The Life and Times of Queen Victoria; vol. 1 of 4Wilson, Robert
History
The Life and Times of Queen Victoria; vol. 1 of 4
Wilson, Robert
Great Britain -- History -- Victoria, 1837-1901; Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 1819-1901
much of his attention, and he established a model farm in Windsor Park,
which showed how much may be effected by intelligent supervision, and a
systematic application of those scientific principles which modern times
have placed at the disposal of enterprising men. At the chief
agricultural shows, his name soon became familiar as a constant and
often successful exhibitor, and nothing gave him greater pleasure than
any notable achievement in this field of human industry. Speaking of the
model works in Windsor Park, a contemporary writer observed that “the
most practical man could not go that pleasant round, from the Flemish
farm to the Norfolk, and so back again by the Home and the Dairy,
without learning something wherever he went.” The farm at Windsor was
established about the end of 1840, and the Prince always took the
greatest interest in the working of his establishment. On the 30th of
October, 1843, he wrote to Baron Stockmar that the prices of cattle were
up again, and that he had netted a very good return from his auction in
the Park. Since the death
[Illustration: LORD GOUGH. (_After the Portrait by Sir Francis Grant,
P.R.A._)]
of his Royal Highness, the farm has been continued with equal zeal by
the Queen; and the Prince of Wales has also shown an intelligent
interest in pursuits and experiments calculated to raise in no slight
degree the productive powers of our country.
While the Queen was gaining a more extended knowledge of her home
dominions, and Prince Albert was interesting himself in many departments
of science and art, some events were passing in India, to which brief
reference should be made. During the Afghan war of 1838-9, the
Anglo-Indian Government intimated its intention to take temporary
possession of Shikarpoor, in Scinde, an independent State in the
north-west of the Peninsula. The Ameers of Hyderabad and Mizpoor
thereupon assented to a treaty which placed them under the control of
Calcutta; but the people themselves never agreed to this sacrifice, and
the British Residency at Hyderabad was attacked in the early part of
1843. Hereupon, the British envoy, Sir Charles James Napier, marched a
large military force against the malcontents, routed them at Meeanee on
the 17th of February, and, by a further victory on March 24th, completed
the subjugation of Scinde. During the next two years, the country
continued in a state of extreme agitation, owing to the depredations of
certain marauding tribes in the west; but these brigands were hunted
down, and at length entirely extirpated, by the conqueror of Scinde,
whose unresting energy and fiery resolution procured from him, from his
half-admiring adversaries, the title of “the Devil’s Brother.” The
administration of the province has greatly improved since then; but it
may be questioned whether its annexation was not an act of high-handed
power, which the concomitant circumstances were insufficient to justify.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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