bland (Jordan being
only an assumed or stage name), was an accomplished, facile, and charm-
ing actress, whose great attraction was a certain sprightly simplicity.
Hazlitt says: "Her face, her tones, her manner were irresistible.
Her smile had the effect of sunshine, and her laugh did one good to
hear it. Her voice was eloquence itself; it seemed as if her heart
were always at her mouth. She was all gaiety, openness, and good
nature. She rioted in her fine animal spirits, and gave more pleasure
than any other actress because she had the greatest spirit of enjoyment
in herself. In 1785 she first appeared before a London audience at
Drury Lane as " Peggy" in " The Country Girl," and immediately
became famous, receiving an enthusiastic welcome wherever she
appeared. When the Duke of Clarence first made overtures to her
she was the mistress of a Mr. Ford, who refused to marry her because
he feared the displeasure of his father. She then accepted the proposals
of the duke, and for the long period already mentioned appears to have
lived with him in domestic harmony. A yearly allowance of ^4400
was settled on her for the maintenance of herself and her daughters,
with a provision that if she should ever return to the stage the care of
the four daughters and the ^1500 a year allowed for them should
revert to his royal highness. Suddenly, in 1811, and not long after this
arrangement was made, she expressed a wish to resume her profession.
It would perhaps be idle and unprofitable to attempt to explain the
motives for the remarkable and sudden change that took place; but
it is certain that the four children and the allowance for their mainten-
ance were surrendered to their royal father, that she retired to France in
great sorrow and embarrassment, and five years afterwards, on the 3d of
July, 1816, died in a state of extreme mental affliction at St. Cloud.

On the nth of July, 1818, the duke was married at Kew to the
Princess A.delaide Louisa Theresa Caroline Amelia, eldest daughter
of George Frederic Charles, duke of Saxe-Meiningen. Upon his

VOL. II. 41

1 38 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

marriage ^6000 per annum was added to his income, and in 1827,
when by the death of the Duke of York he became heir-presumptive to
the throne, a further increase of ^3000 was made to his annual allow-
ance, and ^6000 a year was settled upon the duchess.

Prince William was then sixty-two years of age, and on the
elevation of Mr. Canning to the premiership he was placed at the head
of the admiralty, but without a seat in the cabinet. He held the posi-
tion no longer than for six months, and then returned to private life,
until, on the death of George IV., he succeeded to the throne. It was
never thought that William, duke of Clarence, displayed any remarkable
capacity, though he frequently took part in the debates in the House
of Lords, where he was a moderately fluent, though a not very elegant
or logical speaker. He chiefly displayed his oratorical ability in his
determined opposition to the abolition of slavery, and for some years
this detracted very seriously from his popularity, until what may almost
be called the accident of his political association with those ministers
who promoted the Reform Bill placed him nominally at the head of
the Liberal interest. That William IV. was personally favourable to
a large measure of reform, however, there can be little doubt, and he at
least possessed one important qualification in a sovereign who found
himself at once popular and liable to those suspicions and changes of
public opinion which in troublous and incendiary times are frequently
terrifying symptoms of revolution. He seems to have been a stout-
hearted old gentleman, who was able to keep his temper and preserve
a certain sturdiness of demeanour even in the midst of what threatened
to be a political conflagration. Even when Earl Grey went to him to
ask him to create such a number of Liberal peers as would form a
majority in the upper house, and so carry the Reform Bill, he showed
no immediate weakness of purpose, but after a night's consideration
declared he could not consent to this course. He thought the anti-
reform peers very obstinate and very wrong, but he did not like making
a dangerous precedent. The Lords would say he had swamped their
house. The alternative of the resignation of the ministry was accepted,
and though he afterwards found it impossible to form another cabinet,
and the excitement of the country made it necessary for him to assemble
parliament again by recalling the former ministry, he submitted to the
humiliation with something like dignity, and without the exhibition of dis-
may which the threatened loss of his own popularity might have excused.

WILLIAM THE FOURTH. 139

Lord Lyndhurst had been unable to find a statesman who would act
as premier. The Duke of Wellington, who had had his windows
smashed by the rioters and was the subject of much popular execration,
which he long outlived, to become once more the popular hero of
England's great military triumphs, was willing to do anything for the
king, but was by no means desirous of taking office. Sir Robert Peel
refused to become prime minister, as he felt he could be of no service
to the king or to the country at that juncture, and as he was still
opposed to any extensive alteration of the constitution. All that the
opposition peers could do they afterwards did. When the Grey mini-
stry was restored and the Reform Bill was passed in the upper house
they were out of their places : their seats were mostly empty, as were
also the cross or independent benches. The first meeting of the
reformed parliament was of itself an important era in our history. This
great national representation had undergone not a partial but a com-
plete change. The first important struggle, in the seventeenth century,
had been to reduce the royal authority below the level of parliament;
the second, which had just succeeded, was to elevate the authority of
the Commons above that of the Lords, and to constitute the house of
the former the real governing power of the empire. The alterations
which had been made in popular representation were such as the reform
appeared to necessitate. Of these the greatest was in the county
constituencies of England. Formerly there had been fifty-two, which
returned ninety-four members; but now, by the division of counties,
these constituencies were increased to eighty-two, which returned
159 members. As all boroughs having less than a population of 2000
were to be disfranchised, fifty-six of these, which had returned 1 1 1
members, were no longer represented. Such boroughs as had a
population of less than 4000, and had sent two representatives, were
now only to return one, and under this category thirty seats were made
vacant. As the number of members that composed the House of Com-
mons was not to be diminished, these 143 constituencies were trans-
ferred to the towns and districts that had increased in population and
importance. In like manner, while no change was made upon Ireland,
Scotland retained her former number of representatives, but with
changes adapted to the increase of the population in new localities,
and its diminution in the old. The mode of election was also simplified
in town and country both as to the time occupied and the registration

PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

of voters, as also the qualifications for a vote, inhabitants of towns
being entitled to the franchise who paid 10 of yearly rental, and of
the counties copyholders and leaseholders to the value of 40^. In this
way it was attempted to combine the privileges of the old agricultural
and the new mercantile England; to reconcile the moneyed with the
hereditary aristocracy; and so to extend the right of election as to
make the House of Commons what it claimed to be, the representation
of the bulk of the people as well as of worth and intelligence.

The first harsh notes which sounded in the new parliament
were caused by the reception given by Mr. Daniel O'Connell to that
part of the address on the king's speech which related to the terrible
disturbances in Ireland, and throughout the course of the subsequent
debate Irish members continued to complain of measures which, though
they were afterwards passed, were considerably mitigated in their
stringency by other measures of redress and improvement. Perhaps
the most prominently historical measure first passed by the reformed
parliament was the Emancipation Act, by which negro slavery was
gradually abolished in our West Indian possessions. If anything
could cloud the joy of such an event it was the circumstance that only
thirty-one days before the Emancipation Act passed, Wilberforce, its
author and champion, had died. But he was cheered with the assurance
that the beloved project of his life was safe, and that in a few days the
bill would become law.

The session was also distinguished for the enormous advances
made in the direction of commercial freedom. A renewal of the
bank charter was the occasion for important amendments in the
organization of the Bank of England; a renewal of the East India
Company's charter threw open to all British subjects a trade which had
till then been a gigantic monopoly; and a free-trade commission was
sent over to France. Efforts were made to inquire into and improve
the condition of our labouring classes, the Factory Bill was fully and
carefully discussed, and an act was passed regulating the hours of labour
for children in factories, and providing for their education. Taxation
was reduced a million and a half, and the Municipal Regulation
Act, a sweeping measure of corporation reform, completed in the
boroughs the improvements which had been contemplated by the
provisions of the clauses of the Reform Bill.

HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA. 141

HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA.

It is not easy to write on the subject of the life and character of
our Queen first, because during her long reign she has so held the
hearts of her people to loyal and loving appreciation of her virtues, that
words which would at all adequately express even the common opinion,
would read like an attempt to eulogize a woman who is too truly
womanly to endure flattery, and too penetrating a judge of praise to
seek it in the adulations of picked sentences and courtly phrases.
Secondly, because the sweet and simple chronicles of some part of her
early life, written by the Queen herself in The Early Days of tJie
Prince Consort and Our Life in the Highlands, have conveyed to
thousands of readers a better picture of the royal household, better
portraits of its members, and more interesting records of the daily life
which alternated between serious duties of state and simple gladsome
recreations, than can be repeated by any other hand. When to these
volumes are added T/te Life of the Prince Consort, now only just
completed under the supervision of Her Majesty, and with many
explanatory notes contributed by herself, the biography, which is also
an autobiography, is so complete as to need little addition, while its
evident sincerity carries to every heart a confirmation of the respect
and affection with which Victoria is regarded by her subjects.

