[Publications of the National Union, No. XLIII.] 
 
 SIX YEARS 
 
 OF 
 
 CONSERVATIVE 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 1874-79. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE 
 
 NATIONAL UNION OF CONSERVATIVE AND CONSTITUTIONAL 
 ASSOCIATIONS, 
 
 ST. STEPHEN'S CHAMBERS, WESTMINSTER, S.W. 
 
 FEBRUARY, 1880.
 
 SIX YEARS 
 
 OF 
 
 CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT, 
 
 The Government of Lord Beaconsfield has now been in ofiice six 
 years, and the life of the Parliament which bore it to power 
 approaches its end. In a few months, at the latest, the people 
 will be called upon to say, whether the Government and the 
 Parliamentary majority which has steadily supported it, continue 
 to enjoy their confidence, or have, as Mr. Gladstone and the Oppo- 
 sition generally assert with a vehement iteration which rather 
 betrays doubt than denotes assurance, discredited themselves in 
 their eyes. Already preparations for the contest are being made 
 on every side, and it may be useful, therefore, to take stock of the 
 work of the Government during the six years it has been in office, 
 to note how far it has fulfilled the expectations its assumption of 
 power excited, and carried out the programme its leading members 
 proclaimed when in Opposition. We propose to do this in the 
 following pages, in which we shall describe in the plainest and 
 most matter-of-fact style, making no assertion for which a complete 
 voucher is not forthcoming in the records of Parliament or in official 
 documents, first, the legislation for which the Government may 
 claim credit or must be held responsible ; next, the administrative 
 measures which, of its own initiative, it has carried out ; and, 
 finally, the course which it has taken in those great questions of 
 Imperial policy with which it has been called upon to deal. 
 
 In the address in which, upon the announcement of the 
 dissolution of Parliament in January, 1874, Mr. Disraeli asked
 
 the electors of Buckinghamsliire to return him again as their 
 member, he said — " I have ever endeavoured, and if returned to 
 Parliament I shall, whether in or out of office, continue to 
 endeavour, to propose or support all measures calculated to 
 improve the condition of the people of this kingdom. But I do 
 not think this great end is advanced by incessant or harassing 
 legislation." And he concluded thus : — '•' The cause of civil and 
 religious freedom mainly depends upon the strength and stability 
 of England. I ask you to return me to the House of Commons 
 to resist every proposal which may impair that strength, and to 
 support by every means her Imperial sway." The policy which 
 the Government has pursued was distinctly foreshadowed in these 
 words of the Premier. It has done more than any Government 
 England has ever had to improve the condition of the people. 
 A comparison of the barren Sessions of the last Parliament, when 
 the time of both Houses was devoted to heroic legislation, 
 recommended as a universal panacea, but bearing no other 
 fruit than disappointment and discontent, with the Sessions 
 of the present Parliament, in which, despite the most factious Oppo- 
 sition our Parliamentary annals record, a number of great social re- 
 forms have been effected, which constitute a veritable charter of the 
 poor, is the best evidence of its services in this respect. It has fallen 
 behind no one of those older Governments of which Englishmen 
 are proudest in maintaining our Imperial sway. We have but to 
 look to the increase of English authority in India, to the growing 
 attachment of, and closer union with, our Colonies, to the great 
 augmentation of our influence throughout Europe and the world, 
 to see how well the Government has maintained the power and 
 prestige of England, and how steadily it has used them for the 
 assertion of the great interests of humanity as well as of the 
 particular interests of this country. 
 
 LEGISLATION OF 1874.— Although Mr. Gladstone, fol- 
 
 lowing the example set him 
 
 LICENSING ACT— FACTORIES ACT— RATING 
 
 ACT— CHURCH PATRONAGE ACT (SCOT- by Mr. Disraeli in 1868, re- 
 
 LAND)— ENDOWED SCHOOLS ACT. . . . , 
 
 Signed as soon as it became 
 evident that his party would be in a minority in the new House of
 
 Commons, it was not until the close of March — that is to say, six 
 weeks later than usual — that Parliament could address itself to 
 business. The new Ministers had little time to prepare measures 
 for the consideration of the Legislature, but they nevertheless 
 introduced and carried several Bills of a very useful if unassuming 
 character. The general dissatisfaction which Lord Aberdare's 
 Licensing Act had caused, as well amongst the general public as 
 in the trade particularly affected by it, made it one of the first 
 duties of the new Home Secretary, Mr. Cross, to present an 
 amending Bill relieving the licensed victuallers of some of the 
 more oppressive and degrading provisions of the Act, and 
 diminishing the injudicious regulations which prevented the 
 satisfaction of the legitimate wants of the public. That the 
 measure, which was the subject of long debates, redressed 
 all the injustice, and removed all the mischief of Lord 
 Aberdare's Act, cannot be affirmed. But the new House 
 of Commons was, almost as much as the old one, under 
 the influence of the delusion that drunkenness prevails 
 in proportion to the amount of public-house accommodation, 
 and that consequently, by limiting the number of public-houses and 
 closing them earlier, intemperance could be greatly diminished. 
 Most people now recognise the fallacy of this theory, which has 
 been vigorously attacked even by Mr. Lowe, who was a member of 
 the Cabinet that supported with all its strength the original pro- 
 posals of Lord Aberdare's Bill, which were far more stringent than 
 those embodied in the Act. It is generally felt now that we must 
 trust to moral means to check a vice which, curiously enough, has 
 assumed its present serious dimensions since the first attempts at 
 restrictive legislation of which Sir George Grey was the author. 
 However, in 1874, the Government measure was the best that 
 could be carried ; and if it drew some hard and fast lines of which 
 both our great and our small towns may legitimately complain, it 
 undoubtedly removed the worst evils of the unjust and harsh legis- 
 lation which branded a great trade with a disgraceful stigma, and 
 condemned as responsible for the outrageous drunkenness of the 
 country the very men whose interest it is to prevent all drinking 
 that can become offensive to the public or provoke the interference
 
 6 
 
 of the j/olice — that is to srj, the drunkenness with which alone 
 Parliament can properly or with any hope of useful effect concern 
 itself. 
 
 The only other measure of importance announced in the 
 Queen's Speech was a Land Transfer Bill, which was introduced 
 in good time by the Lord Chancellor, but was eventually with- 
 drawn in the House of Commons. Several measures of consider- 
 able value, not mentioned in the Speech, were, however, introduced 
 by the Government in the course of the Session, and became law. 
 First of these we may put the Factories Act, the Home Secretary's 
 first step in a career of singularly useful legislation. A measure 
 with the same object, the reduction of the hours of work of women 
 and children, and the better enforcement of the stipulations of 
 previous Acts passed with this view, had been introduced by a 
 private member. Mr. Cross was unable to accept this Bill, and 
 undertook to bring forward one of his own, which was well received 
 by Parliament, and passed into law with but little alteration. It 
 fixed certain hours as those between which women and children 
 might be employed. It prohibited their employment for more 
 than four hours and a half without an interval for a meal. It 
 secured them a rest of two houi^s during the day ; and, finally, it 
 prohibited the employment of children under the age of ten, and 
 only permitted the employment of those above that age upon the 
 production of certain educational certificates. The Rating Act, 
 introduced by Mr. Sclater-Booth, the President of the Local 
 Government Board, removed anomalies and injustices which had 
 long been complained of. It provided for the rating of wood- 
 lands, of the rights of shooting, fishing, &c., and of mines of 
 every kind which had hitherto escaped, because not mentioned in 
 the x\ct of Elizabeth. In some respects, the most important of 
 the measures passed in the Session of 1874 was the Church Patron- 
 age (Scotland) Act. This measure, introduced in the House of 
 Lords by the Duke of Richmond, himself one of the largest Church 
 patrons, removed the appointment of ministers from the private 
 and public patrons, providing a certain small compensation for 
 such of the former class as might choose to claim it, and vested it 
 in the congregation of each parish, under regulations to be framed
 
 by the General Assembly of tbe Church of Scotland. This 
 measure, which was thoroughly approved by the Scotch Church, 
 and heartily supported by most of the patrons whose rights it 
 extinguished, was opposed by the advocates of Disestablishment 
 upon the well-gi-ounded belief that its result would be to strengthen 
 the Scotch Church. Of course that was not the reason assigned 
 for their opposition. But experience has shown that they fully 
 appreciated the influence of the measure. The Church of Scotland 
 has been greatly strengthened by legislation which gratifies the 
 long-standing theories of the Scotch people, without in the slightest 
 degree injuring private interests or weakening the connection of the 
 Church with the State ; and the position of the Church now 
 appears so formidable to the non-conforming bodies of Scotland 
 that they have, in the hope of maintaining their own relative 
 position, embarked in a general agitation against Establishments. 
 One other Act passed in the short Session of 1874 deserves a 
 word of notice. It transferred the functions of the Endowed 
 Schools' Commissioners, whose discharge of their duties had 
 caused so much heart-burning throughout the country, and who 
 had conceived themselves charged by the Liberal* Government 
 which appointed them with a mission to throw overboard the 
 "pious founder," to the Charity Commissioners, who, it was 
 assumed, would exercise their powers with fairness, in a judicious 
 spirit of conciliation ; and, above all, without any prejudices induc- 
 ing them to put upon the Act of Parliament they administer an 
 interpretation which strains and perverts its purpose. 
 
 LEGISLATION OF 1875.— In the first session of the new 
 
 Parliament the Liberals were 
 
 REGIMENTAL EXCHANGES ACT-PEACE PRESEB- , mj . | Overwhelmed bv 
 
 vATioN ACT -CONSPIRACY AND PROTEC- Still 100 luucu ovci wneimcu oy 
 TioN OF PROPERTY ACT— MASTERS AND thcircrusliin^ and uncxpected 
 
 WORKMEN ACT — ARTISANS' DWELLINGS ^ ^ 
 
 ACT— PUBLIC HEALTH ACT— FRIENDLY dcfcat at tllC GcUCral ElcCtiOH 
 SOCIETIES ACT— AGRICULTURAL HOLD- i i? 1 i. rri 
 
 iNGs ACT— UNSEAWORTHY SHIPS ACT. to uiakc aiiy party tigtit. llie 
 measures of the Government, although some of them, as we have 
 shown, of an important character, were hardly political in their 
 nature, and the Opposition leaders and managers were still too new 
 to their position to employ the factious arts to which Liberals out
 
 8 
 
 of place always resort. When Parliament met, however, in 1875, 
 it was soon evident that no pains would 1 e s )ared by the Opposi- 
 tion to impede the progress of the Government measures, and 
 to endeavour by a policy of delay to waste the Session, and so dis- 
 credit tlie Government. Mr. Gladstone came to the aid of Lord 
 Hartington and Mr. Lowe, and the Liberal leaders were stren- 
 uously assisted in this policy of delay by the Home Kule party, 
 some of the members of which showed a power of obstruction fully 
 equal to that exhibited of old time by the O'Connells and the 
 Scullys, with only this difference, that the Irish obstructives of 
 former days were educated and able men. Among the first 
 measures presented to Parliament was the Regimental Exchanges 
 Bill, the purpose of which was to authorise exchanges between 
 officers upon full pay upon condition of money payments. 
 Lord Cardwell, in abolishing purchase, had left it free to 
 officers to exchange, for he allowed the absolute necessity of 
 such a permission, but had prohibited the payment of any consider- 
 ation by the officer who desired, say, not to stay in, or not 
 to proceed to, India, beyond a sum to be fixed by the 
 War Office for outfit and passage to India, and conse- 
 quently had practically put a stop to a very useful arrange- 
 ment. Mr. Hardy's Bill proposed to allow officers exchanging to 
 arrange their own terms, subject, of course, to regulations against 
 abuse. The Bill was passed, but it was opposed in the most factious 
 .manner by the Opposition leaders. They debated and divided 
 upon it at every stage, and altogether succeeded in occupying five 
 or six Government nights — that is to say, practically three weeks 
 of Government time. Even greater offenders in this matter of 
 factious waste of time were the Home Rulers. The Peace Preser- 
 vation Acts, without which Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues, in 
 spite of the messages of peace they had borne to Ireland in the 
 plunder of the Church and the landlords, had found it impossible 
 to govern the country, expired in the course of 1875. The 
 Government proposed, in the Session of 1874, to continue them in 
 the Expiring Laws' Continuance Bill, — the only possible course, as 
 the necessity of the exceptional powers they gave the Executive 
 was still evident, to be taken in so short a Session ; but Mr.
 
