In a few words the cause of the Chinese war is told; but it would require thousands to recount the debate which arose in parliament as to the action of the government, {429}which Lord Derby had challenged in one house, and Mr. Cobden in the other. The question was, whether or no the war was to be continued, whether or no Lord Palmerston was to resign? "Let the noble lord, who complains that he is the victim of a conspiracy, not only complain to the country,--let him appeal to it!" said Mr. Disraeli at the close of a two nights' debate. The noble lord did appeal to the country. He announced his policy to be, "to maintain the rights, to defend the lives and properties of British subjects, to improve our relations with China, and in the selection and arrangement of the means for the accomplishment of those objects, to perform the duty which they owed to the country." The elections which took place soon after showed a clear gain to the ministry, and a glorious victory for Lord Palmerston. Two visitors must be mentioned, the one an American, the other a Frenchman, who went to England about this time on important missions. The American was Mr. Cyrus W. Field, who astonished the leading merchants and scientific men, by announcing a plan which he had for laying a telegraph line beneath the Atlantic to connect Europe and the United States. The Frenchman was M. de Lesseps, who explained his project for cutting a canal across the Isthmus of Suez. Both met with opposition, and both plans were deemed impossible; but, as we know, both have succeeded. The Archduke Maximilian, brother to the Emperor of Austria, visited the court in June. He was at that time engaged to the Princess Charlotte of Belgium,--the woman afterwards known to all the world as "Poor Carlotta." It was six years after this visit to London that the Archduke Maximilian became Emperor of Mexico, where, by a turn of the revolutionary wheel, he was ordered to be shot by President Juarez, in 1867. Just before his sentence {430}was carried into execution, Maximilian took out his watch, and, pressing a spring which concealed a portrait of his wife, he kissed it, and gave it to a priest, saying: "Carry this souvenir to Europe,--to my dear wife; and, if she be ever able to understand you, say that my eyes closed with the impression of her image, which I shall carry with me above. Poor Carlotta!" He had reason to believe that his message never would be comprehended by his wife, because, as all her bright hopes were blasted in Mexico, her mind succumbed. When her husband was taken prisoner, she had gone to France, and then to Rome to plead for help. She was refused, and insanity was the result.