The accession of the youthful daughter of the Duke of Kent to
the throne, after the death of William IV. on the 2oth of June, 1837,
was regarded with a kind of delighted curiosity by all classes of the
people. The fact of a pure and simple-minded girl of eighteen, who
had hitherto lived in domestic seclusion, being called to a position
of such great responsibility at once awakened a tender loyalty which
gave to the country a tone of devoted feeling and noble ardour.

It was known that the young princess, the fatherless daughter
of the Duke of Kent, had been well fitted by early training, by
education, and by natural disposition to be queen of a country where
freedom "broadens down from precedent to precedent." The people,
tired of continued strife, longed for peace. The records of the courts
of the Georges had so often been of a nature to revolt and to

[42 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

disgust the nation that there was a general sense of relief and of
happy expectation that the youthful sovereign would be the repre-
sentative of a purer and better order, free from the evil influences
that had debased royalty, and made history itself a mere small-beer
chronicle of vile intrigues and petty wranglings among partizans and
favourites. A tender regard slid into the hearts of men and women
by whom loyalty was interpreted to mean a personal attachment to the
sovereign. Not only respect for the crown, but affection for the
queen stirred into emotion what had hitherto been only political
fidelity; and even those who, in the extreme views which they
professed, seemed to care little for royalty or for " the throne " as an
institution, spoke with gentle regard of the young, intelligent, and
innocent sovereign who was to exercise so beneficial an influence
on society.

After the death of the Duke of Kent in 1820 the duchess had
entirely devoted herself to the nurture and instruction of her daughter,
the future queen, and she was well qualified for the duty. Her first
husband was Duke of Leinengen, and she was sister to Leopold,
King of the Belgians, one of the most sagacious and accomplished
of European princes. The Princess Victoria became an excellent
musician, acquired a considerable knowledge of modern languages, and
even some proficiency in Latin, her dislike of which she has recorded
with amusing naivete. She was also well instructed in scientific
subjects, especially in botany, and possessed no little talent as an
artist. Her general education was superior to that of most young
ladies of her age, even in the highest ranks of society; and her
brightness and intelligence enabled her to continue her studies long
after she had ascended the throne, and to pursue some of them with
the delightful aid of the accomplished and cultured prince whose
studies and acquirements so admirably fitted him to be her royal
husband. The simple mode of living adopted by the Duchess of
Kent was accompanied by regular and frequent exercise, and the
princess was a famous equestrian, and took great pleasure in yachting
excursions, her mother having overcome her own timidity in order
to cultivate the greater courage and address of her daughter in those
amusements which belong to the robust English life. Thus the excel-
lent constitution of the princess enabled her to become a representative
of that healthy womanhood which is regarded as a national characteristic.

FROM THE PORTRAIT B'Y WINTERHALTER,

TH5-. THK-ONTC KOOMT, 'WliXDSOH. C-A-STTj]

HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA. 143

It should not be forgotten that the youthful queen had also studied
the principles of the English laws and constitution under the tuition
of Lord Viscount Melbourne, who, if not practically a very great
statesman, was one of the ablest exponents of the subjects in which it
was necessary that the future sovereign should be instructed.

The affectionate regard as well as the sincere and joyful anticipa-
tions of the people of England seemed to find satisfaction in the
expressions which were used by the queen, when, in clear and
unfaltering tones, she made her first declaration. To what extent the
actual words of that declaration may be attributed to her own choice
it was never necessary to inquire. It was evident by the emphasis
she gave them that she understood, and intended seriously to adopt
their meaning when she said :

" This awful responsibility is imposed upon me so suddenly, and at
so early a period of my life, that I should feel myself utterly oppressed
by the burden were I not sustained by the hope that divine Providence,
which has called me to this work, will give me strength for the
performance of it, and that I shall find in the purity of my intentions,
and in my zeal for the public welfare, that support and those resources
which usually belong to a more mature age and to long experience.
I place my firm reliance upon the wisdom of parliament, and upon the
loyalty and affection of my people. I esteem it also a peculiar
advantage that I succeed to a sovereign whose constant regards for the
rights and liberties of his subjects, and whose desire to promote the
amelioration of the laws and institutions of the country, have rendered
his name the object of general attachment and veneration. Educated
in England under the tender and enlightened care of a most affec-
tionate mother, I have learned from my infancy to respect and love the
constitution of my native country. It will be my unceasing study
to maintain the reformed religion as by law established, securing
at the same time to all, the full enjoyment of religious liberty : and I
shall promote to the utmost of my power the happiness and welfare
of all classes of my subjects."

This was the speech delivered to the first council, which was called
immediately after the death of William IV. at twenty minutes after
two o'clock on the morning of the 2ist June, 1837. At eleven o'clock
the youthful queen had to meet the council at Kensington Palace,
and the simple and gracious dignity which was conspicuous in so

144 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

young a sovereign won all hearts. Even a writer whose records
in his recently published journals are nearly always satirical or cynical,
and are sometimes almost brutal in their expressions, was either carried
away in spite of his habitual caution, or felt that he could not there
entertain the suspicious and depreciatory temper which perhaps his
experience as clerk of the council had provoked. His language, in
speaking of the young queen, in the diary only recently published, is so
earnest as almost to rise to enthusiasm, though, even in a journal which
was not to be made public till after his death, he is careful to guard
against being accused of partiality. He says :

" Never was anything like the first impression she produced, or the
chorus of praise and admiration which is raised about her manner and
behaviour, and certainly not without justice. It was very extraordi-
nary, and something far beyond what was looked for. Her extreme
youth and inexperience, and the ignorance of the world concerning
her, naturally excited intense curiosity to see how she .would act on this
trying occasion; and there was a considerable assemblage at the
palace, notwithstanding the short notice which was given. The first
thing to be done was to teach her her lesson, which, for this purpose,
Melbourne had himself to learn. I gave him the council papers, and
explained all that was to be done, and he went and explained all this
to her. He asked her if she would enter the room accompanied by
the great officers of state, but she said she would come in alone.
When the lords were assembled the lord-president informed them
of the king's death, and suggested as they were so numerous that
a few of them should repair to the presence of the queen, and inform
her of the event, and that their lordships were assembled in conse-
quence, and accordingly the two royal dukes (Cumberland and Sussex,
the Duke of Cambridge being at Hanover), the two archbishops,
the chancellor, and Melbourne went with him. The queen received
them in the adjoining room alone. As soon as they had returned
the proclamation was read and the usual order passed, when the
doors were thrown open and the queen entered, accompanied by her
two uncles, who advanced to meet her. She bowed to the lords, took
her seat, and then read the speech in a clear, distinct, and audible
voice, and without any appearance of fear or embarrassment. She was
quite plainly dressed, and in mourning. After she had read her
speech, and taken and signed the oath for the security of the Church

HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA. 145

of Scotland, the privy-councillors were sworn, the two dukes first by
themselves; and as these two old men, her uncles, knelt before her,
swearing allegiance and kissing her hand, I saw her blush up to
the eyes, as if she felt the contrast between their civil and natural
relations, and this was the only sign of emotion which she evinced.
Her manner to them was very graceful and engaging: she kissed them
both, and rose from her chair, and moved towards the Duke of Sussex,
who was farthest from her, and too infirm to reach her. She seemed
rather bewildered at the multitude of men who were sworn, and who
came one after another to kiss her hand; but she did not speak to
anybody, nor did she make the slightest difference in her manner,
or show any in her countenance to any individual of any rank, station,
or party. I particularly watched her when Melbourne, and the
ministers, and the Duke of Wellington, and Peel approached her.
She went through the whole ceremony, occasionally looking at
Melbourne for instruction when she had any doubt what to do, which
hardly ever .occurred, and with perfect calmness and self-possession,
but at the same time with a graceful modesty and propriety particularly
interesting and ingratiating. Peel afterwards said how amazed he was
at her manner and behaviour, at her apparent deep sense of her
situation, her modesty, and, at the same time, her firmness." l

It is forty years since the young girl of eighteen made her declara-
tion to the council, and the queen, who can now stand amidst her chil-
dren and grandchildren, has retained the loyal affections of a people to
whom she might appeal with a confidence as unfaltering as that of her
girlhood repeating the words of promise, the obligations of which she
has so well fulfilled. Can any queen take higher rank or truer
sovereignty than this?

