THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (continued).

The Cholera—Laying of the Atlantic Cable—Previous Failures—The Great Eastern's first Attempt—Her second Voyage—The Undertaking accomplished—Recovery of the broken Cable—Reform Demonstrations—The Guildhall Meeting—Meetings at Manchester, Leeds, and Elsewhere—Mr. Bright and the Queen—The Government prepares a Bill—"Black Friday"—The Overend and Gurney Failure—Limited Liability—Royal Marriages—Prize-Money—The Loss of the London—A bad Harvest—The Fenian Trials—Lord Wodehouse's Letter—Suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act—Rapid Legislation—Wholesale Arrests—The Army purged—Renewal of the Act—Lord Kimberley's Speech—Sweeny and Stephens—The Niagara Raid—General Spear's Exploit—A peaceful Winter—Whewell and Keble.

THE visitation of the cholera in England in 1866 was light in comparison with what it was in some foreign cities, and with what it had been in former years in London. The deaths did not materially affect the returns of mortality for the year; they fell short of eight thousand. In Austria it was computed that at least 100,000 persons were carried off by cholera in this year, and there was hardly a week in which the deaths in London were not exceeded by those in some Continental cities with scarcely a tenth of its population. This result was certainly owing in great part to the sanitary precautions and improvements carried out by the Cholera Committee. The disease kept extending itself as the summer advanced, until it reached its culminating point in the fortnight between the 21st of July and the 4th of August; in the week ending on the last-named day 1,053 deaths from cholera were reported in London. Then all at once it began to subside, and before the month of August had passed, the Lord Mayor was enabled to suggest a large appropriation of the funds which had been liberally subscribed by charitable persons (the Queen sent £500) for the formation and support of cholera hospitals, to the assistance of those who had been left orphans by the epidemic.

The enterprise of laying an insulated electric cable at the bottom of the Atlantic in order to secure instantaneous telegraphic communication between Europe and America—first attempted in 1857, crowned with a fleeting and illusory success in 1858, and partially accomplished in 1865—was in the summer of this year completely realised, not only by the successful laying of the cable of 1866, but by the recovery from the bottom of the sea of the cable of 1865, which was then pieced on to a new wire rope, and carried safely onward to the shore of Newfoundland. A brief survey of the previous unsuccessful attempts will not be uninstructive. In the first, that of 1857, the cable was of a clumsy and ponderous description, if compared with the lighter and relatively stronger ropes afterwards adopted. Two men-of-war, the Agamemnon and the Niagara, composed the expedition; the Niagara paying out the cable. When 380 miles had been paid out, the cable broke and the ships returned to port. In 1858 the same ships were employed and a new plan was tried. The ships proceeded to the middle of the Atlantic, each with 1,500 miles of cable on board; here they effected a splice of the two ends of their respective cargoes and proceeded in different directions, the Agamemnon to the eastward, the Niagara to the westward, paying out as they went. Even to the uninitiated this plan would appear to expose the cable to a needless amount of additional strain, and therefore to increase the risk of fracture. Twice the cable broke after less than fifty miles had been paid out; a third time the cable broke, when about 140 miles had been submerged; a third time the vessels returned to the watery rendezvous, but they now failed to meet, and each returned separately to Queenstown. A fourth attempt, at the end of July, was more successful; though the signalling was repeatedly interrupted during the paying-out process, the cable did not actually break and the object was supposed to have been accomplished. The Niagara brought her end to Trinity Bay on the 5th of August, and on the same day the Agamemnon brought hers to Valentia. Messages of congratulation were interchanged between the Queen and the President of the United States (Mr. Buchanan), and for a short time there was exultation. But a suspiciously great expenditure of electricity was required on one side of the ocean in order to affect the instrument on the other. The indications became feebler and feebler, and before any commercial use had been made of the cable, they ceased entirely.

Much disappointment was felt in both continents and for some years no fresh attempt was made. In 1864 a new company was formed, under the auspices of which a new cable was manufactured on a simpler and better plan, and in July, 1865, the Great Eastern, accompanied by the Sphinx and the Terrible, men-of-war, commenced to lay it from Valentia. One thousand two hundred miles of cable had been paid out, and a distance of only 600 miles remained to be traversed, when, while engaged in hauling in upon the cable, in order to discover and remove a "fault," the adventurers had the mortification of seeing it suddenly part. All three ships then began to fish for the cable with the greatest diligence; but although repeatedly grappled, it always snapped before it could be raised to the surface and, after losing an inconceivable amount of rope, the expedition returned to England.

