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I loved your Papal States AAR and am eagerly looking forward to seeing what you do with my homeland! 
Prologue: Ireland and Old Lace
"I think it will be advisable to call out and embody five thousand more Militia, making twenty thousand in all, and it would be best to bring over to England all the Irish regiments belonging to the Catholic counties, and to send English regiments to Ireland. Some of the Northern Irish regiments would be well left in Ireland. They are chiefly Protestants, and would be delighted to put down the Croppys if they should rise."
-Lord Palmerston, Letter to Lord Panmure
The United Kingdom was a contentious place. After a disastrous premiership, the elder statesman Lord Palmerston and his Liberals were flung from office in the Elections of 1865. Among all the peoples of the world, if the Americans and North Germans could be said to be happiest with their lot, it was the British who were most unhappy. The 'June War' as the war with the Qing over the detainment of British sailors had been called, was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster. British forces in India crossed through the friendly client-state of Burma into the Yunnan region in June of 1862, and by November the Union Jack was flying over Yazhou and Kunming. As lamented one British officer in a letter home however "as soon as we have occupied one region, ten thousand Chinamen flank us in another" and any gains soon proved impossible to hold without being strategically isolated. It was the Battles of Dali and Kunming which effectively ended the war, as the Royal Indian Army and her sister, termed merely the 1st Army, were both wiped out by waves of Chinese soldiers. Over fifty-thousand British soldiers perished over the course of the engagements and the remnants of both armies -- numbering less than eight-thousand -- were taken as prisoners of war.
"I think it will be advisable to call out and embody five thousand more Militia, making twenty thousand in all, and it would be best to bring over to England all the Irish regiments belonging to the Catholic counties, and to send English regiments to Ireland. Some of the Northern Irish regiments would be well left in Ireland. They are chiefly Protestants, and would be delighted to put down the Croppys if they should rise."
-Lord Palmerston, Letter to Lord Panmure
Three days after the news arrived at Whitehall, on May 23rd 1863, the Foreign Office negotiated a white peace with the Qing government.
It was a little less than two years later that the second disaster occurred. Midway through the New Zealand War with France -- which, at the time, the United Kingdom and her allies in the Lowcountries were winning handily -- the Great Sepoy Rebellion occurred. This was not unlike the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 except that it was even larger in scale and much less could be done. The news of the uprising, relayed through the many princes who owed their power to the Raj and the reorganisation which had occurred after the British East India Company's collapse, reached London while the majority of British armed forces were participating in the invasion of northern France. Since the Chinese Disaster no attempt had been made to restore direct military power to the subcontinent and power was maintained through the armies of the Princely States. The lack of redcoats in India proved to be catastrophic. Without a way to directly respond to the crisis, the Raj was instead forced to go through intermediaries in the Princely States, which crippled an immediate effective response. The end of the war on June 16th 1864 -- which saw French colonies on the North and South Islands annexed by the British -- meant that the war-weary veterans of the French theatre could be redeployed to India, but it would take time. By August a fresh rebellion in India broke out and buoyed the number of Sepoys and by October parts of the Raj had completely slipped from the control of the Crown.
To add to the worries of Palmerston the Fenians of Ireland were becoming a real problem. In Waterford, Kildare, Sligo, and even Dublin Irish nationalism was on the rise and the Royal Irish Constabulary reported a rise in anti-British violence. Clearly something had to be done. The delicate situation in Ireland had to be put on the back burner soon enough. January of 1865 finally saw the departure of troops to the Indian theatre, well rested and recovered after their stint in the realm of Napoleon III. British Nagpur descended into chaos as did British Circars and there still wasn't a damn thing the government could do about it. In a bid on the part of heaven to prove that Palmerston was truly out of favour with the divine, a republican rebellion broke out in Scotland in June of 1865. The Highlands region of Scotland had been in a state of almost perpetual famine for years, crops failing time and time again, season after season. Every effort was made on the part of the government to provide relief, but it eventually proved insufficient. Driven surely to the plunging depths of insanity which such an ideology requires, many a Scotsman took up open arms against the Crown. Claiming that excesses at the Victorian court were responsible for the inadequate scale of relief tens of thousands of starving farmers formed impromptu armies in defense of their cause.
This was generally regarded as the final blow to the Palmerston ministry. Having just enough time to mobilise the armed forces in response to the rebellion, Parliament was dissolved by Queen Victoria on the 30th of June and General Elections called. It was said that Her Majesty regarded the Prime Minister at this point as a 'elderly, demented incompetent' and sought the return of a Conservative government. As elections were ongoing at home -- with notable anger against the government and quite a few outbreaks of violence -- the situation in India continued to deteriorate as British Bombay slipped from the control of her lordly prefix; and the large independent principality of Maharashtra was proclaimed. The Highlands Revolt, as it was called, was quickly put down and extinguished in its entirely by the 23rd of August; henceforth celebrated by Scottish monarchists as "Restoration Day." The leaders of the rebellion and their supporters, notably lead republican George W. M. Reynolds, were tried and convicted of felony treason under the Felony Treason Act of 1848 and exiled to the Australian penal colony. Meanwhile, after having lead to the independence of a large Indian principality free from British influence and nearly bringing down the British Raj, the Great Sepoy Rebellion quietly subsided and vanished.