It is more than twenty-five years since the poet-laureate in a
" Dedication," wrote :

" May you rule us long,

" And leave us rulers of your blood
As noble till the latest day !
May children of our children say,
' She wrought her people lasting good.

"'Her court was pure; her life serene;
God gave her peace, her land reposed ;
A thousand claims to reverence closed
In her as Mother, Wife, and Queen.

'Greville, Journals of the Reigns of George IV. and William IV.
VOL. II. 42

146 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS,

"'And statesmen at her council met,
Who knew the seasons when to take
Occasion by the hand, and make
The bounds of freedom wider yet.

" 'By shaping some august decree,
Which kept her throne unshaken still,
Broad-based upon her people's will,
And compass'd by the inviolate sea.'"

Alas! the serenity and repose of the domestic life of our queen was
shaken by the great sorrow which befell her ten years after these verses
were written. The claims to reverence which closed in her as mother,
wife, and queen remain; though both she and the people have had to
mourn the loss of the prince who was her consort, and shared with her
the affection and regard of the nation.

The young queen had reigned only two years and a half when
she announced to the council assembled at Buckingham Palace her
intention of contracting a matrimonial alliance with Prince Francis
Charles Augustus Albert Emmanuel, of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, second
son of Duke Ernest, the first and younger brother of the Duke of
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The formal announcement of these stately titles
were but accessories to the high rank of those who were about to be
allied in a marriage which was one of mutual affection and unbiassed
choice. The prince, who was of the same age as the queen, had
become naturalized a few days before the royal marriage, which took
place on the loth of February, 1840; and he soon became so completely
'dentified with England and the English, that he could scarcely have
been more truly allied to the people if he had been educated at Oxford
or Cambridge instead of at the University of Bonn, where he was an
accomplished student.

Perhaps there never was a prince, even of an English royal family,
who became more familiar and more thoroughly acceptable to the people
than the Consort, who is now so often spoken of as "Albert the Good;"
but then few, if any princes of our royal houses, have been at once so
thoroughly imbued with the spirit of English simple domestic life, or
have taken so practical and genuine an interest in social improvements,
and the development of those industrial and economical arts which are
associated with the commercial prosperity of the country. Another
important element in the popularity of Prince Albert, was the remark-
able tact and discretion with which he sustained his position as the

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HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA. 147

beloved and trusted husband of the queen, without becoming enmeshed
in political or state affairs. It is quite possible that his keen faculty of
observation, and his quiet reflective wisdom, were not without their
influence on the opinions both of the queen and of some of the states-
men who enjoyed his friendship; but his opinions were never obtruded,
and probably were never offered except when they were asked for. At
the same time, the whole course of his public life furnishes evidence
that they would always have been in accordance with the progress of
free institutions and the welfare of the people.

There is no need to dwell here upon the sorrow which fell upon the
queen and the nation when one so beloved was removed in the midst
of his beneficent and yet modest work, on the 1/j.th of December, 1861.
In the period of grief and suffering which followed, the sympathies of
the people of England were with their sovereign, and it is not too much
to say, that in the long retirement occasioned by the lasting sorrow of
her bereavement, the memory of the great loss which she and they had
sustained enabled her subjects to respect her continued seclusion, even
though they heartily desired her return to public life. Now that
her majesty has on several occasions appeared once more among her
people in London and elsewhere, the multitudes who fill the streets
and the earnest greetings with which she is welcomed attest that the
affectionate loyalty of the country is unimpaired.

Upon the vast changes, the superb achievements, the enormous
advances, which have characterized the reign of a sovereign who for
more than forty years has retained the love of her people and the
respect of every ruler and every court in Europe, we cannot find space
to speak. The history of the reign of Victoria is the history of a great
national epoch, in which the queen has held a foremost place. The
years of her widowhood have been passed in frequent retirement from
public life, but not in actual seclusion. Whether she be in the pleasant
retreat of Osborne in the Isle of Wight, or in the remoter palace at
Balmoral, endeared to her by those recollections which are shared alike
by her English and the Scottish subjects, she is known to her people;
and her voice is still potent for good, her judgment still listened to with
respect, her influence still felt both in the councils of the state and in
the social life which her example has helped to purify and to elevate.

PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS ALBERT,
PRINCE CONSORT.

FRANCIS CHARLES AUGUSTUS ALBERT EMMANUEL who as " Prince
Albert," or the " Prince Consort" was to become almost representa-
tively English, and to share with the queen herself the respectful
affection and esteem of the English people, was the second son of
Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Coburg, Saalfield, and of his wife Louise,
daughter of Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. He was born
on the 26th of August, 1819, his elder and only brother Ernest, having
been born on the 2ist of June in the previous year. The two boys
were named after the two sons of Frederick the Gentle, Elector of
Saxony, who were carried off from the Castle of Altenburg in 1455 by
Kunz of Kaufungen, but were afterwards recovered and became the
founders of the two branches of the Saxon family. Both the young
princes were distinguished for their precocity, and for their good
qualities, and they remained almost inseparable until they had reached
the respective ages of twenty and nineteen years of age. They had
been at college together, studied under the same tutors, taken the same
voyages, and shared the same domestic life; so that when it had become
necessary for the elder, Ernest, to enter upon his military duties at
Dresden, as a preparation for his succession to the dukedom, the part-
ing of the brothers was a sorrowful one. " The separation," wrote
Prince Albert to their old comrade and fellow-student, Prince von
Lowenstein, on the 26th of October, 1838, "will be frightfully painful
to us. Until now we have never, as long as we can recollect, been
a single day away from each other."

The house of Coburg was intimately allied by marriage with the
royal family of England. In 1816 Prince Leopold, the youngest
brother of Prince Albert's father, the Duke of Coburg, had married the
Princess Charlotte, who was already the darling of the English people
because of her beauty and innocence, and because they hoped in her
to see the restoration of purity and dignity to the English throne.
Her husband, a wise, virtuous, and accomplished prince, was scarcely
less admired and beloved, and the sudden calamity of her death on the

H.R.H. ALBERT, PRINCE CONSORT. 149

5th of November, 1817, in less than a year after their union, drove him
to a voluntary though only a temporary exile. The untimely death of
the Duke of Kent, within eight months after the birth of the Princess
Victoria, threw upon his brother-in-law, Prince Leopold, the care of his
widow and child. The little " Mayflower," as the German relatives
had already named the princess, was therefore naturally regarded with
peculiar interest by the family at Coburg, and long before she could
have been regarded as the future Queen of England (that is, during
the time that Queen Adelaide might still hope to have children to take
the place of those whom she had lost), the idea of her marriage with
one of her Coburg cousins had obviously been so distinctly entertained,
that Prince Albert's nurse was in the habit of prattling to him, when he
was only three years old, about his destined bride in England. 1

From childhood Prince Albert was distinguished for personal
beauty, and for that winning sincerity which, united with considerable
attainments, great self-control, and a remarkably sound judgment, so
eminently qualified him for the position that he afterwards acquired in
this country. Of his character, disposition, and judgment, his uncle
Leopold had a very high opinion, and Leopold himself was one of the
most accomplished, as he was one of the most astute and judicious,
advisers in Europe, even before he accepted the throne of Belgium.
It was doubtless a great loss to the young prince that his mother had
been separated from his father by divorce, while he and his brother
were yet infants; but the dowager duchess was yet living, a woman in
every respect distinguished, warm-hearted, possessing a powerful under-
standing, and loving her grandchildren most tenderly. However, the
boys had been transferred, while they were yet mere infants (the elder
being less than five years old), to the care of a tutor, M. Florschutz
of Coburg, who continued for many years to superintend their studies
with conscientious zeal. In 1824 the separation of the duke and
duchess took place, followed in 1826 by a divorce, so that the grand-
mother and the step-grandmother (second wife of the maternal grand-
father) were chiefly concerned in the domestic nurture of the children.