From the diary kept by the Secretary of the Anglo-American Telegraph Construction Company on board the Great Eastern, we extract a few interesting particulars with reference to her successful voyage in 1866. She took her departure from Berehaven, Bantry Bay, on the 12th of July, having the cable stowed away in large coils in two immense tanks, one forward, the other aft. The ship was commanded by Captain Anderson; the "cable crew" and everything connected with the laying of the cable were under the superintendence of Mr. Canning. The plan was, that the immense vessel, propelled both by paddles and screw, and, therefore, more manageable than a vessel dependent on one source of motion, should steam slowly ahead, paying out the cable as she went over the stern, through machinery invented for the purpose in the preceding year by Messrs. Canning and Clifford, which had been found to answer admirably. The shore end of the cable, which had been laid at Foilhummerum Bay, in Valentia Island, some days previously, was brought on board the Great Eastern on the 13th, and made fast to the cable; as soon as the splice was effected, the paying-out process immediately commenced. For some days the weather was everything that could be wished. Three men-of-war took part in the expedition, ready to give immediate aid, if necessary—the Terrible, the Albany, and the Medway. The insulation of the cable was perfect; communication between the ship and Valentia was uninterruptedly maintained, and the last news from Europe, received through the cable, was printed each day on board, under the title of The Great Eastern Telegraph. The chief check to the prosperous progress of the undertaking occurred on the 18th of July, and it was a very alarming one. A "foul flake," or tangle, took place in the after-tank, containing, originally, more than 800 miles of cable, while the paying-out was tranquilly going on, a short time after midnight, and was not cleared for an hour and a half. From this time no incident of much moment marked the progress of the expedition. As the Great Eastern neared Newfoundland, the weather became foggy, and the Albany was sent on to Heart's Content, a harbour in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, to clear the north-east side of the harbour of shipping, and place a boat with a red flag for Captain Anderson to steer to for anchorage. By dint of good management—the men-of-war forming a line of communication between the shore and the Great Eastern, and that one which was nearest to her guiding her through the fog by the repeated firing of guns—she was piloted into Trinity Bay without accident on the morning of the 27th of July. The shore end was quickly laid and the electric union of Europe and America was at last complete. On the 28th Lord Carnarvon telegraphed to Lord Monck at Ottawa felicitations on the happy result of an enterprise which could not fail to draw closer the ties of amity and fellowship uniting Canada to England; and on the 30th congratulatory messages were exchanged between the Queen and President Johnson.

But this was not all. The task of fishing for the broken end of the cable of 1865, which the loss of all her spare rope had, as we have seen, compelled the Great Eastern to abandon in the previous September, was now resumed with all the eager hope and confidence engendered by success. The cable had been lost at the depth of about 2,000 fathoms, and experience had shown that to pick it up at one lift from that enormous depth was impracticable, the mere weight of the cable, in its resistance to the force employed by the picking up machinery, being sufficient to snap it. It was arranged, therefore, that the Great Eastern herself, and the attendant men-of-war, tracing back the cable for the space of several miles from the point of fracture, should grapple for it, and when found raise it, not to the surface, but to various heights from the bottom, so that several miles of cable should be raised to an altitude intermediate between the bottom and the surface, and be secured there by buoys attached to the grappling ropes; and thus the final lift, being only from this intermediate altitude, might present reasonable chances of success. But this plan of operations, simple though it be in the telling, involved a great amount of anxious and exhausting labour, and mechanical and practical difficulties of various kinds. Eventually it was recovered on September 1st and was found to be perfectly sound.

The miscarriage of Mr. Gladstone's Reform Bill led to periodical demonstrations during the summer and autumn in favour of the extension of the franchise. An organised agitation provided that mass meetings should be held in several of the largest cities in Great Britain at convenient intervals of time. The riots in and near Hyde Park arose, as we have seen, out of a Reform demonstration; and the irrepressible Mr. Beales, whom Mr. Walpole's exquisite sensibility on the subject of broken heads had probably rather emboldened than mollified, arranged, in concert with the London Working Men's Association, a great Reform meeting in the Guildhall on the 8th of August. The Lord Mayor took the chair and opened the proceedings with the melodramatic declaration that "the man must have a heart of stone who could witness this magnificent sight without the deepest emotion." Mr. Beales, in moving the first resolution, feelingly alluded to the perils which he had undergone in the cause of the people on the 23rd of July, and concluded by saying, "The prohibition of the League meeting on the 23rd July, and the exclusion of the public from Hyde Park on that day, have done far more than a hundred such meetings could have done to advance the cause of Reform, and unite the people in its support.... No half-and-half measure of Reform will now be listened to. The banner of the League, having inscribed on it, 'Residential and Registered Manhood Suffrage, and the Ballot,' is now hailed in all quarters." Mr. Odger, seconded the next resolution, which menaced the existing Government with the withdrawal of all sympathy and support on the part of the Reformers if they did not speedily introduce a Bill for the amendment of the representation of the people. Mr. Coffey, also, and Mr. Charles Bradlaugh spoke in the course of the evening.