 Disraeli recognised the justice of the claim made by the Irish 
 members that measures imposing upon Ireland such exceptional 
 restrictions should be directly presented to Parliament, and that, 
 too, at an early period of the Session. The Peace Preservation 
 Bill, introduced by Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, in accordance 
 with this undertaking of the Premier, on the 1st of March, 
 consolidated the various Acts known by the general title 
 of Peace Preservation Acts, and re-enacted, with many material 
 alleviations, their principal provisions. The Home Rulers did not 
 receive the redemption of the Prime Minister's pledge in the spirit 
 in which they should have met it. That they should have insisted 
 upon full and complete discussion was natural and legitimate, but 
 that did not content them. They used every device to delay the 
 passage of the Bill. They talked against time ; they interposed 
 frivolous amendments at every stage of the measure, and, although 
 nominally discountenanced by the leader of the Opposition and the 
 Liberal Whips, they could always secure long and sympathetic 
 speeches from the Radical benches, when there seemed to be a 
 chance of wasting another of the few days which the rules of 
 Parliament give the Government during the earlier part of the 
 Session. The Bill, which might have been fully and exhaustively 
 discussed in two evenings at the utmost, was so contested by the 
 Home Rule faction, that it occupied twelve Government nights — 
 that is to say, as the Government has but two nights a week at 
 the commencement of the Session, six Aveeks of the some twenty 
 or odd in which Government measures must be discussed and 
 carried, and the main business of Parliament, the voting of 
 Estimates and the grant of Supplies, must be transacted. 
 
 Perhaps the most important measures passed through Parlia- 
 ment in the Session so grossly wasted by these factious proceedings 
 of the Opposition — and yet, as will be seen, so rich in legislation 
 for the improvement of the condition of the people — were the Bills 
 in which Mr. Cross dealt with the questions, which at the time he 
 entered office were exciting so much attention, of the respective 
 rights of employers and workmen, and of the procedure by which 
 their disputes should be decided. In the Speech from the Throne 
 in which the Session of 1874 was opened, a Royal Commission to
 
 10 
 
 inquire mto the state of the law was promised ; and in 1875, Mr. 
 Cross introduced the Bills of which we have spoken. Their 
 general effect was to relieve of a criminal character any combina- 
 tion to do an act which would not have been criminal if done by 
 one person, thus relieving working men of the most serious con- 
 sequences of the law of conspiracy as interpreted by some of the 
 judges ; and to substitute civil for criminal proceedings in the 
 disputes between masters and workmen in questions where a breach 
 of contract was asserted. The new laws have given satisfaction to 
 the working classes, who feel themselves relieved from exceptional 
 and unjust legislation, and have done no damage to the employers. 
 The provisions of the Act for the protection of workmen against 
 intimidation on the part of their companions on strike have been 
 proved quite sufficient ; and, upon the whole, Mr. Cross's Acts must 
 be regarded as effecting one of the most timely, wholesome, and 
 successful reforms of the law which have been achieved during the 
 last twenty or thirty years. 
 
 Besides settling in a manner so generally satisfactory these 
 vexed questions between employers and workmen, Mr. Cross 
 introduced and carried a measure the full fruits of which are not 
 yet visible, but which promises to do more to remove disease, 
 diminish intemperance, and generally elevate the condition of the 
 poorest section of the working classes than any Act which has 
 been passed by the British Parliament. The Artisans' Dwellings 
 Act enables the municipal and other local authorities of our large 
 towns, if satisfied by official representations of the unheal thiness 
 of any district, to make a scheme for its improvement — which 
 scheme consists in removing the buildings already standing on the 
 spot, and a provision for replacing them by others, which are to be 
 designed for, and employed as, dwellings for artisans and others of 
 small means, at the direct cost of the local authority, or by arrange- 
 ment between it and persons, societies, or companies willing to 
 erect such dwellings. Great care, too much care perhaps, is taken 
 to protect the legitimate interests of the persons whose property 
 is to be dealt with, and to prevent the local authorities from entering 
 upon extravagant schemes likely to throw excessive burdens upon 
 the ratepayers. It was objected to the Bill at the time by critics
 
 11 
 
 who, if it had contained provisions enforcing its adoption upon 
 every town, would have denounced it as tyrannical, confiscating, 
 and wasteful, that because it was not compulsory it would 
 be inoperative ; but experience has fully justified the confidence 
 which Mr. Cross declared that he put in our municipal corpora- 
 tions and in local self-government. The Metropolitan Board of 
 Works, the Corporation of the City of London, the Corporations 
 of Birmingham and of many other of our largest towns, have 
 submitted to the Home Office great schemes of improvement, for 
 the destruction of the worst of these dens of misery, fever, and 
 crime, which form the great obstacle to the inculcation of sobriety 
 and the rescue of the very poor from wholesale degradation ; and 
 although the great cost of the clearance of the sites, due to the 
 principle upon which the compensation to the owners was 
 reckoned, and the rigid devotion of the whole of the cleared 
 ground to the erection of dwellings for artisans and labourers, have 
 made the adoption of these improvements very expensive to the 
 ratepayers, much good work has been done, and with the facilities 
 given by the Amendment Act of 1879, much more rapid progress 
 will now be made in can-ying out the intentions of Parliament. Other 
 Bills, giving effect to Mr. Disraeli's declaration at Manchester in 
 the Easter of 1873, that the first consideration of a Minister 
 should be the health of the people, and the apothegm over which 
 so many cheap jokes were made- — Sanitas sanitafum omnia sanitas 
 — were also introduced by the Government in the Session of 
 1875 ; as the Rivers' Pollution Bill — which, although it passed the 
 House of Lords in the spring, had to be withdrawn in the 
 Commons — and the Public Health Bill, which met with better 
 fortune. The Public Health Act, although in the first place a 
 measm-e to consolidate the Sanitary Acts, contained many im- 
 provements and additions to these Acts, increasing the powers 
 and extending the attributes of the local authorities, and in a 
 most useful manner adding to the authority of the Local 
 Government Board. 
 
 The Friendly Societies Act was another important measure of 
 the Session, directed, as those we have already enumerated, to 
 improve the condition of the people. Sir Stafford Northcote had
 
 12 
 
 been Chairman of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into 
 the condition of these most important Societies, and he was able to 
 frame a Bill which happily united the two necessary conditions of 
 any wholesome legislation upon such a subject — the utmost possible 
 independence and self-management of the different Societies, with 
 the best working provisions for insuring sound rules, judicious 
 management, sufficient rates of payment to maintain the solvency 
 of the Societies, combined with an effective audit. Much more has 
 been obtained by this careful regard for the independence of the 
 Societies than could possibly have been achieved by the establish- 
 ment of any cast-iron system of Government rules and inspection, 
 the almost inevitable result of which would have been the loss of 
 half the inducements these Societies offer to the working man, and 
 of the whole of that large training for municipal and political life 
 which the management of the Societies by their members gives to 
 so many hundreds of thousands of artisans. The great Societies 
 have set their houses in order, have corrected their original tables, 
 which, defective and dangerous as they were, had been accepted in 
 perfect good faith as sufficient ; and if there are any Societies 
 which still rest upon an insecure basis, the annual return of income 
 and expenditure, and the quinquennial returns of assets and liabili- 
 ties and of mortality, required by the Act, will force them to adapt 
 their system of contributions and of management to that of the 
 admittedly solvent Societies. The Agricultural Holdings Act was 
 one of the measures introduced and carried by the Government in 
 this Session. When the Bill was under consideration it was denounced, 
 like the Artisans' Dwellings Act, for its permissive nature — that is 
 to say, because it allowed, as it was essential it should do, any owner 
 and would-be occupier of land to contract themselves out "of its pro- 
 visions. It was not the intention of its authors to interfere with any 
 contracts into which landlords and tenants might freely enter. Their 
 object was to give general force to particular customs, allowing a 
 tenant compensation for his outlay, and to create a presumption of 
 law in his favour. They gave every tenant compensation for 
 imexhausted improvements, regulating the determination of what 
 should be considered unexhausted improvements by comparatively 
 clear and simple rules, and whilst thus protecting the investments
 
 13 
 
 of the tenant, they equally protected tlie landlord against costly 
 and unnecessary expenditure under the name of improvements. 
 No doubt many landlords have contracted themselves out of the 
 Act, and, indeed, on estates where leases are the rule the Act is 
 necessarily inapplicable ; but the tenant farmers, who were at 
 first dissatisfied with the measure, now see that it has given them 
 all they could reasonably ask, and the only complaints now made 
 of its inadequacy come not from tenant farmers, but from an 
 Association which pretends indeed, but without any authorisation, 
 to speak in their name, and which is really only an organisation to 
 promote the return of Liberal candidates for English counties at 
 the coming General Election. 
 
 Amongst other measures of importance passed in this Session, 
 we should mention the Land Transfer and Titles Act, the value of 
 which is admitted on all sides ; the Public Works' Loans Act, of 
 which we can speak more conveniently when we discuss the 
 financial policy of the Government ; and the Unseaworthy Ships 
 Act. At a very early period of the Session, Sir Charles 
 Adderley had introduced a very comprehensive Merchant 
 Shipping Acts' Amendment Bill, intended to protect our sailors 
 against the sometimes careless and sometimes criminal con- 
 duct of a certain class of shipowners. Mr. PlimsoU, the 
 member for Derby, had in his energetic agitation of the ques- 
 tion not only provoked a great popular feeling in favour of 
 some stringent legislation for this purpose, but shown a very 
 strong case for it. The Government Bill, although not going so 
 far as Mr. Plimsoll's proposals, would have given sailors all the 
 protection that could be given them, whilst it abstained from 
 excessive and mischievous interference with the course of trade. 
 The measure naturally occupied a good many days. Amendments 
 were proposed on all sides, some intended to reduce the measure of 
 interference and regulation, some designed to extend and intensify it. 
 There still remained a great number of amendments, threatening 
 several days' more debate in Committee, upon the 22nd of July, 
 and the Government was therefore compelled, in order not to 
 sacrifice other measures further advanced in their progress, to 
 withdraw the Bill. A short measure was, however, introduced and
 
 14 
 
 carried, wliicli, under the title of tlie Unseawortliy Ships Act, 
 redressed the worst grievances of the sailor. It provided for the 
 detention of unseaworthy ships ; imposed penalties for sending them 
 to sea; regulated the carriage of grain cargoes, by providing that 
 the grain should be contained in bags, sacks, or barrels, or be secured 
 from shifting by boards, bulkheads, &c. ; imposed upon the ship- 
 owner the obligation to the crew, in spite of any agreement to the 
 contrary, to use all reasonable efforts to insure the seaworthiness 
 of the ship ; and required a load-lme to be marked upon all 
 ships above a certain tonnage, with the exception of yachts and 
 coasting vessels. 
 