In 1836 it became almost certain that the Princess Victoria must
soon succeed to the throne, and there were already several aspirants
to her hand in the various courts of Europe. It was necessary, there-
fore, for King Leopold, who had by that time accepted the throne

1 Life oftJie Prince Consort; by Theodore Martin.

150 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

of Belgium, and was regarded as the most ^sagacious of living sove-
reiens, to discover what were the inclinations of his niece, and to act

with the greatest caution, lest he should unconsciously lead her to a
decision to which he had no desire to influence her, although he would
have regarded it with satisfaction. That he sincerely hoped for an
alliance between his nephew of Saxe-Coburg and his niece of Britain
there can be no doubt, but he was delicately careful not to precipi-
tate an engagement. In order to be thoroughly impartial he sought
the aid and counsel of an adviser as astute and as independent as
himself, the famous Baron Christian Friedrich von Stockmar, who seems
thenceforward to have devoted himself to ' the service of the princess
who was soon to be Queen of England, and to have watched her
deepest interests by carefully noting and afterwards confidentially
advising and directing the studies and the occupations of the prince
who was at no distant date to become her husband. Baron Stockmar,
who was a native of Coburg, had entered the service of Prince Leopold
as private physician at the time of the prince's marriage with the
Princess Charlotte. She had died with her hand clasped in his, and
it was he who had to announce to the prince the blow which struck
him to the heart both in his affections and his ambition. By his
sympathy and skilful treatment the prince had been enabled to sustain
a shock under which he might otherwise have sunk. From this time
to 1831 Stockmar had acted as the prince's private secretary and
controller of his household, residing almost exclusively in England,
where he acquired a thorough knowledge of the country, its people,
and constitution, and bringing to the study of these the sympathy
of strong liberal opinions, together with powers of observation and
philosophical deduction of a very high order. He had taken part,
as the private adviser and representative of King Leopold, in the
protracted and complex diplomatic negotiations with the plenipoten-
tiaries of the great European powers, which took place in London after
the king's acceptance of the Belgian crown, and which resulted in
the treaty of 1831. He had, therefore, been in intimate contact with
the leading diplomats of Europe as well as with the chiefs of the two
great political parties in England, and by all, his unusual abilities, his
smgle-mindedness, and sturdy integrity were held in high estimation.
" Cest un original," said Count Felix de Merode, " mais quel honnte
homme!" And Lord Palmerston, no friendly critic, declared: "I have

II.R.II. ALBERT, PRINCE CONSORT. 151

come, in my life, across qn]y one absolutely disinterested man Stock-
mar!" 1

This was the counsellor to whom King Leopold applied, and he
could not have had a better one in the interests of the princess herself
to whom he seems to have had a deep and loyal attachment, which
made him jealously anxious in his close observation of the character,
conduct, and disposition of the prince who was to become her husband.
It is certain that the austere sincerity with which he answered the
appeal for his advice was the happiest omen for the welfare of the
objects of his solicitude. In a letter to the King of the Belgians in
1836, he wrote: " Albert is a fine young fellow, well-grown for his age,
with agreeable and valuable qualities, and who, if things go well, may,
in a few years, turn out a handsome man of a kindly, simple, yet
dignified demeanour. Externally, therefore, he possesses all that
pleases the sex, and at all times and in all countries must please. It
may prove, too, a lucky circumstance that even now he has something
of an English look. But now the question is, How as to his mind?
On this point, too, one hears much to his credit. But these judgments
are all more or less partial; and until I have observed him longer I
can form no judgment as to his capacity and the probable development
of his character. He is said to be circumspect, discreet, and even
now cautious. But all this is not enough. He ought to have not
merely great ability, but a right ambition and great force of will as well.
To pursue for a lifetime a political career so arduous demands more
than energy and inclination, it demands also that earnest frame of mind
which is ready of its own accord to sacrifice mere pleasure to real
usefulness. If he is not satisfied hereafter with having achieved one
of the most influential positions in Europe, how often will he feel
tempted to repent what he has undertaken? If he does not from the
very outset accept it as a vocation of grave responsibility, on the
efficient fulfilment of which his honour and happiness depend, there
is small likelihood of his succeeding." One thing above all he urged
as indispensable, that no claim for the hand of his cousin should be
preferred unless an impression in his favour from personal acquaint-
ance should first have been produced.

In May, 1836, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg came to England with
his two sons and remained for four weeks. Of course the probability

1 Life of the Printe Consort; by Theodore Martin.

I cj 2 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

of an alliance had so often been mentioned to the prince in earlier
days, that he could scarcely be unconscious of the possible object of the
visit, but he had no reason to think that this was more than a desire
on the part of his family, and the Princess Victoria was left free to
follow her own inclination. That this inclination was in accordance
with that of King Leopold soon became manifest; for when his majesty
afterwards made the princess aware of his wishes, she at once responded
by writing: " I have only now to beg you, my dearest uncle, to take
care of the health of one now so dear to me, and to take him under
your special protection." Nothing certain was made known to the
prince, however, though his studies were directed in accordance with
the probable position which he was afterwards to occupy. By the
advice of Stockmar he and his brother went to Brussels, where their
uncle was working out the problem of constitutional government.
Berlin was regarded by this wise adviser as a bad political school, and
the manners of the city were profligate; Vienna occupied a position
in relation to Germany which made it an undesirable place for the
education of a German prince; the training at universities was too
scholastic, one-sided, and theoretical for one who had to study men and
the course of political events in the free arena of a constitutional king-
dom. At Brussels the young men were placed under the care of
Baron Wiechmann, a retired officer of the English-German legion, for
the study of history and modern languages, and also under the tuition of
M. Quetelet, the eminent statist and mathematician. With this gentle-
man the prince continued to correspond until the last year of his life,
and he frequently expressed his acknowledgments of the influence
which the teaching he had received from him exercised in relation
to many important subjects.

From Brussels the young men went to Bonn, and here Prince
Albert pursued his studies with great eagerness, devoting himself
particularly to the natural sciences and political economy. " Amongst
all the young men at the university," writes Prince William of
Lowenstein, with whom he there formed a close and intimate friendship,
" he was distinguished by his knowledge, his diligence, and his amiable
bearing in society." Along with his severer studies he kept up his
physical training, and in a fencing match carried off the prize from
about thirty competitors, and he also continued to make the study of music
one of his most cherished recreations, having already shown consider-

II.R.H. ALBERT, PRINCE CONSORT. 153

able gifts as a composer. While he was at Bonn the death of William
IV. gave to the Princess Victoria the grave responsibilities of royalty
responsibilities which the hostile struggles of political parties for place
and power made still more serious.

The accession of the queen, of course, revived the rumours which
had for some time been current of a contemplated marriage with
her cousin, and in order to withdraw public attention from the princes
King Leopold advised that they should spend the autumn of 1837
in that tour through Switzerland and Italy to which reference has
already been made, On his return to Bonn Prince Albert resumed
his studies, and at the end of the year it was thought desirable to
bring the subject of the marriage explicitly before him. King Leopold
thought that some decisive arrangement should be made for the year
l &3>9> but to this the young queen demurred. Both she and the
prince were too young, she said, and as they were both under age,
her subjects would regard their marriage as premature, while the prince
was yet but imperfectly acquainted with the English language, and
required not only a wider experience, but more practised habits of
observation, than he had then acquired. King Leopold offered no
objection to these prudent representations, and stated the whole case
honestly and kindly to the prince, who, on his part, regarded the
subject from a high and honourable point of view, though he naturally
required a promise that during the long delay proposed he should
have some certain ground of assurance, since, in the event of the
queen no longer desiring the marriage, he would be placed in a
ridiculous position, and his prospects for the future would be seriously
injured.

It was subsequently arranged that he should make a tour in Italy
to complete his education, accompanied, at the request of the queen,
by Baron Stockmar. In Florence he continued his studies, living a
simple life even in the midst of the gay and brilliant society in which
he was a welcome guest. Rising at six in the morning he worked till
mid-day, when he partook of a plain dinner, seldom drinking anything
but water, and going to bed as a rule at nine o'clock. His chief
recreation was music, and the fine organ of the Church of the Badia
afforded him frequent opportunities for practice at times when the
building was closed to the public. Sir Francis Seymour writes: " The
monks, on their way to the refectory, would stop and listen, whispering

VOL. II. 43

154 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

to each other ' Quel Principe forestiere suona bene quasi quanto il
nostro Papi' Papi being the organist of the Badia, and the prince's
private instructor.

From Florence the prince went to Rome, and thence returned to
Milan, taking Leghorn, Lucca, and Genoa on the way. At Milan
he was met by his father, with whom he returned to Coburg by way
of Geneva, to be present at the celebration of his brother's coming
of age on the 2ist June, 1839. By a special act of the legislature
Prince Albert was declared to be of age at the same time. He had
hoped to return home in order to resume those studies in political
and social economy which Stockmar had advised him to pursue in
conjunction with his acquisition of a further knowledge of the English
language and history. Instead of this, however, he had to accompany
his father to Carlsbad, and after a short interval of quiet and regular
occupation at Rosenau, prepared for a visit to England. That visit
was undertaken with the erroneous impression that the youthful
queen " wished the affair to be considered as broken off, and that for
four years she could think of no marriage" such were the words
of the prince in a letter to Prince Lowenstein, and such was the
impression conveyed by the representations of King Leopold in
accordance with the letter which he had received from her majesty
desiring delay. Those representations were, perhaps, more unpromis-
ing than her majesty intended, for her early inclination had undergone
no change, and, to use her own words, " she never had an idea, if she
married at all, of any one else."

