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mob, even more foolish than the London mob, demanded that the captives should be retained. The American congress passed a vote of thanks to Captain Wilkes; but the American government wisely yielded, and the gentlemen who had been taken out of the Trent were sent back in a British ship of war, and restored to the protection of the British flag; and so the warclouds, which at one time looked so black and thunderous, rolled away, not a little to the disappointment of many, who would gladly have taken advantage of the difficulties of the United States in order to cripple their power.

Towards the close of this year an event occurred which spread sorrow and mourning through the land, from the palace of the sovereign to the cottage of the lowest and poorest of her subjects. On the 8th of December the Court Circular stated that the Prince Consort had been confined to his apartments by a feverish cold and pains in the limbs. Not much importance, however, was attached to this announcement, which was supposed to point to nothing more than an ordinary cold. Little more uneasiness was caused by the issue of a formal bulletin on Wednesday the 11th of December, informing the public that his royal highness was suffering from fever, unattended by unfavourable symptoms, but likely to continue for some time. It was therefore a terrible surprise to the Londoners when, on Sunday morning, just after midnight, the great bell of St. Paul's, booming through the deep silence, spread far and wide the tidings that the consort of the queen of England was dead. But, though the nation generally was wholly unprepared for the event, it had been known some time before to the queen, to the family, and to the court, that the danger was great and imminent. His worth and his services were most strongly attested by the grief of the illustrious lady who had enjoyed the best opportunities of appreciating them, and who described herself with the simple truthfulness of grief, as 'the heart-broken Queen of England.' What made the loss more terrible was that the prince was in the prime of life, being only forty-one years of age, and having up to the time of this illness enjoyed excellent health, which, combined with temperate and regular habits, seemed to give promise of a long life. England lost in him the

consort of her queen, and the father of her line of future kings.

The deceased prince was a man of great and varied accomplishment. The speeches delivered by him on several public occasions showed that his naturally reflective mind had largely profited by the lessons of German philosophy received in his youth. He was a warm and discriminating patron of art, and he loved the society of men of genius. He took a scientific and intelligent interest in agriculture. He entertained sound and elevated views with regard to the industrial progress of the country of his adoption, which were conspicuously exhibited, as we have already seen, in the part he took in promoting the Great Exhibition of 1851. That of 1862 was even more completely his work, though he did not live to witness its commencement.

His death was a terrible blow to the queen. By it she lost her best adviser, the natural guardian of her children, her devoted friend and companion, the joy of her life, the solace of her many anxieties. A few months before, she had lost her mother; she now endured a more cruel blow in the loss of her husband. Her great consolation under this affliction was in the comforts of religion, in the love of her family, and the warm sympathy of her people, to whom her private virtues, no less than the faithful and conscientious discharge of her public duties as a constitutional queen, had greatly endeared her. It was felt that this was in no small degree owing to the wise counsels she had received from the deceased prince; and this conviction served to increase the sympathy which was felt for her, as well as the regret with which the loss of her consort was regarded. His funeral, though conducted with all due ceremonial, was strictly private. The sorrow of the bereaved queen was too deep to bear the trial of a public demonstration.

This great calamity was shortly after followed by another, which sent a second wave of sorrow through the nation. On the 16th of January, 1862, upwards of two hundred men and boys were buried alive in the Hartley mine, near North Shields. A huge beam, which formed part of the pumping apparatus, gave way, and falling down the shaft below, crushed to death five men who were

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ascending at the moment the accident occurred, and so completely choked the mouth of the pit as to render all ingress and egress impossible. Instantly every effort was put forth to clear away the rubbish, and relieve those who were imprisoned in the mine; but several days and nights of hard and continuous labour, rendered more difficult by the deadly vapours which rose from the interior, passed before an entrance into the mine could be effected. When at length an opening was made the silence of death prevailed throughout the workings. The miners were found lying in rows, with calm placid countenances; here boys were reposing on the shoulders of their fathers, there a youth clasped with his arm the neck of his brother. Some had scratched messages to their surviving relatives on the flasks and boxes they carried. In a book taken from the pocket of one of them was found the following memorandum, which told in its simple way how calmly and religiously he and his comrades had met their terrible end: 'Friday afternoon, half-past two o'clock. Edward Armstrong, Thomas Gledson, John Hardie, Thomas Bell, and others, took extremely ill. We had also a prayer-meeting at a quarter to 2, when Tibbs, H. Sharp, J. Campbell, H. Gibson, and William Palmer. .. Tibbs exhorted to us again, and Sharp also.' It is useless to attempt to picture the grief of the village, in which there was hardly a family of which some member had not perished. The sorrowstricken roused herself from her own grief to express queen the sympathy she felt for the humble women, whom this accident had plunged in a sorrow like her own. A letter of consolation which she sent was read to them by the clergy of the neighbourhood, and was stated to have had a great effect in alleviating their affliction. A subscription for the relief of the widows and orphan children of those who had perished amounted to upwards of 81,000l. The inspectors of mines had frequently recommended that every mine should have at least two shafts. Had this recommendation been attended to, the lives of the unfortunate workmen would have been saved. But the proprietors of the mines pleaded that the expense would be too great; and the consequence was that neither man nor child escaped.

