2-970-185 - /Heritage Images

The Peace Illuminations - The National Gallery, 1856. London celebrations to mark the end of the Crimean War. 'It was necessary that the people should share, or appear to share, in the joy felt by the official mind that diplomacy had put an end to that very inconvenient and very troublesome war in which Great Britain was incurring such large expense, and reaping such small satisfaction...it was resolved to celebrate the auspicious birthday of the Queen and the inauspicious Treaty of Peace on the same evening...the illuminations that are customary to express the love and respect of the people for the person of the Sovereign...assisted the Government in celebrating its own triumphs. Whatever foreign nations may believe...when they read or hear of the pyrotechny of this brilliant occasion, the people at home will not be deceived. They know that they accepted the Peace because they had no alternative'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.