About six weeks after this (September 24th) a meeting, supposed to be larger than any that had been ever assembled in England, was held at Manchester. Bodies of men from the numerous manufacturing towns and villages in the neighbourhood were marching into Manchester all the morning, carrying flags inscribed with the words "National Reform Union," and proceeded to a large open space called Campfield, where six platforms had been erected. Notwithstanding the torrents of rain that continued throughout the day, the numbers assembled were estimated at between 100,000 and 200,000 persons. In connection with each of the six platforms three identical resolutions were moved and passed; the general effect of these resolutions was to identify the people of Manchester, in opinions and political action, with Mr. Beales and his fellow-agitators. A high tribute was paid to some of the members of the late Government and other friends of Reform, particularly Mr. Bright, and Mr. Mill. A resolution passed in the evening at a great meeting in the Free Trade Hall showed how deeply the eloquent and sarcastic invectives of Mr. Lowe were felt and resented by their objects:—"This meeting, while recording its indignation at the insults offered in Parliament and by the press to the working classes and their advocates, calls on the people of this country to allow themselves no longer to be trifled with by an oligarchic few, and to rally round those men who have upheld their cause." On the 8th of October a great Reform meeting was held at Leeds. The dreary open space above the town, called Woodhouse Moor, was the scene of the gathering, at which it was estimated that not less than 200,000 persons were collected. Resolutions of a similar character to those adopted at Manchester were passed; several speakers fiercely attacked Mr. Lowe and vindicated the character of the working men from the aspersions that had been heaped upon it; nor was the usual vote of confidence in Mr. Bright forgotten. A similar demonstration took place in Edinburgh in November. An immense working man's meeting had been arranged for the 3rd of December, to be held at Beaufort House, Kensington, but it proved to be less imposing than the promoters had intended, not much more than an eighth of the 200,000 working men whose presence had been reckoned upon, actually making their appearance. The oratory was somewhat reckless, but an antidote was speedily forthcoming. At a Reform meeting of the London Trades in St. James's Hall (December 4th), Mr. Ayrton was understood to censure the Queen for not recognising the people when they gathered in such numbers in front of one of her palaces. In reply to these remarks, Mr. Bright said:—"I am not accustomed to stand up in defence of those who are possessors of crowns, but I could not sit and hear that observation without a sensation of wonder and of pain. I think that there has been, by many persons, a great injustice done to the Queen in reference to her desolate and widowed position. And I venture to say this, that a woman—be she the Queen of a great realm, or be she the wife of one of you labouring men—who can keep alive in her heart a great sorrow for the lost object of her life and affections, is not at all likely to be wanting in a great and generous sympathy with you." Every sentence of this vindication was greeted with cheers, and at its close there was loud and prolonged cheering, amidst which the body of people in the hall arose and sang a verse of "God save the Queen."

So persevering and wide-spread an agitation in pursuit of a political object in a country constitutionally governed must have disposed the Conservative Government, even if originally averse from mooting it, to make the question of Parliamentary Reform the serious subject of their counsels. But we have already seen, from the speech of Mr. Disraeli in Buckinghamshire, that, although the Government regarded itself as wholly unpledged, the question of Reform was one that had no terrors for the versatile and experienced leader of the party in the House of Commons; and in the course of the winter it became known that the Ministry were engaged in framing a large and comprehensive measure, and would introduce it early in the ensuing Session.

