The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-03-27 00:00:00

THE DISTRESS IN IRELAND.

A Times' telegram says that the New York Herald
Fund at the present date (March 21) amounts to
308,137 dols. The Parnell Fund has sent to the Land
League 1,220 dols. Bishop Laughlin Brooklyn sent
on Friday to 19 Irish bishops 20,335 dols. The Buffalo
churches contribute 15,101 dols., which Bishop Ryan, of
Buffalo, will soon send to the Irish bishops. The
American contributions now aggregate 994,700 dols.
The loading of the ship Constellation is rapidly pro-
gressing., and her supplies include boys' clothing.

On Monday the Lord Mayor of London (Sir F. Wyatt
Truscott) received the following letter from her Grace the
Duchess of Marlborough on the subject of the distress in
Ireland :
" The Castle, Dublin, March 20.

"My dear Lord Mayor,—l have again the great pleasure
to acknowledge your Lordship's letter and remittance, for
the thirteenth week in succession, of ,:!,000 from the citi-
zens of London and the English public generally, for which
I beg to return our grateful thanks, the more especially
that at a time when you, like so many others, are engaged
in the interests of a general election, you have not lost
sight of the subject of Irish distress. I wish I could say
there is no need for further contributions. The simple state
of the question is, I believe, this :--There is no fear of famine,
but there is dire destitution in the mountainous parts on the
sea coast, and, above all things, a great need of clothing and
of good seed. We are using all our efforts to supply these
two requirements, even at the risk of dangerously re-
ducing our balance; for we are firmly convinced that,
after the electoral struggle is over, should the distress
continue to increase in its intensity during the summer
months (as some prophesy it will), then the stream of
English charity will flow afresh and with redoubled
strength, according to our need. I have to beg your
Lordship to convey our thanks to Mr. Alderman Cotton,
M.P., and Messrs. Major and Field, for generously placing
rooms in their warehouses at your disposal for the recep-
tion of clothing and coverings for the distressed poor, and
I beg to enclose a list of the contributions to my fund for
the relief of distress, as it I feel, be interesting to your
Lordship.—l beg to remain yours. faithfully."
"F. A. MARLBOROUGH.
"The Right Hon. the Mayor of London."

The list of contributions is :—From the Lord Mayor of
London, £26,000; Mayors and towns of England, £10,478; of
Ireland, £1,200 ; of Scotland, £1,310; of Canada, £3,463;
banks, public companies, and railways, £5,533; Relief
Committtee in India, £4,708• Continental towns, £1,332;
private contributions in England, £24,593; in Ireland, £5,497;
in Scotland, £472• offertories of English churches, exclusive
of those paid into the Lord Mayor of London's Fund,
£4,450; Hongkong, £1 000 • and anonymous, £4ss—making
a total of £90,525.

Among recent sums received by the Lord Mayor of London
have been :—From the New Orleans Cotton Exchange, £349
35. 6d. ' • the town of Swansea (fourth contribution), £lOO ; H.
E., £5O; the Carpenters' Company, £25 ; collected at St. Bar-
nabas, Pimlico, £23 14s. Pd.; at Clapham Parish Church,
£24 18s. 3d. ; from Sarnia, Ontario, £100; the London
Knot of Friendly Brothers of St. Patrick, £2l; Mr. C.
L. Christian, £25; Kensington Congregational Church,
Lux); Mr. T. Whiffen, £25 ; Southwell Collegiate Church,
£33 4s. 6d.; St. John's, Hackney, £42 13s._; Messrs. A. F.
Clarke and Co., £25; shooting contest at the Welsh Harp,
Hendon, 466 10s. ; Lincoln Cathedral, £3l 4s. 10d. ; Great
GrinisbY, £138; and the Skinners' Company, £lO5.
Gifts of clothing will be received on behalf of the Lord
Mayor's Fund by Messrs. Culverwell, Brooks, and Cotton, of
197, Bermondsey-street, London; and by Messrs. Major and
Field, Red Lion and Three Cranes-wharf (General Ware-
upper Thames-street, London.
house),

THE GERMAN ARMY BILL par excellence.—The
Emperor William—Fun,

"The LIFE of the PRINCE CONSORT."

