rities who passed away. In the month of March, the decease of Mr.
Liston, the comedian, attracted public notice. In June, Haydon, the
celebrated painter, died by his own hand, impelled by want. He had
frequently been indebted to the generous-hearted liberality of Sir
Robert and Lady Peel for aid, and the last assistance he ever received
was from these compassionate benefactors, the friends of so many artists
and literary men, as well as of poor Haydon. The genius of this artist,
as well as the record of his misfortunes, will go down to posterity.
Soon after Haydon's melancholy death, in the month of July, "Charlotte
Elizabeth," the writer of so many beautiful religious books, was called
to her happy home. The same month, the Eight Honourable Sir George
Murray, the friend and companion of Wellington, in both his military and
political career, died in London. August witnessed the decease of the
veteran anti-reformer, Sir Charles Wetherell. In September Lord Metcalfe
died, regretted much by the political world; and Thomas Clarkson, the
philanthropist, to whose exertions in the first instance humanity was
indebted for the abolition of the slave-trade, also passed into rest. In
the last month of the year the Eight Honourable Thomas Grenville died
in his ninety-first year, after a political and diplomatic life very
eventful.

The year 1846 was replete with transactions of great historical
importance; at its close England stood with a crown of many victories
upon her brow, but with many cares and anxieties; the chief of these was
the distress in England, and wide-spread starvation in the Highlands of
Scotland and in Ireland. Another chapter will reveal how evils of such
magnitude were encountered.

CHAPTER LIX.

{VICTORIA. 1847}

Colonial Affairs..... Foreign Relations..... State of
Ireland: Progress of Famine and Disease; Political
Agitation; Prevalence of Crime..... Death of O'Connell.....
Old Ireland and Young Ireland Parties..... General State of
Affairs in Great Britain..... Naval and Military Events.....
Home Incidents..... Decease of Remarkable Persons.....
Parliamentary Proceedings.

COLONIAL AFFAIRS.

{A.D. 1847}

It is convenient to notice first in order the colonial and foreign
relations of the country, as home events derived their character from
these; parliamentary and party proceedings, more especially, turned
often, in a great measure, upon the prospects a