One of the severest commercial crises ever known in Great Britain will make the months of May and June, 1866, memorable in the history of banking and finance. The crash that caused so many goodly and solid-seeming commercial and financial structures to topple over and collapse in irretrievable ruin was the natural reaction after a period of feverish, over-sanguine, and partly unsound speculation. The year 1865 had witnessed the launch on the money market of a vast number of new undertakings, carried on by companies offering the advantage of limited liability to their shareholders, and professing to hold out to the fortunate investor opportunities of enriching himself beyond the wildest dream of avarice. As the spring of 1866 wore on, the solvency and utility of some of these speculations came seriously into question, and a tendency to realise manifested itself. There was one immense financing firm which in the magnitude of its discounts had no equal in London. This was the Limited Liability Company of Overend, Gurney, and Co., the shareholders of which had, as a great privilege, purchased the goodwill of the business of the well-known firm of Overend and Gurney the year before, for the sum of £500,000. At the time they thus sold their business, the firm, as the subsequent judicial investigation proved, was hopelessly insolvent to the extent of many millions. The representatives of the new company must have been either quixotically confiding, or culpably remiss, or financially incompetent, not to have obtained some inkling, at the time of the negotiations for the purchase, of the real state of affairs; it seems certain, however, that their ignorance was as complete as that of the world outside. In March or April it became known that certain firms and companies, with which Overend, Gurney, and Co. had had large transactions, were in difficulties or had suspended payment; a feeling of uneasiness arose; the shares of the company, which had been quoted at a good premium, fell below par; and some of the new shareholders, becoming alarmed, commenced to sell out. An immediate further depreciation of the shares was, of course, the consequence; this led to increased alarm and to pressure from the company's creditors. The directors, perceiving ruin to be imminent, sought assistance from the Bank of England; but the authorities of that establishment, after investigating the affairs of the company sufficiently to convince themselves that no slight or temporary measures of relief would be of the least avail, declined to grant the accommodation requested. Meanwhile, the run upon them was increasing, and the price of the shares continually falling; and on the afternoon of May 10th the company had no choice but to close its doors and suspend payment. The liabilities were stated at the enormous sum of £11,000,000; the assets, it was feared, and with great reason as the events proved, would, even if realised in the most favourable circumstances, leave an enormous margin of indebtedness. Friday morning ushered in a day of universal panic and consternation in London city, such as had not been seen since the disastrous year of 1857. The multitude of buyers and sellers, bulls and bears, knaves and dupes, brokers and investors, who swarm during the business hours of the day in the streets surrounding the Royal Exchange, consented together, as if by a tacit understanding, to call the day "Black Friday." Every half-hour some well-known firm or company, which but the day before had presented a smiling and prosperous front to the world, was announced to have suspended payment. Crowds of despairing depositors collected round the door of Overend, Gurney, and Co., in Lombard Street, and discussed in tones of anger or despondency the prospects of the bankruptcy. Upon all the private banks the run was intensely severe; the managers of these sought assistance from the Bank of England, and, when the securities were unexceptional, were in no instance refused. But the consequence was that the Bank, whose reserves at the beginning of the day were close upon £7,000,000, although it charged 9 per cent. all day for accommodation, found itself, when the business of the day was over, with the reserves reduced to little over £3,000,000. What measures the Bank authorities were driven to in face of this alarming reduction will presently be related. The crash of falling houses was resounding all day in the financial ear. The English Joint-Stock Company was one of the first to go, dragging down with it thirty-one provincial branches in its fall. Failures for less than half a million were so comparatively unimportant as to arouse little attention. The convulsion reached its climax towards the close of the day, when the stoppage of the great firm of railway contractors, Peto, Betts, and Co., with liabilities exceeding £4,000,000, was announced. The authorities of the Bank of England communicated to the Treasury, as in duty bound, the drain that menaced the exhaustion of their reserves. The emergency was so serious that Lord Russell and Mr. Gladstone, after conferring with a great number of bankers and directors of finance companies, agreed to allow the credit of the country to be employed, though the permission involved an infringement of the law. Late on Friday night Mr. Gladstone announced in the House of Commons that an authority would be sent next morning from the Treasury to the Bank, to continue discounting good bills, even though their reserves should thereby be reduced below the minimum required by law, provided that they made no such discounts at a lower rate of interest than 10 per cent. The panic in the City was greatly allayed when the decision of the Government was made known; confidence began to revive; and eventually the Bank did not find it necessary to infringe the law. Yet one more gigantic failure occurred before the crisis passed. This was the stoppage of Agra and Masterman's Bank, a house of old standing, and with a most extensive Indian connection, the business of which, as in the case of Overend and Gurney, had been lately transferred by its former proprietors to a limited liability company. The run on this particular bank was so persistent that in the four weeks which intervened between the beginning of the crisis and their own stoppage, they paid away more than £3,000,000 over the counter, yet were unable to avert the catastrophe.

In consequence of the disasters thus described, and many other minor failures that we have not noticed, numbers of families found themselves reduced from affluence to poverty; many had to descend to a lower position in society, and an extensive contraction of expenditure took place, the effects of which were felt through all the channels of trade, and especially by those who minister to the amusements and luxuries of the affluent. It was remarked that the principle of limited liability, which, when first introduced, was held to confer so great a boon upon investors, inasmuch as it sheltered the individual proprietors of any joint-stock adventure from that awful responsibility for the whole debts of the concern, which the law, as it formerly stood, imposed upon them—had come to be so worked in practice as to make this immunity from risk, in numberless cases, illusory. It had become customary to announce a new company with a nominal share capital of large amount, but to state in the prospectus that only one or two pounds would be called up on each share, and skilfully to induce the belief, by glowing accounts tending to impress the reader with a sense of the safe and lucrative character of the speculation, that no further calls would require to be made. Suppose there to be five new companies, each coming out with a share capital of £200,000, in £20 shares, and calling up £1 per share, with an intimation that it was not probable that any further call would be necessary, but that in no possible circumstances, so certain was the prospect of speedy and ample profits, could the calls exceed £3 per share. A man who had saved £3,000 might think he was following a wise and safe course by investing part of that sum in the shares of the five companies, buying, let us say, two hundred shares in each, on which he would have to pay up £1,000, and supposing that, if the worst came to the worst, he would not be called upon for more than his £3,000. But a commercial crisis arrived; the companies got into difficulties; they had, perhaps, launched out into expense far exceeding the amount paid upon the shares, and every one who had a claim upon them turned round and pressed for his money. In such circumstances, whether the companies suspended payment or not, they were obliged to make fresh calls upon the unpaid portion of the shares. Thus our imaginary investor might find himself, in an extreme case, called upon to furnish £20,000 upon his shares, instead of the £3,000 which he had fondly fancied to be the utmost that would ever be demanded of him. It was in this way that the shareholders of many limited liability companies found themselves, unless persons of large capital, face to face with ruin, because they had unthinkingly entangled themselves in a liability which, limited as it was, yet, when pressed to its full extent, was more than they could sustain.

