particulars of the Greek question. What Papal encroachments were attempted, and how were they met ? 12. Give an account of the Great Exhibition. What political changes occurred in France? How did they affect England? Describe the wreck of the Birkenhead. What great man died in September? What was the result of the Burmese war? Give an account of the Kaffir war. 13. What caused the quarrel between Russia and Turkey? When did the war break out? At what places did the Turks and Russians come into contact, and with what result? What part did France and England take in the war? Describe the Crimean campaigns. When did Sebastopol fall? What were the terms of the treaty of Paris? CHAPTER XXXIX. FROM THE RUSSIAN WAR TO THE ABYSSINIAN WAr, American Differences The Trent Affair-Fate of Sir John FranklinDiscoveries of M'Clintock Persian War - Chinese Wars - Indian Mutiny-Commercial Crisis-Domestic Events-Volunteer Movement -Financial Reforms-A Year of Calamity-The Second ExhibitionCotton Famine-Marriage of the Prince of Wales-Alabama Difficulty Cattle Plague-Sheffield Catastrophe Belfast Riots - Gunpowder Explosion-Hostilities in Japan-Ionian Islands Surrendered-Fenian Plot-Clerkenwell Explosion-Prince of Wales in Ireland. 1. AMERICAN DIFFERENCES. -The Russian war was the occasion of a difference with the United States which threatened at one time to be very serious. In order to increase our army, it was proposed to raise a foreign legion, and it was imagined that in Canada and the States there were many British subjects who would be willing to enlist. Proper instructions were accordingly sent to Mr (now Sir J.) Crampton, our minister at Washington, who proceeded to carry out the views of his government. In so doing, it was asserted that, while keeping within the letter of the neutral laws, he had infringed their spirit and violated the sovereign rights of the Union. The President of the United States would accept of no apology, and Mr Crampton was ordered to leave the country with two of our consuls who had exposed themselves to similar charges of illegality. Through the forbearance of our government the difference was happily adjusted—the new American minister, Mr Dallas, being allowed to remain in London; but the result showed that the Washington administration was taking advantage of the position of England, and also endeavouring to make for itself what is termed "political capital" with a view to the forthcoming presidential elections. Our relations with the United States have been threatened more than once since this diplomatic rupture. In 1858 there was great irritation felt against Great Britain because our cruisers stationed off the coast of Cuba, to prevent the slave trade, had fired into vessels carrying the American flag. After some negotiation, it was agreed that neither power should interfere with vessels not under its flag, the United States government promising to send ships of their own in sufficient number to stop the inhuman traffic. In the next year another misunderstanding occurred. With the usual carelessness that has attended all our boundary treaties, that which laid down the extreme western portion where it reaches the Pacific, was so ambiguous as to admit of two constructions, both England and America claiming the island of San Juan, the chief of a small cluster lying in the straits between Vancouver Island and the mainland. While special commissioners were still discussing the meaning of the treaty, General Harney took possession of the island, in the name of the United States government, an assumption protested against by Mr Douglas, governor of British Columbia, on behalf of Great Britain. The Washington government, however, disavowed Harney's proceedings, and withdrew the occupying force. At the end of 1860 another case arose, which, owing to the disturbed state of American politics, was soon forgotten. One Anderson, a fugitive slave, who had been living in Canada for some years, was suddenly claimed as a murderer by the government of one of the southern states. The Canadian courts were at first in favour of the claim; but, on appeal, the superior court decided that the slave who killed his pursuer, who would have taken him back into captivity, was not a murderer according to English law, and did not therefore come under the terms of the Extradition Treaty. In the summer of this year, the Prince of Wales visited Canada, where he inaugurated the famous Victoria Bridge over the St Lawrence, and afterwards Washington and New York, where he was so enthusiastically welcomed as to lead to the hope that better feelings would prevail towards this country. Our anticipations, however, seemed at one time likely to be cruelly disappointed. The election of Mr Lincoln to the presidency ་ led to the secession of eleven of the slave states from the Union, and civil war between the North and South was the consequence. England, in conjunction with France, not regarding the causes of the war, but simply the fact of hostilities, recognised the South as a belligerent power, thus putting both parties on the same footing with respect to neutral countries. This, as well as her determination to preserve a strict neutrality in the unhappy contest, annoyed the Federal government, and produced a state of irritation in the Northerners, which finally found vent in an outrage on our flag. An American frigate, the San Jacinto, stopped an English mail-steamer, the Trent, and took out of her two commissioners from the South, and carried them to Boston (Nov. 1861). This illegal capture at once aroused the sensibilities of the empire; troops were hastily sent to Canada, and our North American fleet was doubled; when the Washington Cabinet, after some little delay, liberated the prisoners. 2. SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.