Decline in the Popularity of the Queen--Its Causes--Her Majesty Accused of Encouraging the Papists--Alleged Design to Assassinate the Monarch--Disloyal Toryism--Honourable Conduct of the Queen--Fatal Riots at Canterbury, owing to the Pretensions of John Nicholls Thom--Preparations for the Coronation--The Ceremony at Westminster Abbey--Incidents of the Day--Mismanagement at Coronations--Development of Steam Navigation and the Railway System--Prorogation of Parliament in August, 1838--Difficult Position of the Government--Rise of Chartism--Appearance of Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli in the Political Arena--Failure of Mr. Disraeli’s First Speech--“Conservatives” and “Liberals”--Capture of Aden, in Southern Arabia--Wars with China, owing to the Smuggling of Opium into that Country by the Anglo-Indians--Troubles in Jamaica--Bill for Suspending the Constitution--Defeat and Resignation of the Melbourne Government--Ineffectual Attempt of Sir Robert Peel to Form a Cabinet--The Question of the Bedchamber Women--Reinstatement of the Melbourne Administration.
Nothing could exceed the popularity of the Queen at the beginning of her reign. Her youth, her innocence, the novelty of her duties and the difficulty of her position, all appealed with a commanding tenderness to every manly instinct and every womanly sympathy. But after a while a change occurred in the national sentiment, which was not altogether inexcusable on the part of the public, though it did some injustice to the sovereign. Many enthusiasts expected more than they had any right to expect, and were disappointed because the Queen did not at once do wonders for the removal of grievances, and the cure of national distress. Beyond these vague impressions, however, there were some real causes of complaint, or at least of apprehension. It was seen very clearly that the young monarch had placed herself too unreservedly in the hands of one political connection. The offices about the Queen’s person were filled by ladies belonging to the families of the chief Ministers. People said that Lord Melbourne was too much at the Palace; that he sought to occupy the position of a
Mentor in all things; and that in the General Election the Queen showed a partiality for certain candidates who belonged to the faction then in power. Ministers and their supporters did really use the name and supposed leanings of her Majesty as a means of bolstering up a Cabinet which they knew to be generally unpopular; and persons were found to ask whether the English Court was always to be the appendage of an aristocratic coterie.