at Balmoral-Felicity of the Royal rgh-The Court returned to Windsor of India-Illness of the Prince Consort mind-Profound grief of the Nation5-The Funeral-Deep sense of the loss of the Queen to Parliament-Tributes to Iming grief of the Queen-Address from cince Consort to the cause of social progress interest in the working classes-The Prince -Encouragement of agricultural improvementsvenues of the Duchy of Cornwall-Last Report of the Prince Consort was President-General view of His personal appearance-His talents and temperath, and strong sense of duty, candour, and tolerance-y with earnest workers-His abhorrence of flattery, vice, anxiety to attain perfection in everything-The freshness ympathy with the young-Felicity of the Prince's marriage ne Queen-Her Majesty's devotion to his memory-Notice of

confederation into a powerful Protestant empire; while France, crushed and conquered in a brief war, has been compelled to surrender two fair provinces to Germany. Perhaps no period of ten years in the history of Europe ever witnessed more memorable events, more extraordinary and unexpected vicissitudes. These things, in spite of our neutrality, cannot but be deeply interesting to Englishmen, and the reader will accordingly find the great wars, revolutions, and negotiations of America and the Continent described at some length in the following pages.

The differences between Great Britain and the United States arising out of the depredations of the Alabama, and other cruisers of her class-the negotiations which succeeded in adjusting those differences by a treaty referring them to international arbitration-and the proceedings of the Tribunal of Arbitration appointed under that treaty, will be found narrated, in their proper sequence and connection, in the forty-fifth and forty-sixth chapters.

A narrative of the progress of English Art during the last twenty years will be found in Chapter XLI.

Her Majesty Queen Victoria still reigns, as she reigned when the last preceding Volume of this History appeared, over a loyal and united people. After the great and crushing sorrow of her life, it has pleased Providence to send her no scanty share of those alleviations which help us to bear mortal ills with resignation; she has seen, since the death of the Prince Consort, most of her children happily and honourably married; death has made no more encroachments on the family circle; and the young life of blooming grandchildren has come to lead her thoughts towards the joys and interests of a new generation. That a similar immunity from great afflictions may attend Her Majesty during the next decennial period of English history, must be the sincere prayer of all her subjects.

That a due proportion has invariably been observed in the narration of events so near to us, or that amidst the embarrassing abundance of materials, nothing has been omitted which ought to have been noticed, nothing related which ought to have been omitted, it would perhaps be hazardous to assert. It is hoped, however, that the moving picture of English and European life, from 1861 to 1872, has, on the whole, been transferred to these pages with fidelity and impartiality; and in this hope the Ninth Volume of CASSELL'S ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF ENGLAND is confidently commended to the indulgent judgment of the public.

The Portrait of H.R.H. the Princess of Wales (see Frontispiece) is copied, by permission, from a photograph by Messrs. W. and D. Downey.