English nation were profoundly shocked.

At the same time Queen Maria found some difficulty in maintaining her
position in Portugal. She dismissed in a somewhat high-handed manner
her Minister the Duc de Palmella, and had to bear the brunt of an
insurrection for several months: at the close of the year her arms
were victorious at the lines of Torres Vedras, but the Civil War was
not entirely brought to an end.

In February a Polish insurrection broke out in Silesia, and the
Austrian troops were driven from Cracow; the rising was suppressed by
Austria, Russia, and Prussia, who had been constituted the "Protecting
Powers" of Cracow by the Treaty of Vienna. This unsuccessful attempt
was seized upon as a pretext for destroying the separate nationality
of Cracow, which was forthwith annexed to Austria. This unjustifiable
act only became possible in consequence of the _entente_ between
England and France (equally parties to the Treaty of Vienna) having
been terminated by the affair of the Spanish marriages; their formal
but separate protests were disregarded.

There remains to be mentioned the dispute between Great Britain and
the United States as to the Oregon boundary, which had assumed so
ominous a phase in 1845. Lord Aberdeen's last official act was to
announce in the Lords that a Convention, proposed by himself for
adjusting the question, had been accepted by the American President.

CHAPTER XV

1846

_Queen Victoria to Sir Robert Peel._

BUCKINGHAM PALACE, _23rd January 1846._

The Queen must compliment Sir Robert Peel on his beautiful and indeed
_unanswerable_ speech of last night, which we have been reading with
the greatest attention.[1] The concluding part we also greatly admire.
Sir R. Peel has made a very strong case. Surely the impression which
it has made must have been a good one. Lord John's explanation is
a fair one;[2] the Queen has _not_ a doubt that he will support Sir
Robert Peel.

He has indeed pledged himself to it. He does not give a very
satisfactory explanation of the causes of his failure, but perhaps he
could not do so without exposing Lord Palmerston.

What does Sir Robert think of the temper of the House of Commons, and
of the debate in the House of Lords? The debates not being adjourned
is a good thing. The crowd was immense out-of-doors yesterday, and we
were never better received.

[Footnote 1: The Queen had opened Parliament in person; the
Prime Minister took