320

RUSSIA DISREGARDS TREATY OBLIGATIONS. [A.D. 1871.

Early in November 1870, Prince Gortschakoff, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, addressed a circular to the Great Powers that were signataries to the Treaty of Paris, which, in 1856, terminated the Crimean War, declaring that his Government regarded the terms of that document as inapplicable to the present time, and no longer obligatory. It had previously been rumoured that Russia was making vast preparations for the accomplishment of her old design upon Turkey, and the receipt of the Gortschakoff note tended to increase the excitement in the public mind. It was believed that the great northern Power, regardless of untoward complications, and of the risk of increasing the war-flame already working havoc on the Continent, sought to gain her selfish ends by taking advantage of the moment when the collapse of the military strength of France delivered her from the dread of a most potent foe. The tact and firmness of Earl Granville, however, averted the collision which seemed imminent; and at the suggestion of Count Bismarck, Chancellor of Prussia, the representatives of the signataries to the treaty in question met in conference, early in 1871, at the Foreign Office, London, to consider the views entertained by Russia. The result was, that a new treaty was signed on 15th March, modifying the clauses of the former one respecting the neutralization of the Black Sea.

At the opening of Parliament on 9th February, it was announced in the Queen's speech that Commissioners had been appointed by this country, the United States, and Canada, to determine the best mode of amicably settling the differences that had arisen in connexion with the Alabama claims,1 the Canadian fisheries, and several other subjects. This Joint High Commission, of which Earl de Grey was a prominent member, held various conferences at Washington between 27th February and 6th May, resulting in the signing of a treaty, by which the principal questions in dispute were, under certain restrictions, referred to arbitration.

On 21st March, the marriage of Her Royal Highness the Princess Louise and the Marquis of Lorne, eldest son of the Duke of Argyll, was celebrated at Windsor. Owing to the

1 Vide page 309.

A.D. 1871.]

CAPITULATION OF PARIS.

321

circumstance that the Queen, in consenting to this union, had broken through the old-established restrictions upon royal marriages, this event was regarded with universal interest and approbation.

We have already referred to the remarkable condition of France at the close of 1870 :-Napoleon, her emperor, a prisoner of war, and the Empire overthrown; the finest of her armies. annihilated or in captivity; Paris, her proud capital, a beleaguered, starving city, encompassed by victorious Germans; her great, and thought to be impregnable, fortresses surrendered; and about a fifth of her soil in possession of the irresistible foe! The beginning of 1871 brought no mitigation of these calamities. The unequal contest still continued, and our daily newspapers teemed with graphic accounts of this sanguinary battle, so fatal to the interests of our Gallic neighbours, and of that great sortie from a Parisian fort repulsed with more than barbaric carnage. One day came the intelligence that his Prussian Majesty had, on the 18th January, in the Salle des Glaces at Versailles, been proclaimed Emperor of united Germany; and a few days thereafter the telegraph flashed the news that M. Jules Favre had arrived at the German headquarters to negotiate for the capitulation of Paris, and for an armistice by land and water. The great city had been invested for 132 days, and was starved into submission. Then was British benevolence, which had, all through the war, been lavishly and ungrudgingly manifested towards the suffering victims on both sides, displayed in a new direction. On 5th February, fifty railway waggons laden with provisions arrived in Paris, bearing the following inscription:"Gifts from the city of London to the city of Paris." Similar substantial tokens of sympathy flowed from all parts of the United Kingdom, which evoked from the burdened heart of poor France a touching response of gratitude.

The preliminaries of peace were signed at Versailles on 26th February, France engaging to pay a war indemnity of £200,000,000 sterling, and to renounce in favour of the Germanic Empire the province of Alsace and a fourth part of Lorraine, including Metz and Thionville. These preliminaries were ratified by the National Assembly at Bordeaux on 1st

March; and on the same day, 30,000 German soldiers entered Paris by the Champs Elysées, proceeding with drums beating and banners flying to the Place de la Concorde, where they. remained for two days, and then evacuated the city.

