Page:Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (IA lifeofhermajesty01fawc).pdf/208

 of each day's festivity was reached! Even in the diary the mere words form a little oasis, "At twenty minutes to ten we went below, and read and nearly finished that most interesting book, 'Jane Eyre.'"

The alarm felt by the Queen and Prince as to the hostile intentions of Louis Napoleon towards England were fully shared by the nation. After the attempt by Orsini, early in 1858, to assassinate the Emperor by the explosion of bombs under his carriage as it was approaching the Opera House, England was accused of having harbored the conspirators, and with having thereby encouraged their crime. It was true that Orsini had come direct from England, and though this did not make England responsible for him, yet some irritation on the part of France was quite excusable. This expression of irritation, however, passed all reasonable bounds. The Emperor received a large number of addresses from Colonels in the French army congratulating him on his escape; and these addresses, which were published at full in the official organ of the French Government, were, in many instances, full of clamorous demands for war with England. One of these effusions spoke of England as "the land of impurity, which contains the haunts of monsters which are sheltered by its laws:" another requested the Emperor to give the word, and the "infamous haunt in which machinations so infernal are planned"—that is, London—"should be destroyed forever."

England's answer was the Volunteer movement, and the dismissal from office of Lord Palmerston's Government, because it was believed to have been too subservient to the demands of France.

The series of events of 1857 and 1858 were a very curious episode in our political history. The general election of 1857 had been in the nature of a personal