 LEGISLATION OP 1876.— The Session of 1876 was 
 
 marked by even more factious 
 
 BOTAL TITLES ACT— INCLOSURE OF COMMONS -, , ,, ,, f .-r 
 
 ACT— POLLUTION OF RIVERS ACT— APPEL- COnClUCt OU tllC part 01 tUe 
 
 LATE JURISDICTION ACT-MERCHANT OnnosifioR thin WIS shown 
 
 SHIPPING ACT-ELEMENTARY EDUCATION '^PPO^ltiOU tUaU WaS SUOWU 
 
 ACT. in 1875. The keynote of the 
 
 policy of the Liberal leaders was struck in the reception they gave to 
 the Eoyal Titles Bill, a measure enabling the Queen to recognise the 
 transfer of the government of India from the trustees who held it 
 for her, the East India Company, to her own direct administration. 
 Twenty years had passed since this change of government, but 
 no special occasion had offered for the formal assumption by Her 
 Majesty of a title emphatically asserting her sovereignty over 
 India, until the visit of the Prince of Wales to that country. It 
 had long been felt by those Indian officials most conversant with 
 tho native feeling, that it was desirable that the Queen should 
 distinctly proclaim India a part of her dominions ; and the oppor- 
 tunity given by the visit of the Prince — fruitful, as we have every 
 reason to believe, of the happiest results for India and England — 
 was wisely made use of. The Bill was generally welcomed, and 
 the Liberal newspapers applauded it until they found that the 
 Liberal leaders intended to oppose it tooth and nail. It was 
 opposed first on the ground that it was unnecessary, but the chief 
 argument urged against it was the title which it was understood 
 Her Majesty would, if the Bill were passed, assume. The Oi)position 
 fought against the word " Empress," as if they thought some evil
 
 15 
 
 spell lay hid in its letters. They resorted to means to oppose the 
 Bill for which no precedent can be found in the worst annals of 
 Liberal intrigue. They trotted out the old hacks of Eadical 
 agitation, and got up indignation meetings against the measure, on 
 the ground that it would enslave the people of England. They 
 divided at every stage of the Bill, and did not even scruple to snatch 
 a division on the third reading, after the persons responsible in such 
 a matter had informed the Government that no division would be 
 taken. Mr. Robert Lowe, who made himself conspicuous in the 
 opposition to the Bill, even ventured to declare at a Radical 
 dinner that the Queen had pressed two previous Prime Ministers 
 to introduce such a measure, but that they had refused, and that it 
 was now brought forward because a more pliant individual had 
 been found. When asked to explain his statement in the House 
 of Commons, Mr. Lowe refused, and received the severest chas- 
 tisement from Mr. Disraeli. The Premier, after characterising in 
 well-deserved terms the conduct of the member for the University 
 of London, declared, on the authority of the Queen, that there 
 was not the slightest foundation for these allegations. A day or two 
 after, Mr. Lowe confessed that there was not the slightest founda- 
 tion for his statements, and that if there had been any foundation 
 for them, he ought not to have made them. Mr. Lowe's 
 humiliation was complete ; but it does not appear from 
 the subsequent action of the Liberal party that he has in 
 any degree lost such influence and authority as he pos- 
 sessed with it by his admission that he had wantonly 
 and maliciously calumniated the Queen in the hope of 
 gaining a paltry political advantage. The opposition was con- 
 tinued in the House of Lords in much the same fashion, but the 
 Bill was carried by enormous majorities, and became law with the 
 general approval of the country. Her Majesty consequently 
 assumed the style and title of Empress of India, and on the 1st 
 of January, 1877, her new title was officially proclaimed, with 
 every circumstance of pomp and state, at Delhi, in the presence of 
 the Viceroy, and of the independent, the allied, and the tributary 
 Princes of India. 
 
 Although in the factious opposition to the Royal Titles Bill
 
 16 
 
 much time was wasted, the Government succeeded in carrying most 
 of the measures it introduced. The Inclosure of Commons Act 
 fairly settles a difficult question. It does not impede the inclosure 
 of commons under circumstances in which that inclosure is a 
 public as well as a private advantage, and sets again in motion 
 the regular machinery* for inclosure which had for some time 
 previous been absolutely stopped. On the other hand, it takes 
 stringent precautions to protect not only the rights, but the 
 interests of the public, securing free access to the best points of 
 view of any common, the preservation of objects of historical 
 interest, the privilege of playing games, &c., where a re- 
 creation-ground is not reserved ; and makes special provision 
 for the health and amusement of the people in the case 
 of what arc called suburban commons. The Pollution of 
 Rivers Act was a measure of even greater importance, the 
 beneficial effects of which can hardly be estimated too highly. 
 The measure deals with the three kinds of pollution which it was 
 necessary to prevent. The first kind, the introduction into rivers 
 of solid matter, it prohibits absolutely and immediately — a reform 
 which only those who know how our streams have been choked up 
 and defiled by the direct discharge into them of solid matter, or by 
 placing it where, in the event of the stream rising above its banks, 
 it must be carried oft', can fully appreciate. The second kind of 
 pollution, that by sewage, is dealt with as radically as possible. 
 There is to be no fresh contamination from this source, and all local 
 authorities which, at the time of the passing of the Act, have been 
 in the habit of getting rid of sewage in this way, are required to at 
 once take measures to render the liquid they may discharge into 
 any stream inodorous and inoffensive. Any increase of the third 
 kind of pollution, that by manufactures, is prevented ; and all 
 manufacturers are subjected to penalties, unless they can show 
 that they are taking the best practicable and available means at 
 a reasonable cost to render harmless the liquid that flows from 
 their works. 
 
 The Appellate Jurisdiction Act settled in a most satisfactory 
 manner the controversy as to the composition of the Highest 
 Court of Appeal. It restored to the House of Lords the
 
 17 
 
 jurisdiction taken from it, so far as regai-ded England, by the 
 Judicature Act of 1873 ; strengthening the House as an Appeal 
 Court by the appointment of two Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, 
 whose duties are to attend the sittings of the House as the 
 Tribunal of Appeal, and who, as long r^s they h 3ld their offices, 
 enjoy all the privileges of peers. Their rank is conferred upon 
 them for their lives, their seat in the House is attached to their 
 office, and their position is therefore not that of life peers, but 
 rather of bishops, or barons holding by tenure. Tlie Aot contains 
 other valuable provisions for intermediate Courts of Appeal, and 
 is generally accepted as a very happy settlement of the question. 
 The Merchant Shipping Act re-enacted the principal provisions 
 of the Unseaworthy Ships Act, with many amendments extending 
 the protection given by that measure to our sailors, and improving 
 the procedure by which it is obtained. The legitimate interests 
 of the shipowners are not los^ sight of. An appeal is provided 
 against decisions which they may consider unjust, and the Board 
 of Trade is made liable in damages for any mistakes it may make, 
 or any injustice it may commit ; the so-called voluntary load-line 
 enacted in the Unseaworthy Ships Act is extended to coasting 
 vessels ; and, finally, a prohibition is put upon deck-loading during 
 the winter months. 
 
 Among the useful measures of this Session we may mention 
 the Crossed Cheques Act, introduced by the Lord Chancellor, 
 giving to special and general crossings of cheques the validity 
 which the public had supposed to attach to them, but which 
 recent decisions of the Courts of Law had denied them ; and the 
 Winter Assizes Act of Mr. Cross, remedying the hardship 
 which used to be sustained by prisoners lying for trial in a county 
 where the amount of criminal business to be done did not appear 
 to warrant a winter assize. Under the new Act, prisoners for trial 
 in one county can be tried at the assize held in another. The 
 Bishopric of Truro Act authorised the subdivision of the very 
 extensive Diocese of Exeter, and, with the Act founding the 
 Bishopric of St. Albans, passed in 1875, added two to the number 
 of the English Bishops. 
 
 The most important measure of the Session was, however, 
 
 B
 
 18 
 
 the Act amending the Elementary Education Act of 1870, 
 which did justice to the denominational schools, and recon- 
 ciled, as far as could be done, the enforcement upon parents 
 of the duty of educating their children, with a just regard 
 for the rights of conscience. The measure was hotly contested 
 by the political Dissenters and secular educationists, whose 
 common object is to get rid of all religious instruction in our ele- 
 mentary schools — the former, because that religious instruction is 
 calculated to strengthen the hold of the Church of England upon 
 the people; the latter, because they are rabidly hostile to all 
 religion, or, at the best, consider it as an indifferent matter. The 
 Act asserts, in the first place, the duty of every parent to provide 
 for the education of his children — the first declaration of that duty 
 in English law. It entrusts the duty of enforcing this declaration 
 ill a School Board district to the School Board ; in boroughs which 
 liave no School Boards, to a Committee appointed by the Town 
 Council, and in other parishes by the Guardians of the Union. In 
 the case of these latter parishes, however, the power of making 
 compulsory bye-laws is only to be exercised upon the requisi- 
 tion of the parish. There are provisions prohibiting absolutely 
 the 'employment of children under ten, and prohibiting the 
 employment of children between ten and fourteen, except 
 they have passed a particular standard and produce certifi- 
 cates showing a certain number of attendances at school. 
 Boards of Guardians are allowed to pay the school fees for 
 such parents as may not be paupers, but are nevertheless too 
 poor to pay the fees ; and the famous 25th clause of the Act of 
 1870 is repealed. By the Act of 1870, the Parliamentary Grant 
 was never to exceed the amount of the school income derived from 
 rates, fees, or voluntary subscriptions. This rule, which had no 
 relation to the efficiency of the school, pressed very hardly upon 
 many of the voluntary schools, and threatened in a short time to 
 destroy some of the best and most needed of them. By the Act 
 of 1876, it is provided that the Parliamentary Grant is not to be 
 reduced, by reason of its excess over the income of the school, below 
 the sum of seventeen shillings and sixpence per child, which is the 
 sum that a child, who fulfils all the requirements of the Govern
 
 19 
 
 ment, can earn. In fntnrOj therefore, although no school can 
 receive the Parliamentary Grant which is not an efficient school 
 providing the education which the Department from time to time 
 reqnires, schools which are efficient will not be punished for their 
 poverty, and denied the contribution from the State, which they 
 have fairly earned, simply because they have most urgent need of 
 it. The change in the law is so just and expedient that it seems 
 marvellous that it should have been so stubbornly resisted. Other 
 clauses of tlie Act allow School Boards to establish day industrial 
 schools, and provide for the dissolution of School Boards under certain 
 circumstances. The latter clause, which was not in the Govern- 
 ment measure, but was accepted by Lord Sandon, when proposed 
 by Mr. Pell, was most passionately resisted by the Opposition, who 
 protended to see in it an attempt to get rid of School Board* 
 generally. As, however, in point of fact, a School Board can only 
 be dissolved when it has done nothing, and consequently shown 
 that it is unnecessary, and then only by the vote of the district, 
 the outcry was very ridiculous, and was treated as such by the 
 countiy. U2)on the whole, the Act must bo considered one of the 
 most valuable passed in the present Parliament, entitling the 
 Government to the hearty confidence not only of Conservatives, 
 but of all men who believe that religious instruction should be a 
 part, and a most important part, of education. 
 
 LEGISLATION OP 1877.— A large portion of the time 
 
 which the wearisome, and 
 
 PRISONS ACTS—DNIVEHSITIFS ACT — SOUTH 
 
 AFRICA ACT— AHMY PROMOTION AND for thc most part factious, 
 
 RETIREMENT ACT -justices' CLERKS ACT j i . i • j. 
 
 -CANAL BOATS ACT-oBSTRrcTioN. debatcs upou questions of 
 
 foreign policy left to the 
 Government in the Session of 1877 for the promotion of the Bills 
 it had introduced, was occupied by two remanets of the previous 
 Session — the Prisons Bill and the Universities Bill. 
 
