Renewed Popularity of the Queen--Services of Prince Albert--A Volunteer Poet Laureate--Birth of the Princess Alice--The Whig Deficit, and how Sir Robert Peel Dealt with It--The Income Tax, and Reduction of Duties--The Sliding Scale--Advance of Free Trade Principles--Assassination of Mr. Drummond--The Question of Criminal Insanity--Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Cobden--Disturbances in South Wales: “Rebecca” and her Daughters--Condition of Women in Mines and Collieries--Lord Ashley and the Factories Act--Opinion of the Queen and Prince Albert on the Qualities of Sir Robert Peel--Levees held by the Prince--The Frescoes for the Houses of Parliament--Encouragement of Fresco-Painting by the Queen and Prince Albert--The Summer House in the Gardens of Buckingham Palace--Visit of her Majesty and the Prince to Louis Philippe at the Château d’Eu--The Duke of Wellington on the Necessity for a Council of Regency--Designs of France on the Succession to the Spanish Throne--Dishonest Engagement of the French King--English Opinion completely Misled--Royal Visits to Belgium, to Cambridge, and to the Midlands--The Prince as a Fox-hunter--Model Farming--Events in India: Wars in Scinde and Gwalior 131 CHAPTER IX. IRELAND, RUSSIA, AND FRANCE. O’Connell and the Agitation for Repeal of the Union--Early Life of the Agitator--Character of his Oratory--Question as to the Purity of his Motives--The “Repeal Year” (1843)--Methods by which O’Connell worked on Irish Opinion--Open-air Gatherings on the Repeal Question--Extravagant Speeches of O’Connell--Crowning of the Liberator on the Hill of Tara--Prohibition of a Proposed Meeting at Clontarf--Arrest of the Chief Agitators--Trial, Condemnation, and Sentences--The Convictions Annulled by the House of Lords--Release of O’Connell, and Final Years of his Life--Effect of the Prosecution on the Government of Sir Robert Peel--Death of Prince Albert’s Father--Visit of the Prince to Saxe-Coburg-Gotha--His Presents to the Queen on her Birthday (1844)--Visits of the King of Saxony and the Emperor of Russia to England--Appearance and Manners of the Emperor--Political Objects of Nicholas in Visiting London--His Designs on Turkey--Memorandum of Agreement between the Czar and the English Government--Jealousy on the Part of the French--Ministerial Crisis in the Summer of 1844--Sir James Graham and the Opening of Letters at the Post Office--Disagreement with France with Respect to the Island of Tahiti--The Pritchard Affair--Queen Pomare and Queen Victoria--Anxieties of the English Court as to the Maintenance of Peace--The Ashburton Treaty with the United States 151 CHAPTER X. DAYS OF PEACEFUL DEVELOPMENT AND PROGRESS.