While the queen sought to defer their union, and the prince
desired, while yielding to her representations, to receive some assur-
ance from her that he was not waiting in vain, there were many
external reasons for her early marriage. Not only were various
diplomatic intriguers so anxious for the disposal of her hand in the
interests of their own ambitious schemes, that their pretensions had
become both personally annoying and publicly disquieting; but social
and political questions were affected by that strife of parties which
arose from squabbles about the personal influence of those by whom
her majesty was surrounded, and to whom she not unnaturally felt the
attachment that proceeds from personal regard and confidence. It
was not easy for her to separate this regard for Lord Melbourne and
for some of his adherents from an appearance of political partisanship

H.R.H. ALBERT, PRINCE CONSORT. 155

which was beginning to be mischievous. It was difficult for a young
and ingenuous woman, scarcely past girlhood, to adopt the astute
advice even of such a wise counsellor as the King of the Belgians,
and only a rare intelligence and an honesty of nature still more rare
could have enabled so young a sovereign to maintain the integrity
of her intentions, especially amidst a life of dazzling excitement which
the queen herself has described to be "detrimental to all natural
feelings and affections." 1 Those who had the welfare of the young
queen most at heart were anxious to secure for her without delay a
husband's guidance and support, and with it that domestic tranquillity
which would be most effectual in promoting her happiness.

The attainment of both these objects was nearer than either
of the persons principally concerned seem to have imagined. On the
roth of October, 1839, the prince arrived with his brother at Windsor
Castle. The three years which had passed since their previous visit
to England had greatly improved their personal appearance. General
Grey says: " Tall and manly as they both were, Prince Albert was
eminently handsome. But there was also in his countenance a gentle-
ness of expression and peculiar sweetness in his smile, with a look
of deep thought and high intelligence in his clear blue eye and
expansive forehead that added a charm to the impression he produced
in those who saw him far beyond that derived from mere beauty and
regularity of features."

With the attractions of personal appearance Prince Albert possessed
not only considerable mental endowments and varied accomplishments,
but a remarkable humour, which was displayed both in his talent for
drawing and in his conversation to intimate friends. Stockmar,
writing of him during the Italian tour, speaks of his tendency to
espieglerie, and to the treatment of men and things in a droll and
consequently often pleasant fashion, and King Leopold, writing to the
queen, says: "Albert is a very agreeable companion. His manners
are so gentle and harmonious, that one likes to have him near one's self.
I always found him so when I had him with me, and I think his
travels have still further improved him. He is full of talent and fun,
and draws cleverly."

Even while this was being written from Brussels, however, the
youthful queen had discovered the fascinating character of her future

1 Early Years of the Prince Consort.

156 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

husband. If the meeting of these two young people was not the
occasion of " love at first sight," it was at least the opportunity for a
revival of that early regard with the intensity of a maturer and more
significant affection. On the second day after the arrival of the princes
the uncertainty which had attended the visit was nearly dissipated,
and on the I4th of October the queen had informed Lord Melbourne
of her intention. He showed the greatest satisfaction at the announce-
ment, adding the expression of his conviction that it would not only
make her position more comfortable, but would be well received by the
country.

The short story of this royal courtship, as far as we can read it in
the account which the queen herself has endorsed, is very pure and sweet.
There is a charming simplicity in the record, which carries us far away
from the mere external trappings and ceremonious observances of a
court, and yet is truly regal in its evident fidelity and confidence.
What can be more charmingly ingenuous, for instance, than the letter
sent by the queen to Baron Stockmar, to whom, as she had so
recently expressed her resolution not to marry for some time, she
wrote with a naive embarrassment:

" WINDSOR CASTLE, lyk October, 1839.

"I do feel so guilty, I know not how to begin my letter; but I think the news that
it will contain will be sufficient to insure your forgiveness. Albert has completely won
my heart, and all was settled between us this morning. ... I feel certain he will
make me very happy. I wish I could say I felt as certain of my making him happy,
but I shall do my best. Uncle Leopold must tell you all about the details, which I have
not time to do. ... Albert is very much attached to you."

On the following day the prince writes to the same old and tried
friend, what he knew would be "the most welcome news possible."
"Victoria," he says, "is so good and kind to me that I am often puzzled
to believe that I should be the object of so much affection. I know
the interest you take in my happiness, and therefore pour out my heart
to you. . . . More or more seriously I cannot write : I am at this
moment too much bewildered to do so.

" Das Auge sieht den Himmel offen,
Es schwelgt das Herz in Seligkeit." 1

1 Heaven opens on the ravish'd eye,
The heart is all entranced in bliss.

Schiller's 'Song of the Bell.

FROM THK PORTRAIT BV WINTERHAIiTER,

THK T-HFLONi; K-O O 1VT, "W I 3SC n S O IX C-.A-ST.

H.R.H. ALBERT, PRINCE CONSORT. 157

The records of the happy married life of the queen are interspersed
with letters full of similar expressions of mutual affection. In the two
books in which her majesty, with the simple, true womanliness that
was always her characteristic, has taken her subjects into an almost
sacred confidence, 1 we are shown how that early love remained full of
lustre, undimmed by passing years and pressing cares of state. In the
more recent Life of the Prince Consort, compiled and written by Mr.
Theodore Martin, with the direct sanction and endorsement of the
queen herself, who has added here and there a note, brief but full of
tender suggestion, we have a yet fuller account not only of the domestic
life of the royal family, but of the early hostilities and misapprehensions
which the prince experienced, but so completely overcame by his rare
sagacity, his modest patient temper, and admirable self-restraint. We
see too how those very qualities by which he won the queen enabled
him to win the people too, so that when he died queen and people alike
were widowed, and were united in mourning their great bereavement.

It is not only those who know with what acute sensitiveness Prince
Albert regarded the misunderstanding of his character, which caused
people at first to regard him with caution, that the volumes to which
we have referred will come as a pleasant confirmation of the opinion
they learned to form of his high honour and sincerity of purpose. In
the same way those who, knowing him but at a distance, detected what
seemed like coldness and even hauteur in his demeanour, will in the
letters and narratives find another proof that this was the external habit
adopted as a precaution against a familiarity, which, if too general,
would have been misconstrued and probably condemned. It may also
have been the natural reticence of a man who, himself living a simple
and yet a high life, was compelled, and indeed delighted to mingle with
earnest workers of every grade, who yet may not have had his aims
and who could scarcely estimate the difficulties of his position.

There was no lack of real sweetness, nor of a certain lowliness of heart
in his character, and he never shrank from anything that he conceived
to be a public duty demanded by his station, though he frequently had to
undergo considerable suffering from illness, and many heart-burnings
and disappointments in consequence of the mistaken estimate which
some people persisted in making of his intentions. Perhaps of all the
statesmen of his early time the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert

1 Our Life in the Highlands. Early Years of the Prince Consort.

PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

Peel understood and appreciated him best; but his patient consistency,
and his evident desire to use his great abilities in that sphere of social
material improvement which enabled him to do so much for the
advancement of the everyday life of the people, and his constant
modesty and temper, attracted all the really capable and appreciative
men with whom he worked.

The tremendous exertions which he underwent in order to over-
come the difficulties, and to insure the success of the Great Exhibition
of 1851, showed of how much he was capable, both in actual
organization and in admirable self-control, and the modest determina-
tion with which he refused his assent to any of the surplus funds being
devoted to show him public honour was but one among many proofs
of his unselfish desire to find a reward in the work that lay before
him. Few men could have done that work so well, for it involved
many hours of close study in his writing-room, many conferences
and committees, many public meetings and public speeches, and much
personal inspection and direction. It is to be feared that he too often
permitted himself to undertake duties beyond the actual strength
of his constitution, but he fulfilled them so cheerfully, and seemed
to be capable of such recuperation during the short happy holidays
that he and the queen passed at Osborne or in the Highlands, that
he could throw off the apparent pressure of fatigue and excitement
sooner than many men of even a more mercurial temperament.