 The English Prisons Bill occupied twelve, and the Universities 
 Bill ten, sittings of the House of Commons, the principal part 
 of the time so occupied being taken up in both cases, not by the 
 discussion of the points of detail really before the House, but by 
 the iteration of general objections to the principle of the Bills,
 
 20 
 
 or by absurd ' attempts to give them a character it was never 
 intended tliey should assume. Both Bills became law, and are 
 now generally accepted as among the most valuable of recent 
 additions to the Statute Book. The Prisons Acts — for the English 
 Act was supplemented by Acts for Scotland and Ireland — insure 
 uniformity in the treatment of prisoners throughout the United 
 Kingdom, or at least throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland 
 respectively ; making, what was before far from the case, a sentence 
 canied into effect in one gaol equivalent to the same sentence 
 carried into effect in another, and relieve the ratepayers of a very 
 considerable charge at a comparatively small cost to the Treasury, 
 the difference in outlay being caused by the economy incident to 
 central and uniform management. The Universities Act, whilst 
 interfering as little as possible with the discretion of the Univer- 
 sities and Colleges, enables them to appropriate their revenues in 
 a manner which, it is hoped, will be more useful, and which in 
 general opinion is considered more expedient. 
 
 Another measure which occupied a very large amount of the 
 time of the House of Commons was the South Africa Act. There 
 was nothing in the measure itself to provoke the opposition it 
 received. Its purpose was simply to enable any two or more of 
 our South African colonies to unite themselves in a Confederation, 
 and to provide the general framework of the constitution of such a 
 union. No attempt was made to force any colony into the union, 
 but the general conditions of any combination were laid down. If 
 any opposition could have been fairly made to the measure, it would 
 have been on the part of the colonists, who might have objected, 
 with some show of reason, to the reservation of all laws dealing 
 with native affairs for the signification of Her Majesty's pleasure^ 
 But those members of the House of Commons who might have 
 been supposed to speak best the opinion of the colonists, made not 
 the slightest objection to this wise and necessary restriction upon 
 the powers of the Legislature of the New Dominion. Such 
 opposition as the measure experienced on its merits, came from 
 two or three members who had undertaken the case of the Trans- 
 vaal delegates sent to London to protest against the annexation of 
 the Republic — a question which, strictly speaking, had little or
 
 21 ,-^'- - 
 
 notliing to do with a measure which was substantially only a 
 licence to the South African colonies to unite in a Confederation. 
 The great delay in the passage of the Bill was caused by the 
 deliberate system of obstruction to all public business adopted by 
 the extreme wing of the Home Rule party, and secretly encouraged 
 by a section of the English and Scotch Radicals. These Irish 
 members hardly pretended to have any interest in the Cape 
 colonies. Their avowed purpose was to stop all public business, 
 and they used every device which the rules of Parliament allowed. 
 They were, in the end, vanquished with their own weapons ; the 
 House of Commons sat from four o'clock one afternoon to six 
 o'clock the next to make progress with this Bill, and it further 
 adopted (upon the proposition of the Chancellor of the Exchequer) 
 certain standing orders, to which the House itself seems not to 
 have attached much importance, and which certainly have not 
 proved of much value. The great difficulty in the way of dealing 
 with misconduct of this kind consists in the natural unwillingness 
 of the House to impose greater restrictions upon Hie freedom of 
 its members than have prevailed before, and to diminish the 
 legitimate opportunities of those who will not abuse them, in order 
 "to check the extravagances of a class of members who could 
 hardly be dealt with effectually except by expulsion. 
 
 Another measure carried by the Government was the Army 
 Promotion and Retirement Act. Lord Card well and his colleagues 
 promised, when purchase was abolished, that a flow of promotion 
 as rapid as that which existed before should be kept up. It was 
 but just to the officers of the Army, and it was essential to the 
 -efficiency of the Service, that this should be done ; but the Glad 
 istone Government, in its usual fashion, neglected the duty because 
 its fulfilment would have cost money, and so have increased the 
 Army Estimates. Mr. Hardy (now Viscount Cranbrook), when he 
 entered upon office, appointed a Commission to inquire into the 
 matter, and upon its report prepared the scheme embodied in this 
 Act, involving an immediate annual expenditure of £220,000. 
 In future years the amount will be increased. The outlay, 
 however, is not only just, but necessary ; and very few Liberals 
 ventured to contest the wisdom of the measure, which passed with
 
 22 
 
 verj little opposition, although, in addressing their constituents, 
 they all treat the additional charge upon the revenue which it 
 involves as a piece of Tory extravagance. Amongst the Govern- 
 ment measures of smaller importance passed in the Session were 
 two which deserve mention. The Justices' Clerks Act enacted 
 that salaries should everywhere be paid to Justices' clerks 
 in lieu of fees — a reform of far more importance than it appears, 
 because it removes the feeling which very often obtained amongst 
 the persons brought before Petty Sessions, that they sometimes 
 had injustice done them in the magistrates* care for the interest of 
 their clerks. The Canal Boats Act provided for the inspection 
 and the proper sanitary regulation of these boats, as to the condi- 
 tion of which most horrible revelations had been made. 
 
 A number of other measures were introduced, ami, after ad- 
 vancing certain stages, withdrawn. One of these Bills deserves 
 special notice. We refer to the Burials Acts' Consolidation Bill, 
 introduced in the House of Lords by the Duke of Richmond and 
 Gordon. This Bill, although in its main features a sanitary mea- 
 sure, would have removed every possible grievance of which Dis- 
 senters can complain, whilst consolidating the different Burial Acts, 
 as to the contradictory character and confusing condition of which 
 strong expressions had fallen from many of the Judges. It pro- 
 posed to establish in every parish a burial authority, charged with 
 the duty of providing a new burial-ground, unless there should be 
 already a consecrated and unconsecrated burial-ground suitable 
 and sufficient. By this provision, which was supplemented by a 
 clause enabling landowners to give land for burial-grounds, every 
 cause of complaint of the conscientious Dissenter from the Esta- 
 blished Church was removed. He could be buried with the 
 services of the Church or without them, as he pleased ; or, in 
 the event of his giving no directions as to the disposition of his 
 remains, in such manner as his relatives might desire. But this 
 did not suit the political Dissenters, who want to obtain an entry 
 into the churchyard to act there as they please, in order from that 
 vantage position to attempt to obtain the same rights in the 
 Church itself. The Opposition, assisted by some of the Bishops, 
 whose policy seems to have been to buy a temporary peace by
 
 23 
 
 concessions which onlj' encourage and facilitate fresh attacks^, 
 carried a clause which opened all burial-grounds without exception, 
 no matter how recently given by Churchmen to the Church, not 
 merely for the burial of Dissenters conscientiously objecting to be 
 interred according to the rites of the Church of England without 
 ceremony, but for the burial of Dissenters and Atheists with any 
 ceremony or pomp their friends might please to indulge in. The 
 Government could not, of course, accept an amendment which 
 practically exposed the churchyards to the possibility of scenes 
 of the grossest irreverence and wildest disorder, and therefora 
 they withdrew the Bill. 
 
 LSaiSLATION OF 1878. — Parliament met in 1878 
 
 some three weeks earlier 
 
 FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS ACT- BISH0rmC3 f],,^ 1 J .1 UpR^,-,-,„ 
 
 ACT-CONTAGIOUS DISEASES (ANIMaLS) ^^^^^ US"ai, aUQ lUC ^CSSIOU 
 
 ACT-IRISH INTERMEDIATE EDUCATION Quly Cndcd OU thc 16th of 
 ACT — TBKRITORIAL WATERS JURISDICTION 
 
 ACT— mo awAYs ACT— Et'PiNG FOREST ACT August, but altliough the- 
 
 — SCOTCH EDUCATION ACT — SCOTCH i <• j • i 
 
 ROADS AND BRIDGES ACT. numbcr 01 days nominally 
 
 at the disposition of the 
 Government was therefore considerably la"ger than in ordinary 
 Sessions, which begin in the second week of February and termi- 
 nate in the last week in July, the time available for the considera- 
 tion of Government business was really less than in the shorter 
 Sessions. Parliament was called together earlier because the 
 critical condition of foreign aifairs rendered it necessary for the 
 Government to apply to the House of Commons for a A^ote of 
 Credit ; and discussions upon foreign questions, and the policy ot" 
 the Government with regard to them, occupied a very considerable 
 number of the nights which the rules of the House of Commons 
 set apart for Government business. In spite, however, of this 
 appropriation of time and the general preoccupation of the public 
 in foreign questions, and of a repetition by a section of the Home 
 lUile party, upon a somewhat smaller scale, of the obstructive 
 tactics of the previous year, several Government measures of the 
 greatest value were passed, and the Session of 1878 will compare 
 almost as advantageously as those of 1875 and 1876 with the 
 fruitless Sessions when Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues
 
 24: 
 
 occupied the whole time of Parliament with schemes for destroying 
 Churches, despoiling landowners, and confiscating the property of 
 graders, and with Budgets which imposed unnecessary and unjust 
 taxation in order to provide artificial surpluses. 
 
 Among the first of the measures introduced and passed was the 
 Factories and Workshops Act, the main purpose of which was the 
 consolidation of the various and sometimes conflicting laws for the 
 protection of women and children then upon the Statute Book, but 
 which in many important instances materially amended those laws. 
 The measure was discussed at muchlengthin the House of Commons, 
 and many compliments were paid to Mr. Cross by his political oppo- 
 nents, but the most valuable tribute to the right hon. gentleman, 
 and the most satisfactory description of the measure, came from 
 Lord Shaftesbury, who, in the House of Lords, after expressing 
 his gratitude to the Government for the Bill, said that he was lost 
 in wonder at the amount of toil, of close investigation, and of 
 perseverance which the Home Secretary must have brought to 
 bear upon its preparation. Some two millions of people in this 
 country, he added, bless the day when that right lion, gentleman 
 was appointed Secretary of State for the Home Department. 
 Another measure of much value was the Bishoprics Act, 
 described by the Archbishop of Canterbury as the greatest 
 ecclesiastical reform since the Reformation, whicli was vehemently 
 opposed in both Houses by Liberals who profess to remain in 
 communion with the Church, or rather claim to be members of it 
 solely with the purpose of more effectively damaging it. But Lord 
 Rosebery and Mr. Dillwyn — most significant representatives of 
 the opposition the Bill experienced — were signally defeated ; and 
 it depends now only upon the liberality of Churchmen how 
 soon four new Bishoprics, every one of which is sorely needed, shall 
 be established at Liverpool, Newcastle, Wakefield, and South- 
 well. All parties in the Church — that is to say, all parties 
 anxious to increase its power of doing good — recognise the neces- 
 sity of an increase in the number of Bishops, and the present 
 Government, which had before carried through Parliament 
 measures establishing the sees of Truro and St. Albans, and has 
 thus added six to the number of episcopal sees, deserves the
 
 25 
 
 confidence and support of all true and zealous Cliurch 
 men. 
 
 The Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act has, it may be hoped, 
 settled once for all the questions which recent visitations of cattle 
 plague, and other infectious diseases hardly less destructive, 
 have raised. The Bill, which was founded upon the investigations 
 of a Select Committee appointed in 1877, was discussed at much 
 length, and was materially altered in its passage through the 
 two Houses. It establishes a central instead of a local control 
 in all cases in which an outbreak of disease takes place ; and 
 whilst the restrictions upon the movement of cattle within the 
 country are stringent enough to check the propagation of 
 disease, the precautions taken against the importation of infected 
 beasts, although not so complete as some high agricultural autho- 
 rities desired, seem to be sufficient to prevent the introduction of 
 •disease, whilst they put no inconvenient check upon the supply of 
 meat to our populous towns. In one respect, the most important 
 measm-e of the Session was the Irish Intermediate Education Act. 
 The absolute want of a good system of intermediate or secondary 
 education in Ireland has long been recognised as an evil to be 
 remedied. The measure introduced by Earl Cairns to supply this 
 want judiciously avoided the rocks upon which all previous schemes 
 for the higher education in Ireland have been wrecked. Substantially, 
 the measure is one of payment for results. A million is taken from 
 the property of the disestablished Irish Chm'cb, the interest of which 
 is to be applied partly to the provision of exhibitions and other 
 prizes for the successful competitors in examinations open to all 
 students, and partly to payments to the managers of such schools 
 as the examinations show to be efficient. The measure was 
 welcomed by all parties in Ireland, and met with little or no opposi- 
 tion in Parliament. It was generally felt not only that the outlay 
 would raise the condition of education in Ireland, but that the 
 promotion of education was a far more appropriate application of 
 the property of the disestablished Church than the reduction of the 
 rates, as proposed by Mr. Gladstone. 
 