The session of 1862 commenced under very sorrowful

auspices. The grief of the bereaved queen cast a shadow of gloom and sadness over the opening of the parliament. She of course did not appear, and the commissioners who represented her on this occasion seemed to steal down to the House as though engaged in something they almost felt to be wrong. There was not only an absence of ceremonial, but an absence of the stir and curiosity which even an opening of the session by commission ordinarily excites; and the topic which alone monopolised the attention of both houses was the great loss which both the sovereign and the nation had sustained. The gloom which pervaded parliament at the commencement of the session seemed to settle down on it and overhang it throughout its continuance; which was characterised by a marked absence of political excitement and party struggles, and an evident desire on every side, not only in the legislature, but throughout the kingdom-to spare the queen all needless pain and anxiety in the first months of her grievous bereavement. A subscription for a national memorial to the deceased prince was set on foot; and as it had been suggested that the choice of the memorial should be left to the queen, it was announced that her majesty would not shrink from the performance' of this melancholy duty, but would be guided in discharging it by the advice of those who were best qualified to give an opinion on the subject.

The civil war in America was now beginning to make itself deeply felt in this country. In the first quarter of the year our exports to the States had diminished from 21,667,000l. to 9,058,000l., being a difference of no less than 12,609,000l. This alone must have produced a great derangement of monetary and commercial affairs, and the necessary accompaniment of that derangement in the enforced idleness and distress of large masses of the working population. But this class was still more affected by the sudden and almost entire cessation of the importation of cotton from America, whence the greater part, and certainly by far the best part, of our supplies of that article had hitherto been drawn. To these causes of distress was to be added the effect of a partial failure of the crops in the last harvest, which, though good in quality, was defi. cient in quantity. All these circumstances tended to try

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the resources of the country, and greatly to lessen its revenues. And yet, such was the almost magical success which had attended Mr. Gladstone's financial operations and the treaty which Mr. Cobden had negotiated with France, that, notwithstanding all the disadvantages and depressing circumstances we have enumerated, the revenue showed an increase of no less than 2,000,0007.; and while our trade with the United States had so seriously diminished, that with France had increased within the period of a single year from 2,190,000l. to 6,910,0007.

This increase of revenue was balanced by a nearly corresponding increase of expenditure, chiefly owing to the affair of the Trent, through which this country obtained satisfaction for its wounded honour at a cost of upwards of a million of money; so that when the chancellor of the exchequer made up his accounts he found that the sum at his disposal was only 150,000l. With a balance so small; with a war in America that had already produced much distress in the manufacturing districts, and the continuance of which was certain to be attended by a rapidly progressive increase of that distress; with the danger of the country being involved, as she had already so nearly been, in war-with all these difficulties and perils before him, it would have been in the highest degree rash in the chancellor of the exchequer to attempt to carry out bold financial operations such as had so favourably distinguished his previous budgets. He was therefore compelled to content himself with a few changes in the incidence of taxation, such as the replacement of the duties on hops by an increase of brewers' licenses, and a lowering of the duty on playing-cards.

The necessity that existed for the erection of new lawcourts had long been felt. Those which were in existence were inconvenient in point of arrangement, insufficient in regard to size, and miserably mean in appearance both externally and internally, utterly unworthy of the great, venerable, and historic tribunals of England, and disfigurements of the magnificent palace of the legislature, to which they clung like parasitic excrescences, marring the beauty of the building, and requiring to be removed in order that it might be duly appreciated.

It was felt also that when the erection of new law-courts