Ma mere se remet peu a peu de la terrible secousse qu'elle a eprouvee,
et me charge ainsi que le Prince de leurs felicitations pour le jour
de l'an.

J'embrasse l'Imperatrice et me dis pour toujours, Sire et cher Frere,
de V.M.I., la bien affectionnee S[oe]ur, et fidele Amie,

VICTORIA R.

[Footnote 67: See _ante_, 7th November, 1856, note 55.]

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

TO CHAPTER XXVI

The closing months of 1856 had witnessed the beginning of a dispute
with China, a party of Chinese having boarded the lorcha _Arrow_, a
vessel registered under a recent ordinance of Hong Kong, arrested the
crew as pirates, and torn down the British flag. The Captain's right
to fly the flag was questionable, for the term of registry, even if
valid in the first instance, which was disputed, had expired (though
the circumstance was unknown to the Chinese authorities), and the
ship's earlier history under the Chinese flag had been an evil one.
But Sir John Bowring, British Plenipotentiary at Hong Kong, took
punitive measures to enforce treaty obligations; Admiral Seymour
destroyed the forts on the river, and occupied the island and fort of
Dutch Folly. In retaliation, the Chinese Governor Yeh put a price on
Bowring's head, and his assassination, and that of other residents, by
poison, was attempted. The British Government's action, however, was
stigmatised as highhanded, and a resolution censuring them was carried
in the Commons, being moved by Mr Cobden and supported by a coalition
of Conservatives, Peelites, and the Peace Party,--Lord John Russell
also opposing the Government. In consequence of this vote, Parliament
was dissolved, and at the ensuing election the Peace Party was
scattered to the winds; Bright, Milner Gibson, and Cobden all losing
their seats. Lord Palmerston obtained a triumphant majority in the
new House of Commons, of which Mr J. E. Denison was elected Speaker in
succession to Mr Shaw-Lefevre, now created Viscount Eversley. At
the end of the year an ultimatum was sent to Governor Yeh, requiring
observance of the Treaty of Nankin, Canton was bombarded, and
subsequently occupied by the English and French troops.

Hostilities with Persia were terminated by a treaty signed at Paris;
the Shah engaging to abstain from interference in Afghanistan, and to
recognise the independence of Herat.

A century had passed since the victory of Clive at Plassey, but the
Afghan disasters and the more recent war with Rus