hine that kiss their fellows far away in flowery field and green
woodland, on sunny banks and breezy hills, man reaches his highest
condition amid the social influences of the crowded city. His
intellect receives its brightest polish where gold and silver lose
theirs--tarnished by the searching smoke and foul vapours of city air.
The finest flowers of genius have grown in an atmosphere where those of
nature are prone to droop and difficult to bring to maturity. The mental
powers acquire their full robustness where the cheek loses its ruddy hue
and the limbs their elastic step, and pale thought sits on manly brows,
and the watchman, as he walks his rounds, sees the student's lamp
burning far into the silent night."

CHAPTER LX.

{VICTORIA. 1848}

Warin India..... Colonial Affairs..... Foreign
Relations..... Revolutions throughout Continental
Europe..... Distress and Crime in Ireland..... Disaffection
of the Irish Roman Catholics, and attempted Revolt.....
Enforcement of Law and Order in Ireland..... Chartist
Disturbances in England, and their suppression..... Home
Incidents..... Transactions of Parliament.

{A.D. 1848}

The year 1848 was one of the most eventful which had ever occurred
in the history of Europe, or in the history of the world, since the
introduction of Christianity; and the relations of England to the great
transactions which passed like a whirlwind over the continent were such
as to enhance her dignity and her glory. It is difficult to write
the History of England, during a period so interesting to continental
Europe, without enlarging upon the events which took place upon other
fields of action, and by which England was in many respects so much
influenced. It will aid in confining the relations of this chapter
within proper bounds, to narrate first those transactions in which
England was exclusively interested, so far as other European powers were
concerned.

THE WAR IN INDIA.

The Punjaub had, in 1847, as already related, been the theatre of most
stirring incidents. The reader of this History can hardly fail to have
observed, that although the defeat of the Sikhs was so complete, the
subjugation of the spirit of that people was far from having been
effected. The dispersed Khalsa army cherished a fierce hostility to the
government of British India, and they were ready to enrol themselves
under the banner of any chief who would lead them, in numb