The fifth and last volume of Mr. Theodore Martin's ably-
syritten "Life of IHia Royal Highness the Prince Consort"
(which has recently been published by Yestrs. Smith, Elder,
and Co.. London), aflords some touching glimpses of the
R home life of the• oyal Family. The following extract re-
ferring to the betrothal of the Princess Alice will be read
with interest :
~
" A few days later the Prince had occasion to inform
the same friend [Baron Stockmar] of an event in which
he knew he would take the warmest interest. This
was the betrothal of the Princess Alice to Prince
Louis of Hesse. The liking which, as we have seen,
had been established on their former meeting, ripened
rapidly on more intimate acquaintance into a deeper
feeling. The Queen and Prince had watched its pro-
gress with satisfaction, for they saw in the young
Prince the qualities which satisfied them that they
might entrust their daughter to his care without mis-
giving.

"In 'Leaves from a Journal,' her Majesty has told
howt ne Crown Prince of Prussia, at the crisis of his
wooing of the Princess Royal, 'picked a piece of white
heather (the emblem of "good luck"), which he gave
to her; and how this enabled him to make an allusion
to his hopes and wishes, as they rode down Glen
Girnoch.' The Queen's Diary presents a scarcely less
interesting picture of how the Princes Alice was won
(30th November) :

"After dinner, while talking, to the gentlemen I
perceived Alice and Louis talking before the fireplace
more earnestly than usual, and, when I passed to go to
the other room, both came up to me, and Alice in
much agitation said he had proposed to her, and he
begged for my blessing. I could only squeeze his hand,
and say 'Certainly,' and that we would see him in
our room later. Got through the evening, working as
well as we could. Alice came to our room
a.gitated but quiet. . . . . Albert sent for Louis to
his room—went first to him, and then called Alice
and me in. . . . Louis has a warm, noble heart. We
embraced our dear Alice, and praised her much to
him. He pressed and kissed my hand, and I embraced.
him. After talking a little we parted; a most touch-
ing, and to me most sacred moment."

Amongst the many historical incidents upon which Mr.
Theodore Martin's work throws new light may be mentioned
the memorable Trent affair, which is thus described in the
present volume :

"On the Bth November the English steamer Trent,
which had sailed from theAllavannah for England the
day before with mails and passengers, was met by the
San Jacinto, an American ship of war. A round shot,
soon afterwards followed by a shell, fired by the San
Jacinto across the bows of the Trent, left her captain
no alternative but to bring to. She was immediately
boarded by an American officer, Captain Wilkes, ac-
companied by a large guard of marines, who demanded
a list of the passengers. This being refused, he said
he had orders to arrest Messrs. Mason, Slidell,
McFarland, and Eustis, who, he had sure information,
were on board. Messrs. Mason and Slidell were envoys
accredited by the Confederated States, Mr. Mason to
the English and Mr. Slidell to the French Court, and
the other gentlemen were their secretaries. They had
run the blockade from Charlestown to Cardenas in Cuba,
in the Confederate steamer Nashville, escaping, the vigi-
lance of the Federal vessels, which had beenlor some
time on the look-out to prevent their reaching a neutral
port; and it was well known by the Federal autho-
rities that they had done so with a view
of finding their way to Europe. While the parley
between the American officer and Commander
Williams, the Government mail agent on board the
Trent., was going forward, Mr. SliAlell ended it by
stepping forward and telling Captain Wilkes that his
friends and himself stood there before him. In defiance
of the protest both of the Commander of the Trent
and of Commander Williams against Mr. Mason and
his friends, passengers in a British vessel from one
neutral port to another, being seized, they were forcibly
removed by Captain Wilkes, and the Trent was then
allowed to proceed upon her way.
"The excitement throughout the United Kingdom
when these facts became known after the arrival
of the Trent at Southampton on the 27th of
November was very great. The outrage savoured
so much of contemptuous defiance, that the national
feeling was wounded to the quick. 'Bear this,
bear all,' was the prevailing cry, and not an hour
was lost in making preparations for the war, which it
seemed to be the object of the Americans to provoke.
The law officers of the Crown gave their opinion that
the seizure of the American envoys was by inter-
national law illegal and unjustifiable. Upon this the
Cabinet, as Lord Palmerston wrote to the Queen on
the 29th of November, had come to the conclusion that
her Majesty should be advised to demand reparation
and redress."

