ill by a factious combination in the Commons between the Whigs and
Protectionists, and resigned. Lord John Russell on this occasion was
able to form an administration, though he failed in his attempt to
include in it some important members of the outgoing Government.

Thus, owing to the Irish famine, the Tory party which had come into
power in 1841 with a majority of ninety to support the Corn Laws, was
shattered; after Peel's defeat it became clear that no common action
could take place between his supporters in the struggle of 1846
and men like Bentinck and Disraeli, who now became leaders of the
Protectionist party. For the remainder of the year Peel was on the
whole friendly to the Russell Government, his chief care being to
maintain them in office as against the Protectionists.

In India the British army was successful in its operations against the
Sikhs, Sir Harry Smith defeating them at Aliwal, and Sir Hugh Gough at
Sobraon. Our troops crossed the Sutlej, and terms of peace were agreed
on between Sir Henry Hardinge (who became a Viscount) and the Sirdars
from Lahore, peace being signed on 8th March.

On the continent of Europe the most important events took place in the
Peninsula. The selection of husbands for the Queen of Spain and her
sister, which had so long been considered an international question,
came at last to a crisis; the policy of Great Britain had been to
leave the matter to the Spanish people, except in so far as might be
necessary to check the undue ambition of Louis Philippe; and neither
the Queen, Prince Albert, Peel, nor Aberdeen had in any way supported
the candidature of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg.

It was common ground that no son of Louis Philippe should marry the
Queen, but both that monarch and Guizot had further solemnly engaged
at the Chateau d'Eu that no son should marry even the Infanta until
the Queen was married and had children. The return of Palmerston to
the Foreign Office, and his mention of Prince Leopold in a Foreign
Office despatch as one of the candidates, gave the King and his
Minister the pretext they required for repudiating their solemn
undertaking. In defiance of good faith the engagements were
simultaneously announced of the Queen to her cousin, Don Francisco
de Asis, and of the Infanta to the Duc de Montpensier, Don Francisco
being a man of unattractive, even disagreeable qualities, and feeble
in _physique_. By this unscrupulous proceeding Queen Victoria and the