A variety of minor incidents falling under the year 1866 may here be briefly noticed. The House of Commons gave proof of its unabated loyal attachment to the House of Hanover by voting to the Princess Helena, on the occasion of the announcement of her intended marriage to Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, an annual allowance of £6,000 a year, and a dowry of £30,000—a donation similar to that which had been granted to the Princess Alice. The marriage took place at Windsor Castle on the 5th of July. Another marriage, which excited much popular interest—for the well-known geniality and good-nature of the bride made her a universal favourite—was that of the Princess Mary of Cambridge, at Kew, on the 12th of June, to the Duke of Teck. The great Banda and Kirwee prize-money case was argued, and decided in this year. From the magnitude of the booty which was the subject of litigation, and the number and position of the claimants, the pleadings were followed with interest. In the course of the campaign of 1858 in Central India, which stamped out the last remains of the mutiny in that region, General Whitlock had led a British force to Banda, driven out the Nawab, and taken possession of a rich booty in gold and jewels collected there, the value of which was estimated at not less than £800,000. The question to be decided was—to whom did this booty of right belong? Ought it to be awarded to General Whitlock's force exclusively, by which Banda was taken—or were other divisions, even though serving at a distance, entitled to their share, on the ground that it was by their co-operation that the taking of Banda was rendered possible? The family of Lord Clyde, who was Commander-in-Chief in India at the time, also appeared as claimants. Dr. Lushington delivered judgment in the case on the 30th of June. He included under the description of "General Whitlock's forces," to whom he awarded the sum in litigation, "any troops left by General Whitlock on his march, but which at the time of the capture formed a portion of his division, and were still under his command." Lord Clyde and his staff were also declared entitled to share in the booty captured at Banda and Kirwee; but the claim of Sir Hugh Rose and his army, employed at the time in the important collateral operation of the siege of Jhansi, but which had never effected an actual junction with General Whitlock, and all other claims, were disallowed. The foundering of the London, a large iron steamship, in the Bay of Biscay, in the January of this year, with a loss of two hundred and twenty lives, including Dr. Woolley, the principal of the new Sydney University, and the well-known actor, Gustavus Brooke, was memorable for the calm courage displayed by the captain, Captain Martin, who sent off his chief engineer in the only boat that could be launched, saying that his own duty was to stay by the ship. This boat, with nineteen persons on board, was picked up by a passing vessel. The wonderful procession of meteors, radiating from a point in the north-eastern sky, seen on the night of the 13th of November, though not a proper subject for a political and social history, could never be forgotten by any that witnessed it. A deficient harvest deepened the painful impression which the monetary disasters of 1866 had left on the minds of the people. In the critical months of August and September the weather was unusually wet and stormy, and the wheat crop suffered much in consequence. A great deal of corn was housed in bad condition and no inconsiderable portion wasted or spoiled. The result was a yield considerably below the average and the prices of grain were consequently much enhanced. The prices of other necessaries were also raised; although this was probably to a great extent due to a permanent cause, with which the bad harvest had nothing to do-viz. that gradual rise in the price of all articles of necessary consumption, which, commencing from the discovery of the gold-fields of California, the continual influx of gold, in quantities before unknown, into the markets of the world, slowly but surely effected. These untoward circumstances, combined with a contraction of the demand for labour, arising from commercial failures and discredit, made the winter of 1866-67 a period of considerable suffering to the poor in England.

The state of Ireland in 1866 was such as to excite grave and sorrowful reflections. We have described in a former chapter the circumstances in which Stephens, the chief head-centre, effected his escape from confinement in 1865, and how a special commission was appointed, in order to try Fenian prisoners. During January the Fenian trials were going on in Dublin before Mr. Justice Keogh, and a number of the accused were sentenced to terms of penal servitude, varying from ten to five years. But the terrors of the law, and the grave and solemn tones of ermined justice, reprobating the guilt and folly of the Fenian conspiracy, were contumaciously set at naught by many of the prisoners. Patrick Hayburne, of the "Emmet Guard," in the Fenian brotherhood, a young man, the only support of his mother, on being found guilty, requested the judge to sentence him to a term of penal servitude rather than to two years' imprisonment. Mr. Justice Keogh expressed his pity for the misguided youth, and passed the latter sentence, on which the prisoner exclaimed, "I will have the same principles afterwards." In Dublin, and still more in Limerick, the populace loudly cheered Fenian prisoners as they were being taken to gaol. A number of strangers continued to arrive in Dublin, many of them betraying by their military bearing that they had seen service in the field, whom the police knew to be in communication with those suspected of Fenianism, but who were careful to commit no overt act that would bring them within the grasp of the law, and, on being questioned, said that they were come to Ireland to see their friends. Arms of all kinds were continually being seized; even three pieces of artillery were discovered, just on the point of being despatched to Drogheda. The attempts to seduce soldiers from their allegiance, in spite of the severity of the Special Commission against this particular offence, were found to increase in frequency. In addition to the former reward of £1,000 offered by the Government for the apprehension of Stephens, a further sum of £1,000 was now offered for such private information as should lead to his capture; but no informer came forward. All this was generally known before the meeting of Parliament; but the despatch of the Lord-Lieutenant, dated February 14th, proposing the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, proved that matters were more grave than the public had any idea of. Lord Wodehouse wrote:—

