towns followed the example of Rimini, and emigrants from the
Tuscan dominions united with the insurgents. Their leaders were Counts
Biancoli, Pasi, and Beltrami; and they took up a position near Faenza;
but being attacked by detachments of pontifical and Austrian soldiers
at this place, they were finally compelled to fly for refuge into the
Tuscan states, where they were protected by the grand duke, and whence,
subsequently, they set sail for Marseilles.

During this year the King of Holland paid a visit to her majesty Queen
Victoria, to which event, on his return to his dominions, in his speech
to the States-general, he thus referred:--"The visit which I have
paid to her majesty the Queen of England will contribute, I hope,
to consolidate the good understanding which exists between the two
countries and their governments. For my part, I shall retain the most
agreeable impression of the welcome which I received on that visit."

CHAPTER LVII.

{VICTORIA. 1845-1846}

State of Public Affairs at the Commencement of this Year,
&c...... Meeting of Parliament..... Settlement of the Corn
Law Question.

STATE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THIS YEAR, ETC.

{A.D. 1846}

The close of the last year and the commencement of the present, were
marked by great activity among all classes on the subject of the
corn-laws. The agents of the anti-corn-law league were everywhere
active. Meetings were held in every part of England; and converts to the
free-trade doctrine were made daily. Even the farmers at this time began
to think that their interests were concerned in the matter; and some
landowners adopted the views of the great leader of the movement, Mr.
Cobden. A stimulus was given to the exertions of the free-traders in the
failure of the potato crop in the autumn of 1845, both in England and
Ireland. It was generally felt, indeed, that some alterations in the
corn-laws must be made, and that government itself would be compelled to
throw the trade open. While the hopes of the free-traders in Sir Robert
Peel were thus excited, those of his own party seemed proportionably
cast down. They, too, held meetings, and formed agricultural protection
societies in every part of the United Kingdom. It was, in truth, evident
to every man that a change was coming; and while the mass hailed the
prospect with delight, the great landowners, witli some exceptions,
stretched every nerve to stem the onward progr