ner to administer
the affairs of the Grand Duchy had been appointed by the King
of Sardinia with the assent of the Tuscans, who now joined the
Franco-Sardinian alliance, while risings also took place in Parma and
Modena. The Austrians were again defeated at Malegnano, and, on the
8th of June, the French Emperor and King Victor Emmanuel entered Milan
amid great enthusiasm. The bloody action of Solferino was fought
on the 24th of June, but on the 11th of July a treaty of peace was,
somewhat unexpectedly, concluded between the French and Austrian
Emperors at Villafranca, under which an Italian Confederation was to
be erected, Lombardy substantially ceded to Sardinia, the Grand Duke
of Tuscany and the Duke of Modena reinstated, and Venetia, though
included in the Confederation, to remain subject to the Imperial Crown
of Austria; these preliminaries were subsequently converted into
a definite treaty at Zurich. Meanwhile, the newly constituted
representative Assemblies in Tuscany, Romagna, and the Duchies,
unanimously pronounced for incorporation in the kingdom of Victor
Emmanuel.

At home, on the 14th of October, the Queen opened the Glasgow
waterworks at the outflow of Loch Katrine, the construction of which
had necessitated engineering operations at that time considered
stupendous; a few days later an appalling shipping calamity occurred,
in the wreck of the _Royal Charter_ near Anglesey, and the loss of 459
lives.

CHAPTER XXVIII

1859

_Queen Victoria to Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _7th January 1859_.

The Queen returns Mr Gladstone's letters, and gladly accepts his
patriotic offer.[1] He will have difficulty in solving a delicate
question, affecting national feeling, against time, but his offer
comes most opportunely.

[Footnote 1: See _ante_, 1st November, 1858. Mr Gladstone
had been sent to enquire into the causes of the
dissatisfaction of the inhabitants of the Ionian Islands
with their High Commissioner, Sir John Young. He now
offered to act himself for a limited time as High
Commissioner, should it be decided to recall Sir John.
He was succeeded in February by Sir Henry Storks.]

[Pageheading: NATIONAL DEFENCES]

_Queen Victoria to the Earl of Derby._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _13th January 1859_.

As the Cabinet are now meeting, and will probably come to a decision
about the estimates for the year, the Queen thinks it her duty to
urge upon them i