He left the world and the country the better for the life which
passed out of this sphere while it was still in the midst of activity and
usefulness; but he had won a noble victory over the hearts of some
of the most prejudiced of mankind, and England, almost startled into
sudden pain by his illness, bowed in sorrow at the intelligence of his
death, not only because he was the husband of England's queen,
but because he was possessed of qualities with which the nation of his
adoption might well desire to claim kin. Well might the people find
in the words of the poet-laureate, the outcry which came from so
many hearts :

" We know him now : all narrow jealousies
Are silent ; and we see him as he moved,
How modest, kindly, all-accomplish'd, wise;
With what sublime repression of himself,
And in what limits, and how tenderly ;
Not swaying to this faction or to that ;

H.R.H. ALBERT, PRINCE CONSORT. 159

Not making his high place the lawless perch
Of wing'd ambitions, nor a vantage-ground
For pleasure; but through all this tract of years
Wearing the white flower of a blameless life,
Before a thousand peering littlenesses,
In that fierce light which beats upon a throne,
And blackens every blot : for where is he
Who dares foreshadow for an only son
A lovelier life, a more unstain'd than his?
Or how should England, dreaming of his sons,
Hope more for these than some inheritance
Of such a life, a heart, a mind as thine,
Thou noble father of her kings to be,
Laborious for her people and her poor
Voice in the rich dawn of an ampler day
Far-sighted summoner of war and waste
To fruitful strifes and rivalries of peace
Sweet nature gilded by the gracious gleam
Of letters, dear to science, dear to art,
Dear to thy land and ours, a Prince indeed,
Beyond all titles, and a household name
Hereafter, thro' all times, Albert the Good!"

SUNDAY IN THE BACKWOODS.

Perhaps there is no more striking characteristic in the history of
the English people than that spirit of enterprise which has made them
almost universal colonists. It is of course to be observed, that all
nations which have become remarkable for maritime commerce, have
extended their communities in distant lands, and have either mingled
with the original inhabitants or have formed distinct societies,
sustaining amicable relations or destined eventually to come into con-
flict with the aborigines or their descendants. The Dutch, the
Portuguese, the Spaniards, and some of the people of Northern Europe,
have been successful colonists from early times; but among the English
people there seems to survive the Anglo-Saxon talent for supple-
menting colonization or even successful invasion by a political and
social organization which, being planted on the ground of free and elastic
institutions, takes firm root and yet grows with great rapidity. It is
perhaps owing to the combination of the constructive and the com-

l6o PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

mercial elements in the English character that in every latitude and
under all kinds of external conditions our colonies either assume a
rapid development, or after a determined subjugation of the difficulties
that first present themselves grow into healthy and flourishing com-
munities with a singular adaptation to the climate and circumstances
of the country in which they are established, but at the same time with
a remarkable and sturdy retention of many English customs, observ-
ances, and modes of living. With a strength of constitution and a
freedom of action which leaves great scope for varied conditions of
existence, the Englishman combines an intense individuality and a
certain half-concealed national pride, which distinguishes him all over
the world. His ready adaptability stands him in better stead than
that talent for acquiring foreign languages for which many European
citizens are distinguished; while his distinctive nationality, partly the
result of the geographical position of his country, and even some of
his prejudices, serve to maintain a certain dominance of character which
peculiarly belongs to him. It may also be said that the copious-
ness of our language is itself an element in our success as colonists,
and there is good reason to believe that English will be the universal
tongue, if ever mankind should adopt one, since the English-speaking
colonies represent, if we include the great American continent, not only
a vast extent of territory in every quarter of the globe, but the com-
munities which are growing in wealth, strength, and enterprise.

The rapid growth of our colonies in Australasia, and the develop-
ment of what was once only a convict station to a prosperous community
which bids fair to become an important and influential province, has
been one of the wonders of recent times. The names of New South
Wales or Van Diemen's Land have now lost their old significance,
and it is to our interest as well as to that of the colonists themselves
to forget it in the wider meaning of their grand commercial and colonial
relations. Meanwhile, New Zealand, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria,
Southern Australia, with Adelaide, its great mercantile capital, and the
Swan River Settlement, now known as Western Australia, all take their
contingent of emigrants. The emigration of British subjects to
Australia and New Zealand was 38,828 in 1862, and in the following
year had increased to 50,157. In 1871 the figures had fallen to 11,695,
but in 1872 they rose again to 15,248, in 1873 to 25,137, while in 1874
they showed the large number of 52,581, since which they have again

SUNDAY IN THE BACKWOODS. l6l

declined to 34,750 in 1875, and 32,196 in 1876; British emigration
to the United States of America having also declined from 166,730
in 1873 to 54,554 in 1876; while the numbers represented by the
British colonies of North America had declined from 29,045 in 1873,
to 20,728 in 1874, 12,306 in 1875, and 9335 in 1876, the foreign
emigration to these British possessions representing about one-fourth
more than these numbers.

Ontario and Quebec, the two older colonies of British North
America, are still receiving large reinforcements from this country,
though the name Canada now includes " The Dominion," which in
1867 was made by act of parliament to comprise Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick also, while provision was made to admit other provinces
as occasion might arise. The Dominion of Canada now means Upper
and Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward
Island, British Columbia, Manitoba, and in fact the whole of British
North America except Newfoundland. It is to Upper Canada or
Ontario and to British Columbia, formerly a part of the Hudson's Bay
territory, that the agricultural and actual colonizing emigration is
directed. The population of the latter province is about 50,000,
including a large number of Chinese, and it rose into importance after
the discovery of gold in its rivers in 1858, when the immigration of
diggers from California made it necessary for the British government
to transform the territory into a regular colony. With plenty of coal
and magnificent timber the country is also extremely fertile, and during
the last five years has been considerably devoted to agriculture and
to the raising of cereals and farm produce. Perhaps the white popula-
tion does not exceed 15,000, so that there is still "room and verge
enough."

The old colony of Ontario or Upper Canada continues to sustain
its reputation, though there also the vast trade in timber is yielding
somewhat to the claims of agriculture. In the "backwoods" vast
clearings have been made since the period in which the picture
reproduced in these pages was intended to represent that healthy
individuality of Scottish life which found expression even in the
primeval forest, where an emigrant family rested on the Sabbath from
the labour that sought to make a happy homestead in the midst of that
great wilderness of mighty trees by means of saw and hatchet
wielded by strong arms.

VOL. II. 44

PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

Even in this free, busy, and primitive life, however, the griefs and
cares that belong to humanity cannot be escaped, and there is a certain
tender pathos in the aspect of the invalid girl who is so interesting
a figure in Mr. Faed's charming picture, which is itself intended to
represent a real scene or rather a family episode referred to in the
following extract from a letter from Canada. " We have no church
here, but our log home, or the wide forest, and a grand kirk the forest
makes, not even the auld cathedral has such pillars, space, nor so high
a roof; so we e'en take turns about on Sunday in reading the Bible.
We are all well except Jeannie, and as happy as can be, considering the
country and ties we have left. Poor Jeannie is sadly changed, her
only song now is, 'Why left I my hame?' But for her illness our lot
ought not to be an unhappy one."

It is in Quebec district, however, that the backwood settler is said
to be seen to the best advantage. "If approached from the side
of a forest," says Mr. Rowan, a writer of considerable authority on the
subject, "the first sign of civilization is the sound of the cow-bells,
which are strapped to the necks of the cattle to enable their owners
to find them. A good-toned bell on a still day can be heard two
or three miles off. The roads leading out of these back-settlements
are of the very roughest description in the summer, but in the winter,
thanks to the snow, are level and excellent. Of course as the settle-
ment improves, the roads improve, and in a few years the back-settler's
home of to-day is the centre of the settlement, accessible by good
roads and possessing every advantage.