In the same letter Lord Palmerston stated that the general
opinion of the Cabinet was that the Washington Government
should be told that what had been done was a violation of
international law, and of the rights of Great Britain, and
that her Majesty's Government trusted the act would be dis-
avowed, and the prisoners set free and restored to British
protection; and, shoura the demand be refused, that Lord
Lyons should retire from the United States. The following
extract shows the influence of the Prince Consort in these
important negotiations :

"Next day (30th of November) after the Cabinet
meeting, Lord John Russell forwarded to the Queen
the drafts of the various despatches which were to be
sent to Lord Lyons. They reached Windsor Castle in
the evening, and doubtless occupied much of the
Prince's thoughts in the long hours of the winter
morning, when he found sleep impossible. 11l as he
was, in accordance with his accustomed habit, he rose
at seven, and before eight he had finished and brought
to the Queen the draft of a memorandum on the sub-
ject of these despatches. 'He could eat no breakfast,'
is the entry in her Majesty's diary, 'and looked very
wretched. But still he was well enough on getting u p
to make a draft for me to write to Lord Russell in
correction of his draft to Lord Lyons, sent to me
yesterday, which Albert did not approve.' When he
brought it to the Queen, he told her that he could
scarcely hold his pen while writing it. Traces of his
weakness are visible in the handwriting, and may be
perceived in the facsimile, even by those who are not
familiar with his autograph. This facsimile has a
special value, as representing the last political memo-
randum written by the Prince, while it was at the
same time inferior to none of them, as will presently
be seen, in the hnportance of its results. lt shows,
like most of his memorandums, by the corrections
in the Queen's hand, how the minds of both were con-
tinually brought to bear upon the subjects with which
they dealt.
- - - -

"What was the nature of the Prince's objection to
the draft of the principal despatch' (the others were
private, and not to be communicated to the United
States Government), is sufficiently obvious from his
memorandum :
" ' Windsor Castle, Dec. 1, 1861.
"'The Queen returns these important drafts, which
upon the whole she approves; but she cannot help
feeling that the main draft—that for communication
to the American Government—is somewhat meagre.
She should have liked to have seen the expression of a
hope that the American captain did not act under in-
structions, or, if he did, that he misapprehended them
—that the United States Government must be fully
aware that the British Government could not allow its
flag to be insulted, and the security of her mail com-
munications to be placed in jeopardy; and her Majesty's
Government are unwilling to believe that the United
States Government intended wantonly to put an insult
upon this country, and to add to their many distressing
complications by forcing a question of dispute upon us,
and that we are therefore glad to believe that, upon a
full consideration of the circumstances of the un-
doubted breach of International Law committed, they
would spontaneously offer such redress as alone could
satisfy this country, viz., the restoration of the unfor-
tunate passengers and a suitable apology.'
"The suggestions here made at once commended
themselves to Lord John Russell. 'Lord Palmerston
thought them excellent,' are Lord Gra,nville's words,
in a letter next day to the Prince, in which he ex-
presses his own delight that the despatch had been
altered in accordance with them. By the time this
letter reached the Prince, he was already much worse.
It was read to him by the Queen and he was mch
gratified by the good result of his A u
observations, which
led to the removal from the despatch of everything
which could irritate a proud and sensitive nation, at
the same time that it offered to them an.opportunity
of receding honourably from the position in which they
had been placed by the indiscreet act of a too zealous
navy captain."
The resolute attitude of the entire British nation in this
crisis, and the remonstrances addressed to the United States
Govennnent by the Governments of France, Austria, Prussia,
and Russia, doubtless had their weight in determining the
decision of the question, but they would probably have failed
to obtain compliance with the British demands had it not
been for the temperate and conciliatory form in which at the
instance of the Prince Consort, the views of the Government
were conveyed. Ultimately, the United States Minister an-
nounced in an elaborate despatch that Captain Wilkes had
acted without instructions aml that the four persons taken
from the Trent shoulii be "cheerfully liberated."

"This welcome intelligence reached London on Jan.
9, 1862. It was communicated the same day to the
Queen (who was then at Osborne). In her reply her
Majesty said: 'Lord Palmerston cannot but look on
this peaceful issue of the American quarrel, as
greatly owing to her beloved Prince, who wrote the
observations upon the draft to Lord Lyons, in which
Lord Palmerston so entirely occurred. It was the last
thing he ever wrote.' From Lord Palmerston's answer
(12th of January) we extract the following memorable
words :
" ' There can be no doubt that, as your Majesty ob-
serves, the alterations made in the despatch to Lord
Lyons contributed essentially to the.satisfactory settle-
ment of the dispute. But these alterations were only
one of innumerable instances of the tact and judg-
ment, and the power of nice discrimination which ex-
cited Lord Palmerston's constant and unbounded ad.
miration.'

The remainder of the volume is occupied with the affecting
details of the last illness and death of the Prince Consort.