ic wire threaded its way under the Atlantic, and
two continents conversed as friends sitting hand in hand.

Another miracle had then just been achieved in the discovery of certain
chemical conditions, by which scenes and objects would imprint
themselves in minutest detail upon a prepared surface. A sort of magic
seemed to have entered into life, quickening and intensifying all its
processes. Enlarged knowledge opened up new theories of disease and
created a new Art of healing. Surgery, with its unspeakable anguish,
was {169} rendered painless by anaesthetics. Mechanical invention was
so stimulated that all the processes of labor were quickened and
improved.

In 1851 the Prince Consort conceived the idea of a great Exposition,
which should under one roof gather all the fruits of this marvellous
advance, and Sydenham Palace, a gigantic structure of glass and iron,
was erected.

In literature, Tennyson was preserving English valor in immortal verse.
Thackeray and Dickens, in prose as immortal, were picturing the social
lights and shadows of the Victorian Age.

In 1861 a crushing blow fell upon the Queen in the death of the Prince
Consort. America treasures kindly memory of Prince Albert, on account
of his outspoken friendship in the hour of her need. During the war of
the Rebellion, while the fate of our country seemed hanging in the
balance, we had few friends in England, where people seemed to look
with satisfaction upon our probable dismemberment.

{170}

We are not likely to forget the three shining exceptions:--Prince
Albert--John Bright--and John Stuart Mill.

It was while that astute diplomatist, Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield) was
Prime Minister, that French money, skill and labor opened up the
waterway between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. It would never do
to have France command such a strategic point on the way to the East.
England was alert. She lost not a moment. The impecunious Khedive was
offered by telegraph $20,000,000 for his interest in the Suez Canal,
nearly one-half of the whole capital stock. The offer was accepted
with no less alacrity than it was made. So with the Arabian Port of
Aden, which she already possessed, and with a strong enough financial
grasp upon impoverished Egypt to secure the right of way, should she
need it, England had made the Canal which France had dug, practically
her own.

[Illustration: The British in India: A native prince receiving the
decoration of t