ill fruits of the disruption of the
_entente_ between England and France were seen in the active
co-operation of Russia, Prussia, and Austria to destroy Polish
independence. See _ante_, p. 72.]

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

TO CHAPTER XVI

During the year 1847 the Parliament which had been elected in 1841
with a great Tory majority was dissolved, and, as a result, the
position of the Whig Ministry was slightly improved; but they were
still dependent on the support of Sir Robert Peel. A Factory Act
limiting the labour of women and children to ten hours a day was
passed. An autumn session was rendered necessary by an acute financial
crisis, the Ministry having authorised the Bank of England to infringe
the provisions of the recent Bank Charter Act, and as a consequence
being compelled to ask Parliament for an indemnity. The knowledge of
the Bank's authority to issue notes beyond the prescribed limits was
of itself sufficient to allay the panic. The Church of England was
convulsed by the promotion of Dr Hampden, whom Lord Melbourne had made
Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, to the See of Hereford; his
orthodoxy was impugned in a memorial presented by thirteen bishops to
the Prime Minister, and an unsuccessful application was made to the
Queen's Bench (the Court being divided in opinion) to compel the
Primate to hear objections to Dr Hampden's consecration. The new House
of Lords was used for the first time this year.

Perhaps the most important event in France was the cold-blooded murder
of the Duchesse de Praslin (daughter of Count Sebastiani, formerly
French Ambassador in England) by her husband, an incident which, like
the Spanish intrigue of 1846, contributed subsequently to the downfall
of the Orleanist dynasty.

Switzerland was torn by internecine strife, partly owing to the
existence, side by side, of Catholic and Protestant cantons; the
proposed expulsion of Jesuits and the formation of the "Sonderbund"
were the questions of the day. The latter was an offensive and
defensive confederation of seven cantons, and civil war raged round
the question of its legality.

In Italy the death of Pope Gregory XVI. and the election of a more
liberal successor induced Lord John Russell to send his father-in-law,
Lord Minto, the Lord Privy Seal, on a special mission to the new Pope
Pius IX., to encourage him in the path of Reform. But more violent
measures were in progress, and it was soon clear that Lombard