Political Wreckage--Force triumphs over Opinion--The State of France--Election of Prince Charles Louis Bonaparte as Prince-President--The Sad Plight of Italy--Palmerston’s Anti-Austrian Policy--Defeat of Piedmont--The Fall of Venice--Fall of the Roman Republic--A Cromwellian Struggle in Prussia--The Queen’s Partisanship--Her Prussian Sympathies--The Hungarian Refugees in Turkey--A Diplomatic Conflict with Russia--Opening of Parliament--Mr. Disraeli and Local Taxation--Parliamentary Reform--The Jonahs of the Cabinet--The Dispute with Greece--Don Pacifico’s Case--Coercion of Greece--Lord Palmerston meekly accepts an Insult from Russia--French Intervention--A Diplomatic Conflict in France--Recall of the French Ambassador--False Statements in Parliament--The Queen’s Indignation--The Don Pacifico Debate--The _Civis Romanus sum_ Doctrine--Palmerston’s Victory--The West African Slave Trade 420 CHAPTER XXIV. SOME EPOCH-MARKING LEGISLATION. The Colonies and Party Government--The Movement for Autonomy--Lord John Russell’s Colonial Bill--Tory Opposition to Colonial Federation--Mr. Adderley’s Plan--Mr. Gladstone’s Scheme for Colonial Church Courts--The Colonial Bills Mangled in the House of Lords--More English Doles for Ireland--An Irish Reform Bill--Lord John Russell Proposes to Abolish the Lord-Lieutenancy--The Queen’s Irish Policy--Her offer to Establish a Royal Residence in Ireland--The Bungled Budget--The Demand for Retrenchment--The Tories Insist on a Reduction of Official Salaries--Lord John Russell’s Commission on Establishments--The Queen and the Church--The Ecclesiastical Appeals Bill--The “Gorham Case”--Death of Peel--The Queen’s Sorrow--A Nation in Mourning--Peel’s Character and Career--The Queen’s Alarm about Prince Albert’s Health--The Queen at Work--The Queen’s Reading-Lamp 438 CHAPTER XXV. FALL OF THE WHIG CABINET. Debates on “No Popery”--Mutiny of the Irish Brigade--Defeat of Lord John Russell--Lord Stanley “sent for”--Timid Tories--Lord Stanley’s Interviews with the Queen--A Statesman’s “Domestic Duties”--Is Coalition Possible?--The Queen’s Mistake--The Duke of Wellington’s Advice--Return of the Whigs to Office--The Queen’s Aversions--The “No Popery” Bill Reduced to a Nullity--Another Bungled Budget--The Income Tax Controversy--The Pillar of Free Trade--The Window Tax and the House Duty--The Radicals and the Slave Trade--King “Bomba” and Mr. Gladstone--Cobden on General Disarmament--Palmerston in a Millennial Mood--The Whig-Peelite Intrigue--The Queen and the Kossuth Demonstrations--Another Quarrel with Palmerston--A Merry Council of State 463 CHAPTER XXVI. THE FESTIVAL OF PEACE AND THE _COUP D’ÉTAT_.