 Several other measures, not of the same political importance, 
 but of much utility, were passed in the Session of 1878. Wo
 
 26 
 
 may specify the Territorial Waters' Jurisdiction Act, whicli sup- 
 plies a want in Englisli law which only became apparent in the 
 judgment in the case of the Franconia, and enacts that any per- 
 son, whether a subject of Her Majesty or not, who may commit 
 an offence punishable by English law within English territorial 
 waters — that is to say, within three miles from the shore — may be 
 arrested and tried in the usual way; the Highways Act, which 
 provides for the better management of the roads, and distributes 
 more fairly the cost of maintaining them ; the Epping Forest Act, 
 which finally secures the enjoyment of several thousand acres to 
 the closely-packed denizens of the East of London ; and, finally, 
 the Scotch Education and the Scotch Roads and Bridges Act, 
 both of which occupied a considerable portion of the time of 
 Parliament, and both of which seem to have satisfied the Scotch 
 people. 
 
 The measures passed in the Session of 1878, numerous and 
 useful as they were, give, however, no fair idea of the programme of 
 legislation which the Government had prepared for Parliament. 
 The block of business caused by the frequent and long debates 
 upon foreign policy, and the obstructive proceedings of the Home 
 Rulers, rendered it necessary to withdraw not only the Valuation 
 of Property Bill, the Bankruptcy Law Amendment Bill, the Bar 
 Education and Discipline Bill, and other measures which had 
 undergone the same fate the previous Session, but several others 
 of importance and interest. The Criminal Code Bill, prepared by 
 Sir James Stephen under the supervision of the' Law Officers of the 
 Crown, and intended to express in one Act the whole law and pro- 
 cedure relating to indictable offences, was read a second time, but 
 there was no chance of giving it that consideration in Committee 
 which a measure of so much importance demanded, and the 
 Government withdrew it, to refer it to the examination of a Com- 
 mission composed of Lord Blackburn, Mr. Justice Lush, Mr. 
 Justice Barry, and the author. The County Government Bill^ 
 which proposes to substitute County Boards, to be elected in part 
 by the Guardians and in part by the Magistrates, for Quarter 
 Sessions, in so far as County Government is concerned, led to a 
 great deal of debate ; and it is quite certain that no Bill proposing to
 
 27 
 
 transfer from the Magistrates functions which they have exercised 
 on the whole so well, and so economically, can give satisfaction 
 unless a very large amount of time is devoted to its details. The 
 Grand Jury Law Amendment Bill, introduced by the Irish 
 Secretary, was intended to transfer that portion of the Local 
 Government of Ireland now vested in the Grand Juries to County 
 Boards. 
 
 LEGISLATION OF 1879.— Parliament met on the 5th 
 
 December, 1878, to receive 
 
 ARMY DISCIPLINE AND REGULATION ACT— a tt l\f * + +1 
 
 PROSECUTION OF OFFENCES ACT— BUM- i^om Mcr iVlajesty the 
 
 MARy JURISDICTION ACT— COMPANIES onnr.nnnor.-.or.f +lio+ iU ^ 
 
 ACT-UNIVEU8ITY EDUCATION (IRELAND) announccment that the 
 ACT -NATIONAL SCHOOL TEACHEus' hostiUtv to hcr Indian 
 
 (iRKLAiND) ACT— ACT TO AMKND ARTISANS' '' 
 
 AND LABOURERS' DwiiLLiiNGs' IMPROVE- Govcmment manifested by 
 
 MENT ACT— PUBLIC HEALTH (INTERMENTS) j, . » a n -, . 
 
 ACT. the Ameer of Afghanistan, 
 
 and the manner in which 
 he had repulsed her friendly Mission, had left hcr no alternative 
 but to make a peremptory demand for redress. That demand had 
 been disregarded, and Her Majesty had therefore .directed that 
 an expedition should be sent into the Ameer's territory, and had 
 taken the earliest opportunity of calling them together, and making 
 them the communication required by law. The time of the 
 two Houses during the short sitting before Christmas was almost 
 exclusively occupied by debates upon the question thus raised. 
 The Opposition, who exhibited a great deal of irritation and 
 yiolence, were signally defeated. The formal resolution, moved 
 by Viscount Cranbrook in the House of Lords, to the effect that 
 "The House consented that the revenues of India should be applied 
 to defray the expenses of the military operations which might be 
 carried on beyond the frontier of Her Majesty's Indian dominions," 
 was met by an amendment, proposed by Viscount Halifax, declaring 
 that the Government had unnecessarily engaged the country in 
 the contest. The amendment was rejected by 201 to 65 votes — 
 a majority far in excess of that which the Conservative party can 
 claim to possess in the Upper House. In the Commons there 
 were two debates. In the first — which arose upon an amendment 
 to the report of the Address moved by Mr. Whitbread, digap-
 
 28 
 
 proving the conduct of the Government, which had resulted 
 in the war — the Government had a majority of 101. In the 
 second — in which Mr. Fawcett met a resolution moved by Mr. 
 StanhojDe of the same tenor as that adopted by the peers, with an 
 amendment asserting the injustice of charging the revenues of India 
 with the cost of the war — the majority for the Government was 
 110. 
 
 When the Session was resumed on the 13th February, 1879, 
 Lord Beaconsfield and the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced 
 the Bills which the Government proposed to lay before Parlia- 
 ment. The programme was neither lengthy nor sensational, but 
 most of the measures promised were of much importance, and the 
 general need felt for them seemed to render it almost certain that 
 they would all become law. It consisted of the Army Discipline and 
 Begulation Bill, by which it was proposed not only to obviate the 
 necessity of carrying through Parliament every year long and 
 wearisome Mutiny Bills, whilst reserving to it all that security and 
 •control which the annual Mutiny Bills were supposed to give, but 
 to materially simplify and amend the whole military law. There 
 was, further, a Bill for the Consolidation of the Criminal Law, or, 
 in other words, Sir James Stephens' and the Attorney-General's 
 Criminal Code, as revised by the Commission of Judges appointed 
 to consider it. A Summary Jurisdiction Bill, a County Govern- 
 ment Bill, a Bill for Amending and Continuing the Corrupt 
 Practices Act, a Bill for altering the Law relating to Banking 
 Companies — intended to facilitate, under sufficient securities, the 
 transfer of unlimited into limited Banks — a Bill to alter in some 
 important respects the system under which Public Loans are 
 granted ; and several of the remanets of former years — such as the 
 Valuation Bill, the Patent Law Amendment Bill, and the Bank- 
 ruptcy Bill, the latter materially amended — were also announced. 
 This programme was, as we have said, a thoroughly practical 
 one. It raised no great questions of principle, and hardly 
 touched party issues. It made no excessive demand on the 
 House of Commons. In the five or six months for which the 
 Session might be expected to last, there was, after making every 
 allowance for the already too evident purpose of the Opposition to
 
 29 
 
 occupy a great deal of time with debates on foreign policy, 
 not intended to affect the course of opinion in Parliament 
 but to influence the country in view of the General Election — 
 which, " measuring other people's corn by their own bushel," they 
 fancied the Government would " spring " upon them — plenty of 
 time to give all these measures ample consideration. It soon 
 became apparent, however, that the Home Rulers, and the extreme 
 section of the English Radical party, would do their utmost to 
 prevent all legislation, and waste the Session. Tlie purpose of 
 the Home Rulers was that which inspired their action in previous 
 Parliaments — to obstruct for the sake of obstruction ; the purpose 
 of the English Radicals was to prevent legislation, even when they 
 admitted that legislation was necessary or desirable, in order that 
 they might be able to include a "wasted Session," which they 
 themselves had made, in their indictment against the Government. 
 Thirty sittings were occupied with the Army Discipline and Regu- 
 lation Bill — a measure which, as in its main features the outcome 
 of the deliberations of a Select Committee presided over by Sir 
 William Harcourt, might have been expected to meet with little 
 opposition. Indeed, all the questions raised which were fairly 
 debateable, might have been thoroughly threshed out in a couple 
 of evenings. But Mr. Parnell and his little band fought the Bill 
 clause by clause and line by line, and were from the first supported 
 by the extreme section of English Radicals, of whom Mr. Peter 
 Rylands, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, and Mr. Peter Taylor are the 
 most prominent representatives. For some time the nominal 
 leaders of the Opposition, if they condescended to be present 
 when the Bill was under discussion, professed to rebuke their fol- 
 lowers ; but at last they yielded to the pressure put upon them, 
 and Lord Hartington, surrendering his own opinions to the dicta- 
 tion of Mr. Chamberlain, who had described him as the 'Mate 
 leader" of the Liberal Party, moved an amendment to the effect 
 that no Bill for the discipline and regulation of the Army would fee 
 satisfactory which provided for the retention of corporal punish- 
 ment for military offences. This resolution was rejected by a 
 majority of lOG, and the Bill was shortly after read a third time. 
 It passed through the House of Lords without alteration or even
 
 80 
 
 opposition, and must be esteemed one of the most useful chapters 
 added to the Statute Book in recent years. It gives us, for the 
 first time, an intelligible code of military law, whilst it in no 
 degree interferes with the old privileges of Parliament, as it has 
 to be re-enacted every year by a short Mutiny Act. 
 
 The time occupied by the Army Regulation Act, and by the 
 idle discussions raised by the Radicals upon foreign questions, made 
 it impossible for the Government to carry some of the most needed 
 of the measures announced in February. The Bankruptcy Law 
 Amendment Bill, for which the commercial community had asked 
 so urgently, and which passed the House of Lords early in the 
 Session, had to be withdrawn ; and even the Criminal Law Con- 
 solidation Bill had to be dropped. The County Government Bill, 
 the Grand Jury Law Amendment Bill, and the Valuation Bill 
 shared the same fate. 
 
 But the Session, in spite of all these sacrifices and disappoint- 
 ments, was fruitful in that practical and most useful legisla- 
 tion which will be the honour of the present Government and of 
 the Parliament which has so steadily supported it. We will 
 mention, in the first place, the Prosecution of Offences and 
 the Summary Jurisdiction Acts, which effect a great reform 
 in the administration of the Criminal Law. The former supplies, 
 in the clauses authorising the appointment of a Director of Public 
 Prosecutions, with a certain number of assistants, a want which has 
 long been felt, and, indeed, had recently become so urgent that the 
 Government had found it necessary to instruct the Treasury 
 Solicitor to prosecute in a number of cases. The Director of 
 Public Prosecutions is, under the superintendence of the Attorney- 
 General, and according to regulations made by him, or in special 
 cases by his immediate direction, to institute criminal proceedings, 
 or give advice or assistance where these proceedings have been 
 already instituted. We have a guarantee, therefore, that the 
 great criminals who have hitherto escaped punishment because 
 their victims could not afford to take proceedings against them, 
 will in future be brought to justice ; and, on the other hand, 
 we have in the clauses which enact that, if the Director should 
 abandon a prosecution, the person who considers himself aggrieved
 
 31 
 
 may proceed with it, and provide tliat nothing in the Act shall 
 interfere with the right of individuals to institute, undertake, or 
 carry on a criminal prosecution, sufficient security against the 
 abuses which might result in this country, and continually occur on 
 the Continent, from the omnipotence of a Public Prosecutor who is 
 swayed by his political opinions and private friendships or animosities. 
 The Summary Jurisdiction Act may be generally described — it is 
 impossible to enter here upon a minute examination of its pro- 
 visions — as a measure which, whilst it on the one hand gi^es in 
 many cases to persons hitherto liable to summary jurisdiction, a 
 right to claim a trial by jury, on the other hand, entrusts the 
 magistrates who exercise summary jurisdiction, with large powers 
 of mitigating the punishments which they were before bound to 
 impose. 
 