" For the first seven or eight years the back-settler leads a hard life.
Having chosen his land and purchased it (one-fifth of the purchase-
money being paid down and the remainder in four annual instalments)
he proceeds to build himself a log-house, about 18 feet by 20 feet,
which he roofs with split pine or cedar ('shingles'). Externally these
log-huts are of the roughest description, no tool being laid upon them
but the axe. Internally, however, if the good woman is tidy, they
are comfortable enough. The back-settler, though content with a log-
hut himself, puts up a more pretentious building for his hay and his
cattle. His barn is generally built of boards hauled from the nearest
saw-mill, and roofed either with shingles made with own hands or with
spruce-bark. These buildings are situated in the centre of an open
space in the forest, from which it is fenced off by the half-burned poles

SUNDAY IN THE BACKWOODS. 163

arranged in what is generally called a 'ripgut' fence. The crops-
potatoes, oats, and buckwheat grow in patches amongst the black
charred stumps, and grow so well too as almost to hide the latter, though
they are two feet in height. Outside the fence the back-settler's stock
remain about the neighbouring forest, where (says Mr. Rowan) I am
afraid most of his leisure time is taken up in hunting for them. But
indeed his leisure moments must be few, for a back-settler has to turn
his hand to everything. He must be his own carpenter, his own
blacksmith. There is no division of labour in the backwoods. The
man and woman of the house do everything. The knowing old settler
never breaks his back in tearing a green stump out by the roots. His
modus operandi is somewhat as follows: In winter, when he has the
time to spare, he chops a few acres of forest, hauling off the soft wood
for logs, fence-rails, &c., and the hard wood for firing. The waste-
wood and branches he makes into piles, and burns when dry in the
spring. In the space thus cleared and burned he plants potatoes with
the hoe here and there in little hills among the stumps. In the
following year he sows grain seed, and lays it down as pasture. After
seven years the hard-wood stumps are rotten, and come out easily.
The pine, owing to its resinous nature, does not rot so quickly, and gives
a little more trouble. The land is now ready for the plough, and in
the eighth year he takes a crop of wheat off it, and brings it into
regular rotation. Say four acres of forest are chopped every year,
he will thus have (after the seventh year) ten acres of new land coming
in each season, viz. : five of burned land for potatoes, and five to stump
and plough for wheat. The virgin soil needs no manure, and yields
magnificent crops. When the settler has new land coming in each
year he from time to time lays down portions of his longest cleared
land in permanent pasture."

His life is not all roses; and, indeed, the roses are something he
lives to enjoy in the future. The venomous flies and the mosquitoes,
next to the "woful lack of cash," are his greatest trouble. But even
then he has his consolation, for the greater his clearing becomes
the less do these pests annoy him; they disappear with the forest.
In the high lands they are not so bad, but in the swampy ground
they are all but intolerable. In the valley of the Metapedia families
have been known to be routed out of the country by the black flies.
The cattle also are not exempt. The caribou fly, " whose bite is only

j64 PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

a shade le.ss severe than that of a dog," greatly annoys them, until,
to obtain relief, they imitate the moose by plunging into the lakes and
rivers, and there remaining during the hot portion of the June and July

days.

But the backwoods have their compensating advantage. In the
winter the settler is sheltered from the blasts, and he has always fuel
at his hand to warm himself to his heart's content. His life is one
of toil, but it is one of hope also. Every day he devotes to labour
brings him a day nearer to his goal of independence. " Every hour's
work he spends on his clearing makes him a richer man; every acre
he ploughs, every stump even he takes out, makes his farm more
valuable. All his work bears fruit, and at the end of ten or fifteen
years it is wonderful to see what a transformation the industrious
back-settler has made in the hole he has hewn out of the primeval
forest." The rude log-hut in time gives place to a more elegant and
commodious mansion. " Nothing is more common than to see on
the farm of a successful settler a handsome house, and a little way
off the rude log-cabin which in 'old times' gave him and his family
shelter; nothing is more common than to hear the substantial farmer
in Canada or the United States talking almost regretfully of the
happy days he spent in the old cabin when he was poor in gold but
rich in hopes and in all that makes life tolerable." 1

Land in Lower Canada could recently be bought at prices varying
from half a crown to fifteen shillings an acre, payable in instalments,
the first to be paid on the day of purchase. Of course the lower
price is practically giving the land away, but the qualities of soil vary
considerably. The valley of the Saguenay and the valleys of the
Matawan, Matepediac, and Ottawa are also regarded as good agricultural
settlements. The best land is often far from the old settlements, where
of course the good land has been taken up; but in these times roads
and railways are rapidly made, and the settler who a few years ago
was in the woods, finds himself near to a rising town and on the line
of a railway which skirts his farm. In the province of Quebec the
law granting "homestead land" is still in force. By this law a certain
portion of a settler's property is exempted from seizure for debt for
ten years after he settles on the land: a great advantage to the
enterprising man, who is thus protected without his credit being

1 The Countries of the World; by Dr. Robert Brown.

SUNDAY IN THE BACKWOODS. 165

destroyed, but a disadvantage to the first creditors of a dishonest
speculator, who in England would be liable to distraint and in Scotland
to the law of hypothec.

In Quebec, though the greater number of the people are French,
both the English and French languages are spoken, but the same
patriotic loyalty to "the Dominion" animates all alike. A million
of French people, or people of Gallic descent, live contentedly under
British rule; but they are the French of the ancien regime, of the old
monarchy, know nothing of republics, and speak a dialect which their
fathers spoke in the days of Louis Quatorze. Without ever having
seen or expecting to see France, for which they have only a
sentimental feeling, they retain their national traits. They are
protected in their religion by the government. They have their own
schools and their own priests, and live under a primitive sacerdotal
rule which appears strangely out of place in the New World. In 1759,
when they passed under British rule, the French numbered 65,000;
at present, by the census of 1871, their descendants are 1,082,940, and
it was believed that there would be considerable additions from Alsace
and Lorraine after they were annexed by Germany.

In his very interesting account of the French people of Quebec
under British rule Dr. Robert Brown says it must be acknowledged
that they are extremely ignorant, and that the priests exercise an iron
rule in controlling education and in levying the tithes and other church
dues from its adherents. Quebec accordingly preserves the last
remnant of a state church in America, and some of its sees and conven-
tual institutions are extremely wealthy. The French in Canada also
live under their old laws, except in those cases in which they have
preferred to substitute the English criminal law and trial by jury for
the old arbitrary rule of " intendants," and such like representations
of the despotic French monarchy which existed prior to the revolution
of 1792. In Quebec are found the greatest number of owners and
occupiers of land under ten acres, and as the French custom of
inheritance obtains there a continual subdivision is going on among
members of the same family. One effect of this is to be seen in the
district below Quebec and between that place and Montreal, especially
on the south side of the St. Lawrence, where the number of small
homesteads give almost the appearance of a village street. In the
course of a few generations a large farm becomes divided into a

PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

number of homesteads, each scarcely capable of supporting the family
residing upon it, and too small to admit of further severance. Up to
1854 the seignorial tenures of old France prevailed, and their influence
is still so far felt that in Quebec holders of more than 200 acres are
also more common than in the other provinces.

THE GRAND DURBAR AT CAWNPORE,

NOVEMBER 3, 1859.

The more recent public events which have distinguished the
present period scarcely yet belong to the domain of history, and few
of them have been made the subjects of historical pictures. The vast
and rapid progress made by this country during the last quarter
of a century baffles the effort to represent either pictorially or by
brief description the successive stages of the national advance, nor
has a period so crowded with important achievements found many
interpreters capable of translating even its more prominent occurrences
into the language of art.

One of the foremost of these, the visit of the heir to the throne
to India, gave occasion for so many vivid and picturesque descriptions
in the public journals that it may some day form the subject of more
than one historical painting, especially as the journey made by the
prince to the various dependencies had some effect in consolidating
the loyalty of representative native rulers and their feudal subjects.
That visit may be said to have been an endorsement of the concilia-
tory measures which were taken after the end of the Indian mutiny
in order to confirm the allegiance of native princes and to attest the
determination of the English government to rule in accordance
with a clement imperial policy.

The relief of Lucknow had followed the taking of Delhi, and the
great remaining difficulty was the pacification and territorial settle-
ment of the kingdom of Oude, which was placed under the control
of a chief commissioner. The harsh measures by which confiscation

THE GRAND DURBAR AT CAWNPORE. 167

of the property of native land-owners was contemplated aroused
considerable opposition not only on the part of the East India Company,
but in parliament, and it was not till the general scheme of the
future government of India was accepted that the question could be
finally decided. On the 8th of July, 1858, the India Bill passed the
House of Commons, on the 23d it passed the House of Lords, and
on the 2d of August, the last day of the session, it received the assent
of the crown. By its provisions the East India Company was
dissolved, and to quote the words of the bill, "all the powers
in relation to government vested in or exercised by the said Company
in trust for her majesty, shall cease to be vested in or exercised by
the said Company, and all territories in the possession or under the
government of the said Company, and all rights vested, or which,
if this act had not been passed, might have been exercised by the
said Company in relation to any territories, shall become vested
in her majesty and be exercised in her name; and for the purposes
of this act India shall mean the territories vested in her majesty
as aforesaid, and all territories which may become vested in her
majesty by virtue of any such rights as aforesaid."

