The Irish Crisis--Famine and Free Trade--Evictions and Imports--Fiscal Policy and Small Holdings--Shocking Scenes among the Irish People--The Mistake of the Government--Lord John Russell’s Relief Measure Rejected by his Colleagues--An Autumnal Cabinet Meeting--Opening of Parliament--The Queen and the Distress--The Remedial Measures of the Government--Rival Schemes of the Protectionists--Lord George Bentinck’s Railway Subsidies Bill--A Rival Ministerial Scheme--The Attack on the Bank Act of 1844--The Currency Controversy--Peel on a Convertible Currency--The Effect of the Railway Mania--Blaming the Bank--The Education Question--Opposition of Dissenters--Colonisation and Emigration--Lord Lincoln’s Motion--Is Emigration a Remedy for a Redundant Population?--The Cabinet and the Ten Hours Bill--Mr. Fielden’s Victory--Opposition of Manufacturers--Evading the Act--The Budget--The Queen and the Duchy of Lancaster--Lord Campbell and the Queen--A Famous Duchy Dinner--Privy Councillors at “High Jinks”--Death of Lord Bessborough--Lord Clarendon appointed Irish Viceroy--Death of O’Connell--Growing Weakness of the Cabinet--Prorogation of Parliament--Dissolution--The General Election--The State of Parties--Appalling Outrages in Ireland--Another Commercial Panic--Suspension of the Bank Act--The Queen and Sir Robert Peel--Parliament Summoned--A Coercion Bill for Ireland--Ireland and the Vatican--Lord Palmerston’s Correspondence with Lord Minto--Denunciations of the Queen’s Colleges--Projected Renewal of Diplomatic Relations with Rome--Lord Palmerston’s Objections--The Jews in Parliament--New Bishops--The Hampden Controversy--Baffled Heresy-hunters. Distress is the word that sums up the life of the nation during 1847. If there be any inadequacy in the summary, it may be made good by the addition to it of--sectarian bigotry. Famine in Ireland, two commercial panics in England, religious controversies of the narrowest and most paltry character, and over all, the wind of Socialism moaning bodefully--there, in a sentence, we have a picture of this melancholy year. It will spot black in English history as the year of the Great Irish Famine. Whether Free Trade did or did not aggravate the distress in Ireland will always be a moot point with writers and historians who are partisans. The Protectionists warned Parliament that Free Trade would bring hard times to the rural poor in Ireland, and in 1847 they began to take credit for being good prophets, for it was [Illustration: GLENDALOUGH VALLEY, CO. WICKLOW--VIEW IN GLENDALOUGH. (_After Photographs by W. Lawrence, Dublin._)] not only famine that had to be dealt with in that country; it was famine plus pauperism and pestilence.