ote: English internal affairs]

[Sidenote: Death of Clarkson]

[Sidenote: Disraeli]

[Sidenote: Repeal of corn laws]

[Sidenote: Fall of Peel's Ministry]

[Sidenote: Richard Cobden's reward]

[Sidenote: Modern progress]

[Sidenote: Astronomical discoveries]

[Sidenote: Sue's "Wandering Jew"]

In England, Sir Henry Hardinge's services in the Sikh war were rewarded by
his elevation to the peerage. The distress of the previous year continued,
owing partly to a commercial panic brought on by overspeculation in
railways, and partly to a repeated failure of the crops. To relieve the
potato famine in Ireland, Parliament voted L10,000,000 for that country. In
the midst of this general distress the twopenny omnibuses made their first
appearance in London, and the first issue of the "Daily News" appeared in
the metropolis. Leigh Hunt brought out his stories from the Italian poets.
Sir Aubrey De Vere, the Irish poet, died in his thirty-ninth year. A few
years before his death he had published his "Song of Faith" and other
poems. A posthumous publication was the poetic drama "Mary Tudor." Thomas
Clarkson, the great anti-slavery advocate of England, died soon afterward,
in his eighty-sixth year. Early during the first Parliamentary session Sir
Robert Peel avowed his complete change of face in regard to the corn laws.
The rage of the protectionists was voiced by Benjamin Disraeli, then known
chiefly as a writer of novels remarkable for the wild exuberance of their
fancy. He denounced Peel as a political trimmer and no more of a statesman
"than a boy who steals a ride behind a carriage is a great whip." Peel, in
speaking for the principle of free trade, declared that England had
received no guarantees from any foreign government that her example would
be followed. Notwithstanding their hostile tariffs, however, he showed that
the value of British exports had increased above L10,000,000 since the
first reductions in the tariffs were made. On June 26, a bill for the total
repeal of the corn laws was at last accepted. It passed through the Commons
by a majority of 98 votes, while in the House of Peers, largely through the
efforts of the Duke of Wellington, a majority of 47 was attained. The wrath
of the defeated protectionists found vent on the same day when another
Irish oppression bill was brought before the House. Lord Bentinck, as the
mouthpiece of the protectionist party, launched forth in vehement invective
against Sir Ro