._ (the day of the great
soldier's death), and the other, _The Duke's Bequest--for the most
Worthy_.

The year 1853 opened the eyes of those of us who fancied that war was a
thing of the past, and that the reign of Universal Peace had begun. Not
only was Turkey at war with Russia, but had given her a tremendous
thrashing at Oltenitza, an event alluded to in the artist's cartoon of
_A Bear with a Sore Head_. One of the best of his satires of the same
year depicts Aberdeen as he appeared in _The Unpopular Act of the
Courier of St. Petersburg_, wherein the premier attempts the risky feat
of driving a team of unmanageable horses. The features of the nervous
athlete betray much anxiety; the two fiery leaders, Russia and Turkey,
prove wholly beyond his control; while Austria, unsettled by their bad
example, is much disposed to be troublesome.

Matters went from bad to worse in 1854. England was not only thoroughly
aroused but angry, not only with her enemies, but with the foolish
people who had preached peace to her when there was no peace; and, in
_What it has Come to_, we find my Lord Aberdeen vainly trying to hold in
the British lion, whose ire has been roused by the Russian bear, who is
seen scampering off in the distance. Away goes the lion, with his tail
as stiff as a poker and every hair of his mane erect, dragging after him
the frightened premier, who exclaims, in the extremity of his terror,
that he can hold him no longer and is bound "to let him go." The Russian
war showed our singular unreadiness for warfare. Just at its close we
had provided ourselves with a fleet of vessels of light draught capable
of floating in the shallows which surrounded the Russian fortifications,
which, had they been ready at the time they were wanted, might have
proved of incalculable service. Britannia disconsolately eyes these
gun-boats from the summit of her cliffs. "Ah!" she sighs, "if you'd been
only hatched a year ago, what might have come out of your shells!"

Close upon the heels of the Russian war followed the mutiny of our
Indian levies. So closely did one event follow the other, that those who
have watched and learnt with reason to distrust the odious and insidious
policy of Russia towards this country, considered the coincidence a more
than singular one. The Franco-Austrian war came next; and the war wave
passed onwards to America, where the Northern and Southern states were
speedily engaged in fratricidal and deadly strife.