Volume 3 — TO CHAPTER XX

The Ministry were in difficulties at the very beginning of the session (1851), being nearly defeated on a motion made in the interest of the agricultural party; and though the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill was allowed to be brought in, they were beaten in a thin House chiefly by their own friends, on the question of the County Franchise. A crisis ensued, and a coalition of Whigs and Peelites was attempted, but proved impracticable. Lord Stanley having then failed to form a Protectionist Ministry, the Whigs, much weakened, had to resume office.

The Exhibition, which was opened in Hyde Park on the 1st of May, was a complete success, a brilliant triumph indeed, for the Prince, over six million people visiting it; it remained open till the Autumn, and the building, some time after its removal, was re-erected at Sydenham, at the Crystal Palace.

The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, much modified, was proceeded with, and, though opposed by the ablest Peelites and Radicals, became law, though its effect, while in operation, was virtually nil. It was in after-years repealed.

Kossuth, the champion of Hungarian independence, visited England in October, and Lord Palmerston had to be peremptorily restrained from receiving him publicly at the Foreign Office. A little later, Kossuth's ultra-liberal sympathisers in London addressed the Foreign Secretary in language violently denunciatory of the Emperors of Austria and Russia, for which Lord Palmerston failed to rebuke them. The cup was filled to the brim by his recognition of the President's coup d'état in France. Louis Napoleon, after arresting M. Thiers and many others, proclaimed the dissolution of the Council of State and the National Assembly, decreed a state of siege, and re-established universal suffrage, with a Chief Magistrate elected for ten years, and a Ministry depending on the executive alone. Palmerston thereupon, though professing an intention of non-interference, conveyed to the French Ambassador in London his full approbation of the proceeding, and his conviction that the President could not have acted otherwise. Even after this indiscreet action, the Premier found some difficulty in bringing him to book; but before the end of the year he was dismissed from office, with the offer, which he declined, of the Irish Lord-Lieutenancy and a British Peerage. Greatly to the Queen's satisfaction, Lord Granville became Foreign Secretary.

At the Cape, Sir Harry Smith was engaged in operations against the Kaffirs, which were not brought to a successful termination till the following year, when General Cathcart had superseded him.