After the close of the Parliamentary Session, the Court went from Osborne to Balmoral (August 25th), where the Princess Beatrice and her husband received a warm Highland reception. Life at Balmoral was somewhat dull, but in her walks and drives the Queen was now accompanied by Prince Henry of Battenberg as well as the Princess Beatrice. When not in attendance on the Queen, the Prince occasionally found amusement in deerstalking in the Balloch Pine and Abergeldie grounds. Her Majesty remained at Balmoral till the 18th of November, when she returned to Windsor to hold a Council, at which she sanctioned the dissolution of Parliament. On the 9th of December, accompanied by the Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg, the Queen presented medals for service in the Soudan to a number of Guardsmen at Windsor. On the 18th of December she left Windsor for Osborne. It was now plainly intimated to her Majesty that the royal rank and precedence conferred on Prince Henry of Battenberg would not be recognised at Berlin, Vienna, and St. Petersburg, the Courts at which capitals insisted on treating the marriage of the Princess Beatrice as a purely “morganatic” one. The difficulties which arose out of this incident were further aggravated when the Queen permitted the Count and Countess Gleichen to assume the rank and title of Prince and Princess Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenberg.[232] In the spring of 1885 a rebellion of French half-breeds in the Canadian North-West, led by Riel, one of the pardoned insurgents who had been engaged in the Red River rising, was suppressed with great skill and ability by the Canadian Militia, under General Sir Frederick Middleton. Riel was tried and hanged for treason. The misrule of Theebaw, the half-crazy King of Burmah, together with his intrigues with the French--then busy with the conquest of Tonquin--led to disputes between the Indian and Burmese Governments. The result was a war which ended in the deposition of King Theebaw and the annexation of Upper Burmah to the Indian Empire. CHAPTER XXIX. THE BATTLE OF THE UNION. Mr. Chamberlain’s Doctrine of “Ransom”--The Midlothian Programme--Lord Randolph Churchill’s Appeal to the Whigs--Bidding for the Parnellite Vote--Resignation of Lord Carnarvon--The General Election--“Three Acres and a Cow”--Defeat of Lord Salisbury--The Liberal Cabinet--Mr. Gladstone’s Home Rule Scheme--Ulster threatens Civil War--Secession of the Liberal “Unionists”--Defeat of Mr. Gladstone--Lord Salisbury again in Office--Mr. Parnell’s Relief Bill Rejected--The “Plan of Campaign”--Resignation of Lord Randolph Churchill--Mr. Goschen becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer--Riots in the West End of London--The Indian and Colonial Exhibition--The Imperial Institute--The Queen’s Visit to Liverpool--The Holloway College for Women--A Busy Season for her Majesty--The International Exhibition at Edinburgh--The Prince and Princess Komatsu of Japan.