 The Companies Act was not passed in the form in which it 
 was introduced by Sir Stafford Northcotc. Many of the clauses 
 of the original Bill had to be abandoned, on account of, the very 
 short time left for their discussion — the Bill was only read a 
 second time on the 29th July — but a measure was passed which 
 fully provided for the immediate want which had to b^ met. By 
 availing itself of the provisions of this Act, an unlimited banking 
 company can register as a limited company, and in taking that 
 step may increase the nominal amount of its capital, which increase 
 of capital is only to be called up in the event of the company 
 being wound up ; or it may resolve that a portion of its uncalled 
 up capital shall be " ear-marked " in the same manner as " reserve 
 liability." But this is merely facultative. A banking company 
 may register itself as limited without making any such reserve. 
 That is a question between the shareholders and the creditors of 
 the concern. The only restrictive provisions of the Act are, that 
 no debts or contracts made before the registration as a limited 
 company are to be affected by it, and that the limitation of 
 liability is not to apply to the notes of the bank. Another clause 
 provides that the accounts of every bank registering as *' limited" 
 under the Act, must be examined annually by an auditor or 
 auditors elected by the shareholders. Already the directors of 
 several of the largest Joint Stock Banks have recommended their
 
 32 
 
 shareliolders to adopt the Act ; and it must, therefore, be taken to 
 give bank shareholders the protection for which they have been 
 asking without diminishing in any appreciable manner the security 
 to bank customers. 
 
 The most important measure passed in the Session was, how- 
 ever, the University Education (Ireland) Act, which promises 
 to settle, in a manner generally satisfactory, a most difficult 
 question which has vexed statesmen for years. The measure 
 was not mentioned in the programme of the 13th February, and 
 was only introduced into the House of Lords on the 30th June. 
 But it made its way pretty quickly through both Houses, the 
 opposition with which a section of the Home Rulers had 
 threatened it having been abandoned under the pressure, as it was 
 understood, of the Irish Roman Catholic Bishops. The Act is, in 
 some respects, but an outline which will have to be filled up by 
 some money clauses. It authorises the Queen to establish a 
 University in Ireland, which is to have power to grant degrees 
 after examination to persons whom it may consider qualified ; and 
 no residence or attendance at lectures is to be obligatory on any 
 candidates for a degree, except in medicine or surgery. The 
 Queen's University is to be dissolved, and the Senate of the New 
 University is to prepare a scheme for Exhibitions, Scholarships, 
 Fellowships, and prizes. Of course any such scheme will need the 
 creation of a charge on the Consolidated Fund, or an annual vote 
 of the House of Commons, or some appropriation by Parliament from 
 the Irish Church Fund ; but there can be no doubt that in one of these 
 ways the necessary funds will be promptly provided. Another Act 
 for the encouragement of education in Ireland passed in this Session 
 should be noted here. The position of the National School teachers — 
 who receive, at the best, very scanty salaries, which allow no pro- 
 vision being made for sickness or old age — had long been urged upon 
 the attention of Parliament. The National School Teachers' (Ire- 
 land) Act does justice to a most deserving class, and reflects great 
 credit upon the Government. It constitutes a Pension Fund for 
 the teachers, to which it applies the sum of £1,300,000 out of the 
 Irish Church Fund, and secures to the teachers, from whose salaries 
 a slight deduction is to be made as a contribution to the Fund, a
 
 33 
 
 modest allowance after retirement from work on account of old ago 
 or infirmity. The Act amending the Artisans' Dwellings Act of 
 1S75 removes two great hindrances to the operation of that 
 measure. The arbitrators appointed under the Act to assess the 
 value of the property to be taken under the different schemes for 
 clearing sites, have considered themselves bound to give the owners, 
 and other persons interested in the houses to be pulled down, the 
 benefit of their own misdeeds. These owners or lessees had so 
 crowded their houses with occupants, and so grossly neglected 
 their sanitary condition, that the houses were condemnable under 
 the Act. But by this conduct they had swollen the whole rental 
 of these houses to a comparatively enormous amount, and they 
 claimed compensation for their expropriation under the Act, on the 
 basis of the rental they received ; and the arbitrators, no doubt 
 taking the proper legal view of the matter, allowed it them. The 
 result has been, that the mere cost of clearing away the " rook- 
 eries," which the Board of Works, the City authorities, and the 
 Municipalities of some of our large towns have obtained authority 
 to remove, has proved even larger than would have been the removal 
 of houses situated in respectable localities, and in good con- 
 dition. The Act of 1879 provides that an arbitrator may receive 
 evidence to prove that premises, on account of overcrowding, &c., 
 had become a nuisance, and, if satisfied of the fact, may determine 
 the cost of abating the nuisance, and fix the compensation 
 to be paid for the house at the amoimt at which it might 
 be taken to be worth after the abatement of the nuisance 
 Another material amendment of the Act of 1875 is to allow the 
 accommodation for the working classes which the former Act re- 
 quired to be upon precisely the area upon which the clearance was 
 effected, to be provided, under certain safeguards, elsewhere. If 
 we add that the Parliamentary Elections and Corrupt Practices 
 Act was continued with an amendment providing that every 
 Election Petition shall be tried before two Judges instead of one, 
 we have described the legislation of the Session for which tlie 
 Government niay take credit and must be held responsible. But 
 there is one Act of last Session which, although introduced by a 
 Xnivatc member, and carried through with only such facilities as
 
 34 
 
 private members possess, deserves especial mention. We refer to 
 Mr. Marten's Public Health (Interments) Act, which promises 
 to practically settle the great burial question in a manner by no 
 means satisfactory to the politicians who have so long traded on 
 it. By applying the provisions of the Act of 1875, with regard to 
 a place of reception for the bodies of the dead, " a mortuary," to 
 a place for the interment of the bodies of the dead, *' a cemetery," 
 full power is given to local authorities generally to provide and 
 maintain a cemetery wherever and whenever one may in their 
 opinion be required. Local authorities are further allowed to 
 accept donations of land offered them for such a purpose; and 
 generally it may be said that, wherever the provisions of the Act 
 are adoj^ted, every shadow of a grievance which may have been 
 felt by conscientious Dissenters will be removed. The Govern- 
 ment, although it could give Mr. Marten no facilities for carrying 
 his measure, warmly supported it ; and, as soon as it became law, 
 the Local Government Board issued a circular, drawing the atten- 
 tion of local authorities to the new duties it imposed upon them, 
 and the new powers it gave them. 
 
 FINANCIAL POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 When Mr. Gladstone dissolved Parliament at the end of January, 
 1874, a few days before it was expected to meet for the disjjatch 
 of business, he hoped, as he explained in his long and tedious 
 address to the electors of Greenwich, to win back the country to 
 his side by the promise of a repeal of the Income Tax. The 
 coiipf suddenly as it fell upon the public, had been some time in 
 preparation. Mr. Lowe, who had boldly said in the spring of 1873 
 that he intended to be Chancellor of the Exchequer in the follow- 
 ing yeai*, had been shifted in the autumn to the Home Office, and 
 Mr. Gladstone had added to the office of First Lord of the 
 Treasury that of Chancellor of the Exchequer. Mr. Lowe's 
 Budgets were framed upon the principle of securing, by under- 
 estimating the receipts of the financial year, a surplus, to be 
 boasted of in the financial statement of the following year 
 as the 5 result of Liberal financial administration. The 
 system did not pass unchallenged. Liberal members of
 
 35 
 
 Parliament protested against tlie maintenance of old taxation 
 or the imposition of new taxes, intended only to give the 
 Government the credit of a surplus, and Mr. Lowe had more than 
 once to " take back his Budget." But he adhered to his plan ; 
 and when Mr. Gladstone dissolved in 1874, he was able to estimate, 
 in his address to his electors, that the excess of normal revenue 
 over normal expenditure would be five millions. The calculation 
 was correct enough, although the payment of the Alabama Award 
 and the cost of the Ashantee War, reduced the actual surplus of 
 the year to a comparatively small sum. Su* Stafford Northcote, 
 taking, as he was compelled to do, the Estimates his predecessor 
 had prepared, found himself able to dispose of five millions. The 
 country had the immediate benefit of that sum. Justice was 
 done to legitimate claims, and at the same time a great, and, 
 indeed, necessary source of revenue, like the Income Tax, was not 
 iibandoned altogether, as Mr. Gladstone, in a true gambler's spirit, 
 had proposed. It must always be remembered that Mr. Gladstone 
 had promised the abolition of the tax more than twenty years 
 before, and had never shown himself, in all the years he had 
 occupied the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer, "disposed to 
 redeem the promise. On the contrary, he had raised the tax to a 
 rate unknown before in time of peace to maintain the " bloated 
 armaments " of the Palmerston Ministry, and allow the repeal of 
 taxes, which were not dealt with from economical or financial, but from 
 political and party, reasons. He had supported Mr. Lowe in keeping 
 the tax at a rate which he was himself compelled to allow was too 
 high, and the offer to abolish it altogether was simply made as a 
 means of maintaining himself in power. Sir Stafford Northcote 
 maintained the tax, but reduced it by one penny, bringing it 
 practically to a rate which did not injuriously press upon the payers, 
 and he thus removed a strong incentive to evasion, whilst maintain- 
 ing a machinery which is invaluable in the event of any great national 
 emergency. Further, the Chancellor of the Exchequer repealed the 
 sugar duties. There was, no doubt, some regret on the part of 
 sound economists at the abandonment of such a thoroughly legiti- 
 mate source of revenue, which was made all the more perilous by 
 Mr. Gladstone's threat to get rid of the Income Tax. But the
 
 30 
 
 fact was, that the duties had been so manipuKitcd bj Mr. Lowe, 
 that, despite the considerable sum they brought into the 
 Exchequer, it was hardly possible to maintain them. Mr. Lowe 
 had reduced the sugar duties by one-half in 1870, with the 
 declaration that he would not go any further. In 1873 he 
 reduced them by one-half again, and Parliament was distinctly 
 told by Mr. W. H. Smith that what remained of the duties after 
 this operation was so small that they would have to be totally 
 abolished. Sir Stafford Northcote further abolished the duty on 
 horses, with several duties of a kindred character, the total amount 
 of his reductions of taxation being for the year £4,020,000. He 
 applied another million to the relief of local taxation, and so 
 fulfilled, in a most striking manner, the pledges given by the 
 Conservative leaders when in Opposition. By a contribution 
 towards the cost of the maintenance of lunatics, by an increase of 
 the subvention for the pay and clothing of the Police from 25 to 
 50 per cent., and by a further payment of rates on Government 
 property, the Chancellor of tlie Exchequer accepted a burden for 
 the year of £1,010,000, whilst relieving local taxation permanently 
 by the very considerable sum of a million and a quarter. By these 
 arrangements the Chancellor of the Exchequer was left with a 
 small estimated surplus, which, in spite of some considerable 
 Supplementary Estimates, proved to be larger when the accounts 
 of the year were made up. 
 