More misery, however, was in store for the unfortunate Parisians. While they were rejoicing at the return of peace, and setting, as it were, their house in order, the Communists or Red Republicans rose in insurrection, made themselves masters. of Paris, and set the Government at defiance for about two months. In quelling the insurrection, the city was again bombarded, thousands of lives were lost, and much valuable property destroyed. The Communists perpetrated acts of unparalleled atrocity. They wantonly demolished the celebrated column of the Place Vendôme; and when they saw their lawless reign drawing to a close, they devastated, by fire, the beautiful capital in all directions-burning the Tuileries, the Palais Royal, the Hôtel de Ville, the Louvre Library, and many other public buildings; they moreover massacred sixty-four wellknown citizens, including the Archbishop of Paris, whom they had taken as hostages.

THE BRITISH EMPIRE ABROAD.

323

Present Condition of Great Britain.

The prevailing characteristic of the British Empire at home and abroad is that of substantial prosperity. In recent times, the interest and importance of some of the chief colonies have been wonderfully increased by discoveries in gold. These discoveries have induced emigrants to settle on lands which, but for the allurements of the precious metal, would, perhaps for ages to come, have been left without cultivation, and inhabited only by wandering tribes of savage hunters. The vast regions of Australia are, to a great extent, in consequence of this attraction, skirted by colonies of Englishmen, who have brought with them their municipal institutions and habits of self-government. The same may be said with regard to New Zealand, whose name was once synonymous with ferocious barbarism. In the far North-West of America, too, between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, the lonely haunts of the marten and beaver have been turned into the dwellings of civilized freemen, and the colony of British Columbia brought into being entirely through the influence of gold found in the course of the Frazer River and in Vancouver's Island. While her colonial off-shoots are thus increasing in wealth and power, England has the satisfaction of knowing that the encouragement she gives them of acquiring the art of self-government is the means of linking them to her in unswerving loyalty. Aware of the weakness of isolation, Canada and the maritime provinces of British America united themselves under one government in 1867, and took as a distinctive title "The Dominion of Canada." In 1869, the Dominion enlarged its borders by purchasing, for £300,000, the vast domains of the Hudson Bay Company, lying between Canada and Bitish Columbia, and extending from the northern boundary of the United States to the Polar regions. The rich prairies of the Red River and Saskatchewan have thus been thrown open to the enterprise of the sturdy sons of Britain, who are attracted thither, not, in this instance, by golden nuggets, but by the wonderful fertility of the soil. The West India Islands are about to follow the example of Canada in the matter of confederation, and, ere long, will be united under one govern

ment. The unlimited capabilities of India are being rapidly developed, and the advantages of Anglo-Saxon rule are more than ever appreciated by the natives. The great diamond discoveries in Southern Africa have directed thither a stream of adventurers from Cape Colony, Natal, and the mother country, who may ultimately settle there, and thus extend the boundaries of our African colonies. So that, turn whither we may-to the east or to the west-we see the British Empire flourishing and increasing in stability and power.

That which England has done for herself at home is even more satisfactory, and may not unfairly be taken as a measure of her capacity for meeting the immense demands growing upon her. In connexion with railways alone, she has constructed works such as throw all previous efforts of man into the shade. If the pyramids excite astonishment, how must our admiration be increased when we consider that the labour employed on the London and Birmingham railway, where peculiar difficulties had to be overcome, was equal to twice that expended in raising the loftiest of these Egyptian monuments? If we read the persevering energy of the Romans in the remains of roads carried over mountains and across marshes, what are we to think of tunnels, miles in length, under hills and through solid rocks, of compact ways through shaking morasses, and of those stupendous suspension-bridges which span not merely rivers, but straits of the sea? The tubular bridge over the Menai Strait is 2000 feet in length. The massive tubes, which would have defied human strength to move them, bear testimony to human ingenuity, for they were raised and placed by the working of the hydraulic press. Within the last forty years upwards of 14,000 miles of railway have been constructed in the United Kingdom, involv ing a capital of more than £500,000,000. The number of passengers conveyed by them is about 287,000,000 every year; and the annual receipts from their traffic exceeds £39,000,000. When, therefore, we look at railways, and at the works which they have rendered necessary, we should think not only of the convenience they afford, but of the astonishing energy and skill as well as the vast wealth which they represent.

The development of the British postal system has been almost