tion, and a prudence and tact which made him her wisest counsellor. He never considered anything to be beneath his notice, and always did his best to understand thoroughly whatever was worth understanding at all. Once a man came to the palace to fit up a new glass chandelier. Prince Albert saw him and talked to him. When the man came away he said that the Prince seemed to know more about chandeliers than he did himself. The Prince knew more about many things than Englishmen were aware of, and he took great pains to encourage whatever he thought would be for the good of the people.

6. Lord Palmerston and the Eastera Question.Soon after the Queen's marriage there was very near being a war between England and France. The minister who managed Foreign Affairs was Lord Palmerston. He had had the same office in Lord Grey's ministry, and had then done all that he could. to help the nations in Europe which were trying to be governed by kings with parliaments instead of being governed by kings without parliaments. His attention had latterly been chiefly directed to the East of Europe. Turkey was growing weaker every year, because the Sultan did not know how to govern properly. The Turks had conquered that part of Europe more than four hundred years before, just as the Normans had once conquered England. But they did not unite with their subjects as the Normans did with the English. Their subjects were Christians and they were Mahometans. The poorer Turks were honest and brave, and would bear suffer

ing so patiently that they astonished Europeans who went amongst them; but the rich Turks who governed thought only of becoming wealthy, and did not mind what they did to grow richer than they were. Besides this, all Turks were very ignorant, and did not care to learn how to govern properly. Their great enemy was Russia. The Russians had taken from them one province after another. Lord Palmerston was afraid lest Russia should gradually go on till it conquered all Turkey, and he thought that Russia would then be so powerful as to be dangerous to other European states, and especially to Turkey. The only way of stopping this that he could think of was to keep the Turks in possession of all that they had got, in hopes that some day or other they would find out that it was to their own advantage to govern well.

7. Mehemet Ali driven out of Syria.-Whilst Turkey was growing weak, the ruler of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, had been growing strong. He was a resolute man with a well-disciplined army, and some years before he had conquered Syria from the Turks. The Sultan sent an army to drive him out, but he beat the Turkish army, and would have gone on to take Constantinople, if he had been allowed. Lord Palmerston was so anxious to save Turkey that he persuaded Russia, Austria, and Prussia to sign a treaty to stop the Egyptians. As the French did not agree to this, they were left out of the treaty They were so angry that a war very nearly broke out between France and England. Happily the illhumour cooled down. Mehemet Ali was driven out

of Syria, and the Turks had one more chance of trying whether they could govern decently.

8. The Fall of the Melbourne Ministry.-At last the Melbourne ministry came to an end in 1841. Having done so little for so many years, it suddenly announced an intention of doing very great things indeed. It was going to lower the duties on corn. The ministers did not gain anything by their proposal. People thought that they offered to make corn cheap, not because they cared about cheap corn but because they wanted to remain in office. There was a dissolution of Parliament, and in the new Parliament there was a great majority against them. They resigned office, and Sir Robert Peel became Prime Minister.

CHAPTER XLVI.

THE MINISTRY OF SIR ROBERT PEEL.

(1841-1846.)

1. Commercial Free Trade.-Peel was at the head of the Conservative party, but he was bent on improving all that he saw to be amiss, though he took some time to find out all that was wrong. He and his followers were determined that the duties on corn should continue to be paid. He made some alteration in the way in which they were to be paid, but he did not mean to do any more. He thought that trade would flourish much more

if the duties were lowered or taken off a great, many articles of commerce. Every year he took off duties, and it was found that the more taxes he took off the more was the amount of money paid in the taxes which remained. Manufacturers became richer when they could buy articles to use in their factories without having to pay duties on them. The whole people was better off than before, and after this there was much less misery than there had been.

2. The Invasion of Afghanistan.-Peel had not been long in office when bad news arrived from India. Gradually since the day when Clive won the Battle of Plassey, the English had conquered India. Their dominions now reached as far as the Sutlej, one of the five rivers which form the great stream of the Indus. Some way to the eastward was the mountainous country known as Afghanistan. The Afghans by whom it was inhabited were hardy and warlike. There was a panic amongst the English in India. It was believed that the Russians, who were making conquests in central Asia, meant to invade India some day, and that Dost Mahomed, the ruler of Afghanistan, was their friend. It was determined to invade his territory, to dethrone him, and to set up another ruler in his stead. The British army defeated the Afghan troops, took the fortresses, and reached Cabul-in safety. Dost Mahomed himself won a victory over some Indian cavalry in the British service, and then delivered himself up as a prisoner.

3. The Rising of the Afghans.-A British force remained to occupy Cabul. Sir William Macnaghten bad charge of all political arrangements. He fancied

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that all difficulties were at an end. Suddenly an insurrection broke out in Cabul. Some of the most notable of the British officials were murdered. Still there were British soldiers enough to attack the Afghans with every chance of success. Unhappily their commander, General Elphinstone, could not make up his mind to run the risk. He waited to see what would happen, and before long his position was hopeless. Food was failing, and the number of the enemies was increasing. Macnaghten and Elphinstone entered into negotiations with the Afghans. The Afghans offered to give them food if they would give up the forts by which the British were protected. The forts were given up, and the Afghans learnt by this to despise their enemies. Akbar Khan, Dost Mahomed's son, invited Macnaghten to a conference, and treacherously shot him dead with a pistol which Macnaghten had given him the day before. The British officers, instead of resolving to fight to the last, entered into a treaty with the murderer, in which he engaged to protect the army on its way back to India.

4. The Retreat from Cabul. -The retreat began sadly. It was winter, and amidst those lofty mountains snow and ice lay thickly on the path. Akbar Khan did what he could to protect the retreating soldiers, but he could not do much. Crowds of fierce Afghans were posted on the rocks and on the steep sides of the hills through which the army had to struggle, shooting down the fugitives as they passed. Amongst the soldiers were English ladies, some with children to care for. When they reached