 In 1875, Sir Stafford Northcote's Budget was what we may 
 call a quiet one. It repealed only one small stamp duty, and 
 what relief it gave was only to a small class. A very just altera- 
 tion was, made in the system upon which brewers are charged with 
 duties upon the number of barrels of beer they brew ; and a stamp 
 duty upon appointments to the Civil Service, producing little, but 
 often pressing very heavily upon those who had to pay it, was 
 abolished. The principal feature of the Budget of 1875 was the 
 scheme of Sir Stafford Northcote for a regular and steady reduc- 
 tion of il\e National Debt. The Chancellor of the Exchequer's 
 proposal was the payment of a sum of twenty-eight millions 
 regularly on account of the Debt. At the time he spoke, the 
 annual charge of the Debt, including the exceptional expenditure
 
 37 
 
 authorised by previous Parliaments for its reduction in the way 
 t)f Terminable Annuities^ was £27,250,000. By raising the annual 
 payment from the Consolidated Fund to the National Debt Commis- 
 sioners to £28,000,000, to which sum it was calculated it would 
 only arrive in the course of the financial year, 1877-78, Sir Stafford 
 Northcote hoped to reduce the Debt in thirty years by the very 
 considerable sum of £162,000,000, altogether independently and 
 apart from the other arrangements adopted for that purpose. 
 The proposal of the Minister was hotly contested by the Opposition, 
 Mr. Gladstone signalising himself by the vehemence of his objec- 
 tions, but it was well received by the House and the country ; and 
 the Government may be heartily congratulated upon th3 bold, 
 judicious, and moderate scheme by which, at a really inappreciable 
 cost to the taxpayers of the present day, it has provided for the 
 extinction of so large a sum of debt in so short a time. An 
 important item of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Budget pro- 
 posals was the measure for regulating and improving the system 
 upon which loans are granted by the Treasury, under the pro- 
 Tisions of various Acts of Parliament, to public bodies and local 
 authorities, which is known as the Public Works' Loans Act. 
 This useful Act simplifies the national accounts, brings the 
 advances clearly under view and control, and effects considerable 
 economies. 
 
 The tide of abnormal and feverish prosperity which overspread 
 Europe after the conclusion of peace between France and 
 Germany, and which swelled so enormously the returns of the 
 revenue during Mr. Gladstone's administration, was already 
 rapidly receding when the present Government entered into office in 
 the spring of 1874. In his first two years of office Sir Stafford 
 Northcote was, however, able to make large remissions of taxation, 
 whilst providing for the increased expenditure rendered necessary 
 to put the Army and Navy (which Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Lowe 
 had starved) into a satisfactory condition ; for the transfer of local 
 charges to the National Exchequer, in favour of which the House of 
 Commons had pronounced by an overwhelming vote when Mr. 
 Gladstone boasted a majority of seventy or eighty ; for the growth 
 of the Education Vote, the necessary consequence of Mr.
 
 88 
 
 Forster's Education Act ; and for an honest and vigorous effort 
 to reduce the National Debt. In 1876 the growth of these 
 yarious charges, and the increasing depression of trade and 
 commerce (felt in the cessation of that so-called elasticity of 
 revenue which means, practically, the ability of the working 
 classes to consume articles liable to duty — that is to say, speaking 
 generally, beer, wines, spirits, and tobacco), compelled the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, although his calculations had been 
 fully realised, and the surplus of the year, in spite of large Supple- 
 mental Estimates, exceeded his original Budget calculation, to have 
 recourse to additional taxation. The Estimates for the three 
 great Services for the coming year (although only slightly in 
 excess of the annual rate of augmentation under Mr. 
 Gladstone's regime) showed so great an increase, that 
 the comparison between the sum total of expenditure 
 and the sum total of revenue Estimates showed a deficiency 
 of three-quarters of a million. What was to be done? The 
 expenditure was necessary. There could be no doubt about 
 that. So the Chancellor had recourse to the ancient and, 
 indeed, the only resource left to a Minister. He added 
 to the Income Tax the penny he had taken off in 1874, but 
 he increased at the same time the exemptions, and diminished the 
 pressure upon the class which feels it most severely. The absolute 
 exemption from the tax which Mr. Gladstone, with that utter want 
 of practical acquaintance with the condition of the people which 
 especially characterises him, had reduced to £100, was raised 
 again to £150, and in place of the deduction of £80 before 
 allowed on all incomes under £300, an allowance of £120 was 
 made upon all incomes under £400. Mr. Gladstone, of course, 
 vehemently opposed this proposition, and he was faithfully 
 supported by his late colleagues. The House of Commons, how- 
 ever, thankfully accepted the measure, which, although it may not 
 perhaps be easily justified theoretically, practically relieves the 
 tax of its most oppressive features. 
 
 In his Budget for 1877, the Chancellor of the Exchequer — who 
 found his Estimates for the past year, which had been attacked as 
 extravagant and misleading in the House of Commons, with a
 
 39 
 
 good deal of sound and fury, by the chiefs of the Opposition, 
 verified in the most satisfactory manner — kept strictly to the 
 arrangements of the previous year ; imposing no new tax, and 
 repealing only one — the Stamp Duty on Benefices, which pressed 
 with extreme severity upon clergymen presented to small livings, 
 whilst producing a revenue of only £6,000 a year. 
 
 Sir Stafford Northcote had reckoned in his Budget speech upon 
 a surplus of a little more than £350,000 at the close of the year 
 1877-78. The expenditure, however, proved to be about 
 £110,000 more than the Budget Estimate, although three- 
 quarters of a million less than had been granted by Supple- 
 mental Estimates ; so that the surplus, assuming the Estimate 
 of revenue to have been exactly correct, would have been some- 
 thing more than £242,000. The revenue amounted, however, to 
 some £617,000 above the Estimate, thus justifying the accuracy 
 of the Chancellor's calculations ; and there would, therefore, have 
 been a surplus of £860,000 upon the year, but for the Vote of 
 Credit for £6,000,000 granted by the House of Commons in 
 February, 1878. At the close of the financial year, 4hree millions 
 and a-half had been expended in virtue of this credit, and there 
 was consequently, upon the assumption that this extraordinary 
 expenditure should be brought into the ordinary accounts of the 
 year, a deficiency of £2,640,000. Sir Stafford Northcote's Estimate 
 of Expenditure for the year 1878-1879, exclusive of a further sum 
 of from a million to a million and a-half for extraordinary expen- 
 diture of the same kind as that made under the authority of the 
 Vote of Credit, was £81,019,000. Taking the revenue, upon the 
 assumption of no alteration in taxes or duties, at £79,460,000, 
 herewas adeficitof nearly £1,560,000 to provide for. By increasing 
 the tax on dogs from 5s. to 7s. 6d., estimated to yield £100,000 ; 
 increasing the duty on tobacco Tourpence per pound, estimated to 
 produce £750,000 ; and adding twopence to the Income Tax, the 
 proceeds of which, for the current year, he took at £2,950,000 — the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, who sacrificed £30,000 by an 
 exemption reducing the produce of the house- duty by that sum 
 raised the revenue of the year to £83,230,000, leaving a 
 surplus of £2,210,000. With this surplus and the extra
 
 40 
 
 proceeds of the additional Income Tax for the cuiTcnt 
 jear, but only to be received in 1879-80, the legacy of 
 £2,640,000 from 1877-78, and the estimated million or more 
 of Supplemental Votes, would, with ordinary good fortune, have 
 been provided for without adding a halfpenny to the public debt. 
 
 Unfortunately, the Supplemental Votes, which included three- 
 quarters of a million, the cost of bringing the Indian troops to 
 Malta and sending them back, amounted to £2,618,000, whilst a 
 further sum of £400,000, on account of the war at the Cape, 
 seemed, even at the close of the Session of 1878, likely to come 
 upon the expenditure of the year 1^78-79. The Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer's surplus was, therefore, dissipated long before the time 
 came for realising it, and the outbreak of the Zulu War — the news 
 of which came so unexpectedly and disagreeably upon the Govern- 
 ment, and necessitated a Vote of Credit for £1,500,000 in February 
 — compelled the Chancellor of the Exchequer to preface his Budget 
 statement for the year 1879-80 with the acknowledgment of a 
 deficit on the financial year just closed of £2,292,000. The 
 revenue had nearly reached his estimate, having amounted to 
 £83,116,000, or £114,000 less than his calculation — a result 
 principally due to the fact that the additional duty on tobacco 
 yielded only £500,000 instead of the £750,000 it was expected to 
 bring in. The expenditure, on the other hand, amoimted to 
 £85,407,000, or £4,388,000 more than Sir Stafford Northcote had 
 anticipated at the commencement of the year. Coming to the 
 current year, 1879-80, the Chancellor of the Exchequer estimated 
 the revenue at £83,055,000, or about £60,000 less than the 
 receipts of the last year; whilst he calculated the expenditure at 
 £81,153,000, exclusive of such further charges for the Zulu War 
 as might come upon the Exchequer in the course of the year. 
 There was thus, according to his calculation, an apparent surplus 
 of one million nine hundred thousand pounds, out of which he 
 hoped that all further charges for the Zulu War would 
 be met. Speaking on the 31st of July, 1879, a fortnight 
 before the close of the Session, and after the news 
 of the Battle of Ulundi had arrived, and the speedy 
 termination of the war could safely be reckoned upon, Sir
 
 41 
 
 Stafford Northcote estimated the cost of the war, so far as it 
 TTould be a charge on the present financial year, at three millions, 
 or one million one hundred thousand pounds more than the surplus 
 which, he had assumed, would meet that outlay. As Supple- 
 mentary Estimates, amounting practically — they appeared larger, 
 but were reduced by cross entiies — to £G4,000, had been 
 voted in the course of the Session, the deficit upon the current 
 year, assuming expenditure and revenue to exactly conform to this 
 latest edition of the Estimates, will be £1,163,000, which sum Sir 
 Stafford Northcote hopes that he will recover from the Cape Colonies. 
 We trust that this hope may be justified ; but it can hardly be 
 expected that any portion of the sum the Government claims from 
 the colonies will be received in time to allow of its appearance in 
 the accounts of the current year, and unless, therefore, savings in 
 other branches of expenditure larger than it would be safe to 
 reckon upon have been effected, wo must look forward to a 
 deficit, which, in view of the diminution in yield of two of the 
 main sources of revenue (Customs and Excise), mOij amount to a 
 million and a-half. Assuming this to be the result, the accumu- 
 lated deficit of these three years will amount to £6,430,000. 
 That is to say, that for the assertion of the interests of England 
 in the East, the preservation of the peace of Europe, and 
 the successful conduct of a war in South Africa, for which the 
 Government is not responsible, but which events have shown was 
 absolutely necessary for the protection of the colonies, the country 
 will have added to one form of its debt about six millions sterling, 
 whilst it has reduced it in other forms, and almost entirely through 
 the measures taken by the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 nearly seventeen millions and a-half. The net apparent decrease 
 of the debt is comparatively small. The real decrease consists 
 in the fact that for more than sixteen millions of what now figures 
 as national debt, the Government has absolute security, and 
 receives a larger interest than it pays. The outcry raised against 
 the Government in this matter of the debt has as much, and no 
 more, foundation than would have the charge of extravagance 
 against a landowner because he had added five thousand pounds 
 to his debt to his bankers, at the same time that he paid off a
 
 42 
 
 mortgage of seventeen or eighteen thousand pounds. Indeed, 
 this illustration does not thoroughly represent the case. More 
 than a million and a-half of the Vote of Credit for six millions, 
 the whole of which sum is included in the account of expenditure 
 which we have given, was devoted to the purchase of ironclad 
 vessels built by private firms, which have added greatly to the 
 strength of the Navy ; and further, every year from 1875 to the 
 present, there has been an expenditure of considerably more than 
 a million over the highest sum devoted to the purpose by 
 Mr. Gladstone's Government for the construction and repair of 
 ships. The increase of the unfunded debt, such as it is, might 
 fairly be compared to a loan incurred by a landed proprietor in 
 order to effect most valuable improvements upon his estate. 
 