The restoration of order to India and the Highlands was not enough to save the Palmerston ministry at the polls however. The Liberals and their leader were thrown out by their heels and the Lord Derby invited by Her Majesty to form a government. This he did. However the Conservatives did not command a majority, and neither did the Liberals, and Lord Derby was required to lean on independents to form a majority government. Freed finally from concerns overseas, the Derby ministry was able to address the situation at home. All in all, it was quite dismal. British international prestige and military projection power had been severely damaged by the events in China and India while British industry had fallen behind that of the United States years ago. There was also the Irish problem. Rallies in Ireland in favour of the idea of a devolved Irish government, broadly termed Home Rule after the idea floated during the Great Sepoy Rebellion of granting the Raj a sort of limited autonomy, had been fiercely put down and nationalism was getting much, much stronger. Things came to a head when a young Irishman was shot by a member of the Royal Constabulary after leaving Mass. The young man resembled a suspect in a robbery which had freshly been committed and was later described by the officer as 'shifty-looking'. The riots shook Ireland and the inability to control what was considered an integral part of the United Kingdom very nearly brought down the Derby ministry as it was. William Gladstone, who more or less inherited the Liberal Party in the Commons after the death of Gladstone, embarked on a populistic whirlwind against the policies of the Derby government in Ireland.
In February 1867, February 4th to be exact, the British North America Act was passed; establishing the Dominion of Canada. While this was a landmark for the United Kingdom in and of itself it also put renewed focus on the question of the Irish and their self-government and determination. To attempt to quell increasing criticism of his Government's policy in Ireland Lord Derby proposed a series of acts collectively known as the 'Irish Acts'. These were in line with the Conservative philosophy of 'constructive unionism' which sought to better Ireland materially while having the island remain firmly in the grasp of the United Kingdom. This was met with much disdain by the Opposition and with outright hostility by the Irish population; and even some classic and social liberal circles in England opposed them. Seeing an opening, Gladstone moved to turn one of Derby's bills -- the Act to Ensure Residency, aimed at eliminating absentee landlordism -- into a vote of confidence.
The bill failed.
Lord Derby, rather humiliated by the swift fall of his government, duly turned in his resignation to Her Majesty. The Queen duly asked Benjamin Disraeli to form a government. He gracefully declined, citing the unfavourable position of the Conservatives. The premiership was henceforth (although with some reluctance, given HM's sympathies with the Conservatives and intense dislike Gladstone in particular) offered to Lord Russell, leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords. He gratefully accepted but requested that elections to called, in order that he might secure a majority with which to govern. Therefore, on June 27th 1867, new elections were called. It was very close, ending up nearly as contentious as the last elections to the point where troops had to be sent to restore order to some areas, but the Liberals managed to scrape out a majority through the promise of reforms and form a government. The Russell ministry saw Gladstone appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the Commons; giving the Liberals a solid position to achieve those reforms they had held out on the campaign trail. Troubles in India flared up again with a large uprising of Bengali nationalists, but the Irish Question was close to being settled.
After negotiations with both the Irish Conservative Party -- which still held sway in Ireland, but backed the Liberal proposition of Home Rule -- Gladstone managed to piece together a bill which granted the Irish sweeping powers of autonomy and self-government while remaining firmly within the United Kingdom. Distinct for its time the Government of Ireland Act of 1868 granted a bicameral Assembly (composed of the Common Assembly and Senate of Ireland, respectively, and so named specifically to avoid connotations with the earlier Parliament of the Kingdom of Ireland) with limited powers not including peace, war, defence, trade, and coinage. The prerogatives of the Lord Lieutenant, which had previously been expansive, were mainly reduced to appointing the First Minister of Ireland on the advice of the Assembly, and Irish MPs were no longer allowed to sit at Westminster. All in all it was the closest thing to independence Ireland would see short of an armed uprising, and it was fear of just that which allowed it to pass the through the Conservative opposition in the House of Lords. On June 18th 1868 the Government of Ireland Act received Royal Assent and passed into law. Ireland was now, for most intents and purposes, a semi-independent protectorate firmly under the suzerainty of a power in decline. Ireland's first elections under the new system were looming, and it was time to make history.
Thanks to DensleyBlair for his kind assistance viz. period British politics.
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Pretty much Devo-Max + no Irish reps in Westminster. I tried to model it partially off the OTL Irish Home Rule bills, but ended up making it modern Scotland. C'est la vie.Sounds like Devo-Max, I approve
I imagine Victoria would be turning in her grave were she to read that!
I think this may be a typo.
Aside from that, you presented the quick sketch I gave you very nicely indeed. I'm interested now to see how your Ireland is set up – and, more importantly, whether they stand a chance in the world. A very good start!
(That said, I must protest very loudly your undignified treatment of Pam – possibly my favourite character of the whole Victorian period.)
I imagine Victoria would be turning in her grave were she to read that!
I think this may be a typo.
Aside from that, you presented the quick sketch I gave you very nicely indeed. I'm interested now to see how your Ireland is set up – and, more importantly, whether they stand a chance in the world. A very good start!
(That said, I must protest very loudly your undignified treatment of Pam – possibly my favourite character of the whole Victorian period.)
Well, I never said there were actual excesses. But the Scotsmen certainly thought so
Typo fixed.
Thank you. Although, as Ireland has no powers to conduct foreign affairs, it will be quite awhile till she makes a splash on the world stage, things will certainly be interesting at home.
I'm very sorry about Palmerston, as I like him as well, but it's always very unfortunate for him when I fire up VII. In one of my test-games for this AAR, the monarchy was overthrown when hundreds of thousands of Jacobins flooded London. Not to mention that his OTL interventionism lends itself well to occasionally disastrous jingoism.
I'm utter shit at playing the UK proper. Just... terrible.How did you manage to overthrow the monarchy so quickly? That's impressively terrible.