and the cause of most of the distress that prevailed so frequently. Nevertheless the landowners and farmers bitterly opposed the movement, and it took eight years to convince the government that a change would be in the interests of the nation.
5. Troubles at Home and Abroad.—The Liberal party, which carried out so many reforms between 1832 and 1837, gradually lost its popularity; many people growing tired of, and others being offended by, so many changes. The Government at the beginning of the queen’s reign had, as its head, Lord Melbourne, an easy-going, good-natured man, who proved a good friend to the young queen, although he was but an indifferént statesman. In 1841 his ministry had become so weak that it was obliged to resign, and give way to a Conservative government under Sir Robert Peel. In 1840 the queen was married to her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, a prince who proved a devoted husband, and a true friend to the people among whom he cast his lot.
Meanwhile, in 1839, a war had started with China, because English traders insisted on selling opium to the Chinese against the order of the Chinese government. The war came to an end in 1842, by the Chinese being compelled to open their ports to this wicked traffic.
At home, there was trouble in Ireland, and a religious agitation in Scotland. In Ireland O’Connell had begun to agitate for a Repeal of the Union, and so dangerous seemed the movement that O’Connell was at length arrested and tried for sedition in 1843-44. In Scotland the Presbyterian Church was rent by an agitation against the State controlling the Church, an agitation which ended in the “Free Church” being founded in 1843. Nor was England free from excitement and unrest. The Chartists were busy trying to make converts to their views, and the Anti-Corn Law League was equally zealous in showing the evils of the Corn Laws.
But all these troubles seemed small compared with a dreadful disaster which, in 1841, befell British troops in Afghanistan. The English had been gradually extending their territory in India towards the Indus and Afghanistan. This country lies between India and the Russian possessions in Asia, and the English were afraid that its ruler, Dost Mohammed, was too friendly towards Russia. Lord Auckland, the Governor-General of India, therefore