-In the autumn of 1854 the public sympathy was strongly excited by news of the fate of Sir John Franklin and his companions, who had left England in 1845 to solve the problem of a north-west passage to the Pacific Ocean. The numerous expeditions fitted out in 1850 all returned unsuccessful: to Dr Rae, an overland explorer, belongs the melancholy credit of clearing up the mystery. It would appear that Franklin's two ships, Erebus and Terror, were crushed by icebergs in 1850. Sir John and forty of his companions were seen by the Esquimaux travelling on foot and dragging a boat over the ice. The bodies of most of the party were, according to the account given by the natives, found subsequently near Back's River, surrounded by evidence that they had been driven to cannibalism to prolong their lives. Dr Rae brought to London several articles which he had purchased from the Esquimaux, and which were recognised as having belonged to Franklin or his companions. So far the Arctic mystery had been solved; but Lady Franklin, with that fond affection and noble sense of duty which thinks nothing done while anything remains to do, at her own expense fitted out a ship, the Fox, which, under the command of Captain M'Clintock, sailed in 1857 to examine the spot where the remains of the seamen were supposed to be lying, and to bring them to England, or bury them with Christian rites on the shores of the Frozen Sea. In September 1859 he returned, bringing with him, among other relics, a document found in a cairn, recording the decease of Sir John Franklin in 1847. No bodies were found, except those of two nameless men frozen to death in a boat; but no reasonable doubt any longer remained that every member of the expedition had met with a miserable end from cold and starvation amid the inhospitable northern ice. PERSIAN WAR.-Scarcely was the Russian war concluded when hostilities broke out in the further East. The town and fortress of Herat in Affghanistan commands one of the only two roads by which an army can march from Persia towards India. To keep this place in neutral hands had long been the object of our Indian government, while Persia, urged, it is supposed, by Russian interests, had been anxious to possess it, notwithstanding specific treaties to the contrary. In 1856 the town was besieged by a Persian force, and, after a long resistance, compelled to surrender. The Shah, refusing to withdraw his army, and having, moreover, insulted our ambassador, an expedition under General Outram sailed from Bombay, which occupied the island of Karrack, took Bushire, stormed the fortifications of Mohammerah, and routed the opposing army. Further advances into the country were checked by news of the treaty of peace which had been concluded at Paris between Lord Cowley and Ferukh Khan, by which Herat was given up, and ample apology made to our ambassador, the Hon. C. Murray (March 1857). COMMERCIAL CRISIS.-For several years past the commerce of Great Britain had been extending with an unprecedented rapidity. Slightly checked by the Russian war, it took a fresh start on the conclusion of peace. An eager thirst for riches appeared to have seized the mercantile world. Several symptoms indicated that the state of commerce was unsound, and that speculation and dishonesty were often combined. The stoppage of several commercial houses in London, Liverpool, and Glasgow, soon brought matters to a crisis. Two banks in the latter city suspended payment, and the rate of discount at the Bank of England rose as high as 10 per cent. When affairs were in this gloomy condition, when credit seemed almost driven from the mart, Lord Palmerston and Sir G. C. Lewis, Chancellor of the Exchequer, on behalf of the government, authorized the bank to extend its issues of notes as necessity might require, irrespective of the provisions of the Bank Charter Act of 1844, and promised to ask parliament for an indemnity if needed. This measure abated the panic, confidence was restored, and commercial dealings once more returned to their regular course. It would appear from a statement made in parliament that the aggregate liabilities of the commercial houses which had failed during the panic amounted to 45 millions. 3. CHINESE WAR.-At the end of 1856 our intercourse with the Chinese, which had long been in an unsettled state from their infractions of the treaty of 1842, was entirely interrupted. A small vessel bearing the British flag, and carrying British papers, was forcibly boarded by order of Yeh, the governor of Canton, and several of the crew were carried off. All demands for redress being contemptuously rejected, retaliatory measures were adopted. A number of Chinese junks were burnt, and the forts in the Canton river destroyed. A majority in the House of Commons having condemned these proceedings, Lord Palmerston dissolved parliament, when the result of a general election early in 1857 proved that the country was ready to support the honnour of England in the eastern seas. The French joining with us to demand redress for grievances and insults, Canton was taken and occupied by the allied forces. After a period of inaction occasioned by the Indian mutiny, hostilities were renewed with fresh vigour; the combined fleet forced the entrance of the Peiho, and took possession of Taku; thus becoming masters of that river and Tiensin, the important granary of Northern China, in which are stored the immense supplies of rice from the south on which Pekin depends for subsistence (May 1858). The emperor now became seriously alarmed, and sent commissioners to treat for peace, which was at length concluded on very advantageous terms, the country being thrown open to Europeans, and an English ambassador permitted to reside at Pekin, and a Chinese envoy in London. English was to be the medium of communication between the two courts, and an indemnity of £700,000 to be paid; all the important ports were opened to our trade, the laws which proscribed Christianity repealed, and missionaries allowed to preach without molestation. But when in June 1859 the English and French ambassadors, escorted by a strong force, at once to ensure safety and enforce respect, were desirous of proceeding to Pekin by the |