"The state of affairs is very serious. The conspirators, undeterred by the punishment of so many of their leaders, are actively organising an outbreak, with a view to destroy the Queen's authority. Sir Hugh Bose details the various plans they have in contemplation, and he draws no exaggerated picture. There are scattered over the country a number of agents, who are swearing in members, and who are prepared to take the command when the moment arrives. These men are of the most dangerous class. They are Irishmen, imbued with American notions, thoroughly reckless, and possessed of considerable military experience, acquired in a field of warfare [the Civil War in America] admirably adapted to train them for conducting an insurrection here. There are 340 such men known to the police in the provinces, and those known in Dublin amount to about 160, so that in round numbers there are 500. Of course, there are many more who escape notice. This number is being augmented by fresh men constantly arriving from America. In Dublin itself there are several hundred men (perhaps about 300 or 400) who have come over from England and Scotland, who receive 1s. 6d. a day, and are waiting for the time of action. Any one may observe these men loitering about at the corners of the streets. As to arms, we have found no less than three regular manufactories of pikes, bullets, and cartridges in Dublin. The police believe that several more exist. Of course, bullets are not made unless there are rifles to put them in. The disaffection of the population in some counties, such as Cork, Tipperary, Waterford, and Dublin, is alarming; and it is day by day spreading more and more through every part of the country. But the most dangerous feature of the present movement is the attempt to seduce the troops. Are we to allow these agents to go on instilling their poison into our armed force, upon which our security mainly depends?" Lord Wodehouse concluded his despatch by declaring that he could not be responsible for the safety of the country if power was not forthwith given to Government to seize the leaders; on that condition he hoped still to avert serious mischief.

On the receipt of this letter, Sir George Grey, then Home Secretary, immediately requested Lord Russell to summon a meeting of the Cabinet and, when it was convened, laid Lord Wodehouse's letter before them, and urged that his application with regard to the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act should be acceded to. The Cabinet unanimously agreed that there was no choice but to accede to the application, and it was determined that a Bill for the purpose should be introduced into the House of Commons on the next day (Saturday, February 17th), and carried through all its stages, so as to receive the Royal Assent, and become law on the same day, and be carried into execution by the Irish Government not later than Monday. This was accordingly done. At twelve o'clock next day Sir George Grey brought in a Bill to suspend for six months the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland. His arguments were chiefly derived from Lord Wodehouse's letter, and they were of a nature that the governments of nations, in the legislative no less than in the executive branches, usually find irresistible. Yet it was a saddening thought, that sixty-five years after the Union, and thirty-four years after the first Reform Bill, so little progress had been made in attaching the masses of the Irish people to the Constitution under which an Englishman thought it his happiness to live! Mr. Bright gave impressive utterance to this feeling, when he spoke of the shame and humiliation which he felt at being called on for the second time, in a Parliamentary career of twenty-two years (the first occasion was at the time of Smith O'Brien's rising in 1848), to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland. He asserted that Ireland was in a state of chronic agitation, and that the numerical majority of the Irish people were in favour of a complete separation. Although this was not the occasion for entering upon the general question of the state of Ireland, and the nature of the remedial measures that were required, he could not but express his conviction that the institutions under which Irishmen were required to live were not such as could command their affection or call forth their loyalty; yet he believed there was a mode of making Ireland loyal, and he threw the responsibility of discovering it on Government and on the Imperial Parliament. Mr. Roebuck, alluding to the asserted fact that the Catholic clergy in Ireland were opposed to the Fenians—who on their side scouted the notion of submission to priestly authority, and endeavoured to undermine the influence of the clergy over the people—said that nevertheless he attributed much of the present discontent to the Roman Catholic priesthood, who for years had taught the people to hate English rule, but who, now that they found themselves threatened by this conspiracy, had become wondrous loyal. He went on to ridicule the sentiment of nationality, on the ground that every great empire in the world's history had been made up of different nationalities. Leave was given to introduce the Bill by a majority of 364 to 6 votes; it passed through all its stages without further discussion and was then sent up to the Lords, who disposed of it with equal celerity. But the Royal Assent had to be given before the measure could become law; and the Queen was at this time at Osborne. As soon as the Bill had passed the Lords, a telegram announcing the result was sent to Earl Granville, who was in attendance on her Majesty at Osborne, and who thereupon solicited and obtained the Queen's signature to the usual formal document, authorising her assent to be given to the Bill by Commission. The sittings of both Houses were suspended till 11 p.m., by which time it was calculated that the special train conveying the document might have arrived. But midnight came and still the messenger did not appear; at half-past twelve, however, the despatch box, bearing the important document, was brought to the Lord Chancellor. Some time elapsed before it was properly filled up and then the clerk entered, carrying the Royal Commission. The House of Commons was sent for to hear the Royal Assent given to the Bill in question, and soon the Speaker, accompanied by about fifty members, appeared at the bar of the House. The Commissioners then stated that it was her Majesty's will and pleasure to give her assent to the Bill and it became law. This was about twenty minutes to one on the Sunday morning. Probably no statute could ever pass with much more celerity than this, the first Act of the new Parliament.

