ution of Poland, another
revolt broke out in Portugal. On April 20, the northern provinces rose
against the Ministry of Costa Cabral, the Duke of Tomar. After desultory
fighting, the Duke of Plamella, one of the commanders of the constitutional
army, gave up the struggle. He resigned his post and was banished from the
country. Late in the year the Marquis of Saldanha, with a force of Pedro
loyalists, defeated Count Bonfinn at the Torres Vedras.

[Sidenote: Spanish princesses married]

In Spain, the long-pending diplomatic struggle over the Spanish marriages
culminated, on October 10, in the wedding of Queen Isabella to her cousin,
Don Francisco d'Assisi, Duke of Cadiz. Put forward by France, this prince
was physically unfit for marriage. Simultaneously with the Queen's wedding,
her sister was married to the Duke of Montpensier, the son of Louis
Philippe. Thus the King of France and his Minister, Guizot, had their way.

[Sidenote: Guizot's doubtful success]

Lord Palmerston's candidature of the Prince of Saxe-Coburg for Queen
Isabella's hand was foiled. It proved a doubtful success for France. The
_entente cordiale_ between France and Great Britain was broken. Guizot was
charged in the Chambers with sacrificing the most valuable foreign alliance
for the purely dynastic ambitions of the House of Orleans. Having cut loose
from England, Guizot now endeavored through his diplomatic envoys to form a
new concert of Europe from which England should be left out.

[Sidenote: Oregon treaty signed]

[Sidenote: Rae's Arctic explorations]

Great Britain's diplomatic dispute with America, concerning the
northwestern boundary, was satisfactorily settled by the Oregon treaty,
signed on June 15. Before this a peremptory demand had been put forward by
the American Congress that the joint occupation of Oregon should cease. The
British originally claimed all the territory west of the Rocky Mountains,
from Mexico to Alaska. For years the land was settled jointly. Now the
forty-ninth degree of northern latitude was accepted as the boundary
between British North America and the United States. The Columbia River was
retained by the United States, with free navigation conceded to English
ships, while the seaport of Vancouver, the importance of which was not as
yet recognized, fell to England. The value of this possession was soon
revealed. Agents of the British Hudson's Bay Company selected Victoria, on
the Island of Vancouver, as the most