The mutiny was practically at an end. A strong garrison had
been left in Lucknow, and the hill forts in Rohilcund to which the
rebels had retired were taken and their defenders put to flight. Sir
Colin Campbell had directed these movements with consummate
skill, courage, and perseverance, and for his distinguished services
was elevated to the peerage with the title of Lord Clyde. A general
pacification was promoted by the transference of the entire government
of India to the British crown, and when the royal proclamation was
published by the governor-general, Lord Canning, on the ist of
November, 1858, it called forth several native addresses to the
queen expressive of loyalty and attachment. The proclamation
itself was well calculated at once to impress and to conciliate the
native chiefs and their followers. It announced that all engagements
which had been made with the native princes by the East India
Company would be scrupulously maintained and fulfilled, that no
extension of territorial possession was sought, and that no aggression
upon it should be tolerated or encroachment upon that of others
sanctioned. It held the British government bound to the natives
of our Indian territories by the same obligations of duty which bound

PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

it to the other subjects of the British Empire. Upon the important
subject of religion, in which the rebellion was said to have originated,
the declaration said: "Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of
Christianity, and acknowledging with gratitude the solace of religion,
we disclaim alike the right and the desire to impose our conviction
on any of our subjects. We declare it to be our royal will and
pleasure that none be in any wise favoured, none molested or
disquieted, by reason of their religious faith or observances, but that
all shall alike enjoy the equal and impartial protection of the law;
and we do strictly charge and enjoin all those who may be in
authority under us, that they abstain from all interference with the
religious belief or worship of any of our subjects, on pain of our
highest displeasure." It was added that all of whatever race or creed
were to be freely and impartially admitted to such offices in her
majesty's service as they were qualified to hold. Those who
inherited lands were to be protected in all rights connected there-
with subject to the equitable demands of the state, and in framing
and administering the law due regard was to be paid to the ancient
rights, usages, and customs of India. With regard to the late rebellion
the proclamation declared : " Our clemency will be extended to all
offenders, save and except those who have been or shall be convicted
of having directly taken part in the murder of British subjects. With
regard to such, the demands of justice forbid the exercise of mercy.
To those who have willingly given an asylum to murderers, knowing
them to be such, their lives alone can be guaranteed ; but in apportion-
ing the penalty due to such persons full consideration will be given
to any circumstances under which they have been induced to throw
off their allegiance; and large indulgence will be shown to those whose
crimes may appear to have originated in too credulous acceptance
of the false reports circulated by designing men. To all others in
arms against the government we hereby promise unconditional pardon,
amnesty, and oblivion of all offence against ourselves, our crown,
and dignity, on their return to their homes and peaceful pursuits.
It is our royal pleasure that these terms of grace and amnesty should
be extended to all those who comply with these conditions before
the ist day of January next. When, by the blessing of Providence,
internal tranquillity shall be restored, it is our earnest desire to stimulate
the peaceful industry of India, to promote works of public utility and

w g

S fr

THE GRAND DURBAR AT CAWNPORE. 169

improvement, and to administer its government for the benefit of all
our subjects' therein. In their prosperity will be our strength, in their
contentment our security, and in their gratitude our best reward. And
may the God of all power grant to us, and to those in authority under
us, strength to carry out these our wishes for the good of our people ! " 1

The proclamation promised an amnesty to all those who returned
to peaceful pursuits and to their homes before the ist of January, 1859,
but much had to be accomplished for the final pacification of Oude,
where the Begum issued a counter proclamation. The rebels had made
this province their place of shelter and rallying point, and such decisive
measures had to be adopted as could only be justified by the necessity
of the case and the dangerous attitude of the enemy. Fort after fort
was taken, however, and that of Shunkerpoor, for the reduction of which
the whole British force in the district had been concentrated, was at
last surrendered by Bainee Madhoo, an insurgent chief, who escaped
probably to the hills of Nepaul, where only a cold reception awaited
the vanquished rebels. Thither Nana Sahib was driven after a ruinous
defeat, to become an outcast and a hunted fugitive, and to this quarter
also his brother Bala Rao betook himself, after attempting a final
stand in which his troops were beaten and dispersed almost without
resistance. During this time, however, the pacification of the province
was being effected by the constant submission of chiefs who went to the
chief commissioner at Lucknow to tender their adhesion; and though
desultory hostilities continued for some time afterwards they were
all successfully checked, the contest in Oude was brought to an end,
and the resistance of 150,000 armed men had been subdued with
a very moderate loss to the British force, and with remarkable
forbearance towards the misguided rebels.

On the 1 2th of October, 1859, the governor-general commenced
a tour through the provinces, and his journey may be said to have
represented a royal progress, marked at the principal stations by the
assembling of grand durbars or levees, to which the loyal chiefs were
invited, and where they were received with due magnificence, that they
might be presented with robes of honour, collars, chains, and various
ornaments in recognition of their allegiance during the mutiny.

The most imposing of these ceremonies was the Grand Durbar
which was held at Cawnpore on the 3d of November, 1859, at two

1 History of India. Comprehensive History of England.

VOL. II.

JJQ PICTURES AND ROYAL PORTRAITS.

o'clock in the day, in a great tent lined with yellow. In the centre of
the farther side of. this tent was Lord Canning's chair, on his right was
all the rajahs, on his left the chair of the commander-in-chief, and
beyond that, the places reserved for Sir Richmond Shakespear
Generals Birch and Mansfield, Colonel Beecher, and Colonel Stuart.
Behind them the governor-general and chief's staff, and then a number
of civilians, beyond whom were about 200 military officers. By the
appointed time all were in their seats, and the sight was a gorgeous
one, because of the great variety of costumes and the brilliancy
of colour. The representative rajah in point of magnificence was
he of Rewah, who occupied a chair on the right hand of the viceroy.
He was described at the time as a big burly man of tall stature, with
a heavy grossly sensual face, and yellow complexion. His hands,
fat and shapeless, were covered with dazzling rings. He wore a light
yellow tunic with a black and white scarf that looked at a distance
like a boa-constrictor's skin. On his head was a handsome towering
cap composed entirely of gold and diamonds, which evidently made
an inclination of the head difficult. On his right sat Mr. Cecil Beadon,
the home and foreign secretary, and next him the Benares rajah,
quietly dressed and with a white shawl turban. Next him again
was the rajah of Chikaree, an elderly handsome man dressed in red;
and besides there were above a hundred other chiefs of various degrees,
not two of whom were similarly attired, so that the contrasts of colour
were remarkable, and often very striking. A passage-tent kept by the
grenadier company of the 35th Regiment as a guard of honour led
to the durbar tent, and soon after two o'clock the military orders,
concluding with "Present arms!" announced the arrival of the viceroy,
whose presence was saluted by the firing of a round of guns. He
entered the durbar tent preceded by his chief secretaries of state and
aides-de-camp, the assembly rising on his entrance, and remaining
standing till he reached the chair of state and sat down.

Then came the presentations of the rajahs, Mr. Beadon, the home
and foreign secretary, introducing the more important chiefs, and
another officer the less distinguished ones. Each rajah made his most
graceful obeisance, an act accompanied in every case with a nuzzur
(or present), which was also in each case, after being touched by the
vice-regal hand, taken from the officer by the people of the Tosha Khana
department.

THE GRAND DURBAR AT CAWNPORE. Ijl

Then came the presentation of khelats. The principal rajahs
had chains fastened on their necks, but only to one x the Rewah rajah,
was this done by Lord Canning personally. To give him his chain
his lordship rose and passed it round his neck. The others had their
collars of honour put on by the secretaries, Lord Canning merely
touching each chain when presented to him for that purpose.

The Rewah rajah, the Benares rajah, and the Chikaree rajah were
each addressed by Lord Canning in English on their khelats being
given them; but to the Chikaree rajah a great honour was paid, for,
after saying a few words to him, Lord Canning, turning to the
commander-in-chief, who on being addressed immediately stood up,
the whole of the English officers present standing also, said, " Lord
Clyde, I wish to bring to your notice the conduct of this brave man,
who showed marked devotion to the British cause by acting on the
offensive against the rebels of his own accord, and when besieged
in a fort refused to give up a British officer, offering his own son
as a hostage instead; and I trust," said Lord Canning, "that every
officer of the queen now present will remember this, and should they
ever come in contact with this rajah, act accordingly."

This was the crowning ceremony of the Great Durbar at Cawnpore,
which may itself be regarded as the special demonstration of the British
government to imply that by the pacification of the province where
some of the foulest deeds of the mutiny had been committed, and where
the rebellion made its last ineffectual stand, the authority of the queen
had been established, and the relation between India and Great Britain
had been permanently restored.

THE END.

GLASGOW: W. G. BLACKIE AND CO., PRINTERS, VILLAFIELD.

DA 30 ,A7 1878
v.2 SMC
Archer, Thomas,

1830-1893.
Pictures and royal

portraits illustrative
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