But rapid as were the operations of the legislature, the Dublin executive considered the state of affairs so critical as to justify it in anticipating the passing of the law. On Saturday morning, February 17th, the arrests of suspected persons commenced, and were continued through the day, nearly 250 persons being in custody at nightfall. No resistance was in any case offered to the police, nor were any captures of arms effected on this day. Thirty-seven American citizens, of Irish extraction, most, if not all, of whom had served in the Civil War, were among the persons arrested. The suddenness of the blow appears to have utterly disconcerted the conspirators. The suspicious-looking strangers, who had for weeks past haunted the streets of Dublin, disappeared; the steamers to Liverpool were crowded with passengers; and for several days the steamboats sailing for America took away numbers of bellicose gentlemen, who found that the Irish revolution was not to come off just yet. The authorities, however, neglected no necessary precaution; the vans conveying prisoners to Kilmainham or Richmond were guarded by troops; all the soldiers of the garrison not on duty were confined to their quarters all night, ready to turn out at a moment's notice; and no strangers were admitted within the gates of the Pigeon-house Fort, which guards the mouth of the Liffey, on any pretence. The most important arrest was believed to be that of Patrick J. M'Donnell, said to have been at the head of the movement since the escape of Stephens. In the provinces some noteworthy incidents occurred. On the same night on which the arrests were effected in Dublin, a body of Fenians were practising drill at a place called Cullen in county Tipperary; a patrol of police came up and endeavoured to disperse them; the Fenians then fired upon and wounded some of the police, one man mortally. At Trim, in county Meath, several arrests were made, among them that of Mr. Malone, one of the wealthiest and most respectable merchants in the town; other persons moving in a respectable position were also captured. At Queenstown, about a month later, two of the Town Commissioners were arrested. These instances showed that the passage in the Queen's Speech at the opening of the Session, speaking of the Fenian movement as "a conspiracy adverse alike to authority, property, and religion, and disapproved and condemned alike by all who are interested in their maintenance," was unfortunately not quite exact.

In making a great display of force at the outset, the Irish executive was probably pursuing the wisest and also the most humane course. Troops kept pouring into Dublin; the 1st Battalion of the Coldstream Guards and the 85th Regiment arrived there before the end of February, and were followed by the 6th Dragoon Guards and a body of artillerymen, as well as a detachment of the Military Train corps from Woolwich. The most stringent measures were taken for stamping out any signs of disaffection that might manifest themselves among the troops; nor was this severity without cause, for not privates only, but several non-commissioned officers, were found to have either taken the Fenian oath, or uttered treasonable language, or been seen habitually in the company of notorious Fenians. Through the greater part of March frequent arrests continued to be made; and by that time the ranks of the disaffected were so depleted and discouraged, partly by the arrest of the leaders, partly by the rush to America and England of those who knew themselves to be most compromised among their followers, that all fear of an outbreak was at an end.

