emove the Ladies of her Bedchamber,
cannot consent to a course which she considers to be contrary to usage, and
is repugnant to her feelings."

[Sidenote: Queen Victoria yields]

This ended Peel's attempt to form a Ministry and Melbourne was recalled.
The question created much discussion at the time. Lord Brougham maintained
that Lord Melbourne "had sacrificed liberal principles and the interests of
the country to the private feelings of the sovereign." "I thought," he
said, "that we belonged to a country in which the government by the Crown
and the wisdom of Parliament was everything, and the personal feelings of
the sovereign were absolutely not to be named at the same time." In the
end the Queen yielded her point. A statement was put forth that "the Queen
would listen to any representation from the incoming Prime Minister as to
the composition of her household, and would arrange for the retirement, of
their own accord, of any ladies who were so closely related to the leaders
of Opposition as to render their presence inconvenient."

[Sidenote: Chartist agitation]

On behalf of the Chartists large public meetings were organized in London
and in all parts of England at which violent speeches were made. On the 1st
of April, at a public meeting in Edinburgh to support the Ministry, the
Chartists took possession of the platform, ejected the Lord Provost, and
passed their own resolutions. On the same day at Devizes, in Wiltshire,
Vincent entered the town at the head of about a thousand men, carrying
sticks, and attempted to address them in the market-place. In May, the
Chartist National Convention removed from London to Birmingham. There they
were met by a mob of five thousand persons and conducted through the
principal streets to the meeting-place.

[Sidenote: Chinese oppose opium trade]

[Sidenote: English opium destroyed]

[Sidenote: British resentment]

[Sidenote: Chinese orders defied]

[Sidenote: Opening of hostilities]

[Sidenote: Sea fight off Chuenpee]

[Sidenote: British squadron sails for China]

Meanwhile, Great Britain was embroiled in another Oriental war. The
despatch of Admiral Maitland and Captain Elliot to China to deal with the
difficulties growing out of the English opium trade there only served to
make the situation more acute. In January, Emperor Taouk-Wang ordered Lin
Tsiaseu, Viceroy of Houk Wang, to proceed to Canton to put a definite stop
to the opium traffic. The peremptory instructi