The Act for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus was originally passed for six months only, and would have expired on the 1st of September; but as the new Ministry felt that to allow it to expire would endanger the public peace, they sought and obtained from Parliament at the beginning of August the enactment of a Bill renewing the former Act for an indefinite period. Lord Naas, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, stated that from the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act up to the 23rd of July, 419 persons who had been imprisoned had been discharged, generally on condition that they should leave the country. From every authority he learned that it would be dangerous to permit the sudden and simultaneous liberation of the 320 prisoners who remained in custody; yet such liberation was unavoidable if the Act were allowed to expire. He spoke of the fact that, although suppressed in Ireland, at any rate as to any public manifestations, the Fenian conspiracy still existed in force in another country; that there were still in Ireland newspapers advocating the Fenian cause, which disseminated seditious and treasonable sentiments through the country; and that secret drillings of the population had been lately renewed. Mr. Maguire protested against the renewal of the Act, on the ground that there was no disorder now in Ireland which the ordinary powers of the law were not adequate to deal with. On the other hand, Mr. Gladstone—while stating his opinion that the renewal of the Act burdened Government with a very heavy responsibility, and made it incumbent on them to investigate with renewed ardour, and to remove by wise legislation, whatever grievances and inequalities, existing in the laws and institutions of Ireland, supplied a necessary aliment to the disaffection of the Irish people—declared that if the late Government had been still in power it would have been their duty to have made the same application to Parliament as that which was then being made by the existing Government. The Bill was passed by a large majority in the Commons, and on being sent up to the House of Lords, was supported in a remarkable speech by the Earl of Kimberley, formerly Lord Wodehouse. The ex-Lord-Lieutenant declared that if he had remained in office he should have recommended the adoption of this Bill by Parliament. No one except those intimately acquainted with the facts could be aware how formidable the Fenian conspiracy had been. Since 1798 there had not existed so dangerous a condition of the public mind as in the past year. The promoters of the scheme had not been found in the poorer and more ignorant classes, but belonged to the class that was best described as artisans and small tradesmen; whilst in the south-west of Ireland, if a rebellion had broken out, there was no doubt the farmers also would have been ready to take part in it. Adverting to the alleged grievances of Ireland, the speaker observed that the question of land tenure was one that must shortly occupy the earnest attention of Parliament, and that the anomaly of the Irish Church must also be considered. The Bill soon became law; and, although nothing like an open rising was attempted during the remainder of the year, nor was a drop of blood shed, still it is impossible to doubt but that the extraordinary powers placed in the hands of the executive enabled them to act with far greater promptitude against the first symptoms of insurrection, and with far less of friction and popular irritation, than would have been possible in conjunction with the somewhat cumbrous safeguards and formalities which in quiet times protect the personal liberty of the subject.

Seditious and alarmist articles in Irish papers, rumours carefully propagated of Fenian expeditions about to land on some point of the Irish coast, and the certainty that arms were being continually manufactured or imported, and distributed through the country, kept the Government on the qui vive all through the autumn; but the rumours were probably malicious, and certainly false, and no actual outbreak occurred. In America matters did not proceed quite so smoothly. Since the arrival of Stephens in the United States, the Fenians in that country had been distracted by a split that arose between their leaders. That the British Empire should be destroyed was a political axiom admitted both by Sweeny and Stephens: it was only upon the modus operandi that these redoubtable chiefs differed. Sweeny appears to have considered that it was necessary to annex Canada first, and thence proceed to the conquest of Ireland; Stephens, on the other hand, desired that all other plans should be made subordinate to the preparation of a formidable Fenian expedition, which should disembark at some point in the west of Ireland. Loud was the debate and voluble the discussion. The Fenian "senate" and most of the American Fenians adhered to Sweeny, while the Irish whose expatriation was of recent date swore by Stephens. Sweeny denounced Stephens as a "British spy," and doubtless Stephens was not at a loss for a fit epithet by which to characterise Sweeny. The valiant Sweeny, as the year wore on, took measures to test the soundness of his strategic plan for the invasion of Ireland vi Canada. On the morning of the 1st of June, 1866, a body of Fenians, numbering 1,000 men, under the command of a Colonel O'Neil, crossed the Niagara River from Buffalo, where it enters Lake Erie, and occupied the farm or hamlet called Fort Erie on the Canadian shore. The news of this absurd raid, with which the Fenians of the United States had been threatening Canada for months past, quickly reached Toronto; and the authorities there at once despatched all the troops they could collect to the scene of action. One thousand five hundred men, mostly regulars, under the command of Colonel Peacocke, marched by way of the Falls of Niagara and the village of Chippeway; while 500 militiamen, under Colonel Dennis, were sent by rail to Port Colborne. The Fenians made no forward movement that day, nor were they molested at Fort Erie; but by some extraordinary accident Colonel Dennis and a few of his men allowed themselves to be taken prisoners by them. The command of the militia then devolved upon Colonel Booker, who, on the morning of June 2nd, led his men forward from Port Colborne, along the margin of Lake Erie, to attack the invaders. Colonel Peacocke, misled by a report that the Fenians were marching upon Chippeway, led his forces to that place, and thus had no share in the trifling action that ensued. Arrived at a village called Ridgway, about half-way between Port Colborne and Fort Erie, Colonel Booker fell in with the Fenian column, which was advancing along the lake. A skirmish ensued, in which six militiamen were killed and forty wounded, the Fenians suffering about equally. Finding himself outnumbered, Colonel Booker retired towards Port Colborne. The Fenians did not pursue; probably by this time they had heard of the proximity of Colonel Peacocke with his regulars. Wisely deeming discretion the better part of valour, they recrossed the Niagara on the night of the 2nd of July, leaving a few of their wounded and some stragglers—in all about sixty men—in the hands of the loyalists.

KILMAINHAM GAOL, DUBLIN.

(From a Photograph by W. Lawrence, Dublin.)