 A desperate effort has been made by Mr. Gladstone, who 
 remains the real leader of the Opposition, and his lieutenants, 
 Messrs. Lowe, Childers, and Dodson, to establish a charge of 
 extravagant expenditure against the present Government, and to 
 represent it as adding to the burthens of the people, whereas Mr. 
 Gladstone and Mr. Lowe were continually reducing them. There 
 is not the slightest justification for the charge. There is no doubt, 
 of course, that the expenditure is greater now than it was in the 
 year 1873-74, but this no more proves that the expenditure is 
 unnecessary, extravagant, or more burdensome to the people than 
 the addition of the cost of collecting the revenue, which used to be 
 deducted from the gross receipts, to the estimates of expenditure, 
 proves that the expenditure has increased. The Tories have added, 
 Mr. Gladstone says, eight and a quarter millions to the annual ex- 
 penditure. These figures are grossly incorrect ; but if we accept 
 them, to what would the charge amount ? The questioii for the 
 country is not whether more money is spent now upon the Army and 
 Navy, in the reduction of the Debt, upon education, and in relief of 
 local taxation, than during Mr. Gladstone's administration ; but 
 whether the additional expenditure is necessary, and has been judi- 
 ciously made ? That question is answered in the most satisfactory 
 manner by an analysis of the figures upon which the opponents of the 
 Government profess to rest their case. Mr. Gladstone, whose usual 
 tactics are to obscure all questions in a foam of high-sounding words.
 
 43 
 
 ventured during his recent campaign in Midlothian upon specific 
 charges against the finaiicial policy of the Government, with a 
 result which will probably induce him to return to his old system of 
 vague and sweeping indictments. He compared the expenditure of 
 the last year of his own Government, 1873-4, with the expenditure 
 of 1878-9, and crediting himself with what he called the extra- 
 ordinary expenditure of the year, such as the payment of the 
 Alabama Award, and a payment on account of the Ashantee War, 
 but giving the present Government no credit for its extraordinary 
 expenditure for the Zulu War (which it as little desired as Mr. 
 Gladstone did the Ashantee War, for which, however, he was 
 distinctly responsible), or the expenditure necessitated by the events 
 in Eastern Europe, he denounced the Government for having 
 wantonly added more than eight millions to the national expendi- 
 ture. Mr. Gladstone's attack, which was full of extraordinary 
 blunders and mis-statements, such as the assertion that the Income 
 Tax had been raised to sixpence, was promptly met by Sir 
 Stafford Northcote, who explained very clearly at Leeds how the 
 increase of expenditure, which was not eight million^ and a quarter, 
 but seven millions and a-half, had been caused. Two million 
 three hundred thousand pounds are ascribed to an increase of the 
 charges for the Army and Navy; three millions and a-half represent 
 the increased charge upon the Civil Service Estimates, on account of 
 Mr. Forster's Education Act, and the relief of local taxation at the 
 expense of the National Exchequer; whilst one million nine hundred 
 and thirty-seven thousand pounds are attributable to an increase 
 of charge for the management and redemption of the Debt. The 
 increase in the Army and Navy charges needs no elaborate justifi- 
 cation. It would have been in large part necessary, even if the 
 state of affairs in Europe during the last three years had not 
 compelled the Government to put both forces in a condition for 
 immediate action. Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Lowe, in order to 
 manufacture their bogus surpluses, had reduced the Navy to such 
 a wretched condition, that in the last year of their administration 
 they were compelled to largely increase the Estimates by an aug- 
 mentation of the Vote for the construction and repair of ships. 
 Still, so far had the mischief gone that Mr. Ward Hunt found, as
 
 44 
 
 he declared in the House of Commons, only a " phantom fleet," and 
 was obliged to take immediate measures to increase the number of 
 ships, and put those already available into proper condition. 
 
 The increase in the Army charges has been quite as imperative. 
 Lord Cardwell left the Army in a most disorganised and dis- 
 satisfied condition. Officers and men were alike discontented. 
 Many of our regiments were mere skeletons ; our best non-com- 
 missioned officers and private soldiers were leaving the Service as 
 fast as they could, and such recruits as could be obtained were mere 
 boys. Mr. Hardy set himself at once to work to improve the con- 
 dition of the Service. He accepted frankly and loyally the changes 
 so wantonly introduced by Lord Cardwell. To have returned to 
 the state of things which existed before would have been to 
 make confusion worse confounded. He gradually, but surely, 
 redressed the grievances of all ranks, and increased the inluc3 
 ments to enter the Army. The Regimental Exchanges Act, 
 founded upon the report of a Royal Commission appointed by 
 Lord Cardwell, which said that the prohibition of paying and 
 receiving money for exchanges between officers on full pay was a 
 serious hardship to some and a serious loss to others, removed a 
 grievance which caused great discontent ; whilst the Army Pro- 
 motion and Retirement Act secured at a considerable cost to the 
 country that flow of promotion so necessary to the efficiency and 
 satisfaction of the Service which the Purchase System supplied, 
 and which Lord Cardwell, in abolishing purchase, promised 
 should be maintained. Mr. Hardy also did much to make the 
 Army Reserve a reality. But the most important of his 
 measures is undoubtedly the increase of pay to the private soldiers 
 and to the non-commissioned officers, which he carried through in 
 1876. He gave the men, in addition to their present pay, a deferred 
 pay of 2d. per day, so that at the end of their six years' service 
 there is a sum of £18 to their credit. A stronger inducement to 
 good conduct and a better check upon desertion can hardly be 
 imagined than this measure. Further, Mr. Hardy added a penny 
 to the pay of the Guards, has given lance-corporals and lance- 
 sergeants, who hitherto had performed onerous duties for 
 nothing, the pay of their ranks, and has increased generally
 
 45 
 
 the pay of that most important class, the non-commissloued 
 officers. 
 
 In the Civil Expenditm-e a million and a-half of the increase 
 is due to the operation of the Education Act. For this piece 
 of extravagance — if extravagance it be — Mr. Gladstone himself, 
 and his colleagues in the late Government, are in the first place 
 responsible. The other two millions represent charges previously 
 paid out of the rates, but transferred by the action of the present 
 Government, and almost without opposition from Mr. Gladstone 
 and his friends, to the National Exchequer ; they are therefore not 
 an addition to, but a change in the incidence of, the national 
 burthens. Indeed, this amount of two millions now paid out of 
 the Treasury falls far short of the whole diminution of local 
 taxation, and the full saving to the ratepayers. The transfer to 
 the Government of the management of prisons throughout the- 
 United Kingdom, enabled a large reduction to be made in the cost 
 of maintenance, and we should be speaking quite within bounds if 
 we were to estimate the actual relief to the taxpayers in the shape 
 of a reduction of the demand upon them for rates and local 
 charges, at two and a-half millions. 
 
 The increase of charge for the National Debt, £1,937,000,. 
 seems at first sight to give some justification for Mr. Gladstone's 
 accusations ; but when the figures are examined they will be found to 
 redound very much to the credit of the Government. The only 
 portion of this increase for which the Government is responsible,, 
 beyond the small sum of £129,000, the interest upon tlie 
 Exchequer Bonds issued on account of the two Votes of Credit, is 
 an amount of between six and seven hundred thousand pounds,. 
 which Parliament in 1875, on the proposition of Sir Stafford. 
 Northcote, voted, by raising the charge for the permanent debt to- 
 il fixed sum in excess of that required, for the gradual reduction of 
 the Debt. The balance of the increased charge is merely a matter of 
 account. The sum it represents is the interest the Government 
 pays for the moneys it has borrowed, under the provisions of Acts, 
 like the Education Act, to lend to local bodies, or to invest undci: 
 the direction of Parliament, as in the case of the Suez Canal, 
 and for which an entry, approximately equivalent, appears on the
 
 46 
 
 revenue side of the national balance-sheet. So far from having any 
 need to shun inquiry into the comparative amounts of the Debt, and 
 the comparative annual charges for it at the time they entered into 
 office, and at the present day, Lord Beaconsfieid and his colleagues 
 may point to the diminution they have effected in the Debt as one 
 of the many proofs of the soundness of their financial policy. To 
 have reduced the national indebtedness in all its forms, including 
 not only the so-called permanent debt — a comparison confined 
 to which would be much more favourable to them — but all kinds 
 of unfunded debt and other obligations and liabilities, by the sum of 
 ten millions two hundred and forty-two thousand pounds, in the 
 course of these three troubled years, whilst putting the Army and 
 Navy into a thoroughly effective condition, incurring an extra- 
 ordinary expenditure of something like eight millions to maintain 
 English interests in the East, adding a million and a-balf yearly to 
 the Education Vote, and transferring two millions of local taxation 
 every year to the charge of the Treasury, and to have done it all in a 
 time of commercial and agricultural depression, in a time of falling 
 Kevenue receipts, is an achievement of which any Ministry might 
 be proud, and one which no Liberal Ministry ever accomplished. 
 But this is just what has been done by the present Government, as 
 has been shown by Mr. Hubbard in the most valuable letters he 
 has published in the Times — not to defend Conservative Finance, 
 but to point out what is the exact amount of the national revenue and 
 expenditure after removing the mere cross and book-keepers' entries, 
 and what is the amount of the national indebtedness, after taking 
 due credit for the claims which the country has against those local 
 bodies to lend to which it has increased the National Debt. The 
 financial position of the country was never sounder than it is at 
 the present time. Efficiency has been secured without any neglect 
 of economy, and the public burdens are now considerably less than 
 they were when Mr. Gladstone left office. If the revival of trade, 
 which seems to have commenced, should continue, the revenue will 
 doubtless advance by "leaps and bounds," as it did in the prosper- 
 ous times in which it was the fortune of the Liberals to be in 
 power, and the Government of the day will be able to make large 
 remissions of taxation. It is enough for the present to i-emember
 
 47 
 
 tliat, whilst tlie Government lias met great and extraordinary 
 charges, and reduced the national indebtedness more than seven- 
 teen millions, in spite of the revenue having fallen in consequence 
 of commercial and agricultural distress, it, during the first part of 
 its tenure of office, removed taxes amounting to just four millions 
 and three-quarters per annum, and that even now, when it has, 
 been compelled to impose additional taxation, the comparison 
 between the amount of taxes removed and taxes put on shows 
 that the additional burden is not even, taking the official 
 estimates, a million, whilst in effect it has been much less. 
 The million has not been put upon the poor and struggling, 
 but upon the well-to-do and rich, 
 
 FOREIGN AND COLONIAL POLICY.— The pur- 
 chase of the late Khedive of Egypt's shares in the Suez 
 Canal was the first practical demonstration of the intention 
 of the Conservative Government to take a wider and nobler 
 view of English interests and English duties than Mr. Glad- 
 stone and his colleagues had ventured upon. When it was 
 announced that the English Government had purchased these 
 shares, which represent something more than two-fifths of 
 the original capital of the Canal Company, the approbation of the 
 public was singularly unanimous. The Liberal newspapers out- 
 stripped the Conservative iu their enthusiasm over this " bold, wise, 
 and statesmanlike " proceeding, which was described as securing 
 •our road to India, and protecting any interests of England which 
 might be threatened by the reviving Eastern Question. The 
 shares which the Khedive had to sell, and which, if they had not 
 "been bought by the English Government, would have fallen into 
 the hands of a French Syndicate, were 176,602 in number. They 
 bore no interest, the Khedive having sacrificed to the Company the 
 <;oupons for twenty-five years, but by the arrangement made with 
 him he undertook to pay £200,000, or five per cent., upon the 
 purchase-money during the nineteen years for which the shares 
 would still, by his contract with the Company, bear no interest. 
 By the plan which the Government adopted for raising the purchase 
 money, the country will, at the end of thirty-seven years, have the
 
 48 
 
 shares as its property without having paid a farthing for thera^ 
 upon the well-justified assumption that the Khedive pays the 
 interest for the nineteen years, and that the Canal pays a dividend 
 of five per cent, for the following eighteen years. What England 
 really gets for this outlay, if outlay it can be called, is a two -fifths 
 part of a great undertaking, the cost and value of which are by no 
 means shown by the original share or loan capital. The Khedive 
 gave the Company land which will prove of great value, and ho 
 gave it, too, the forced labour of his unhappy subjects. The mere 
 pecuniary advantage of the purchase is, however, its smallest title 
 to public approval. By becoming the owner of so large 
 a number of shares, the English Government acquires a power 
 over the management of the Canal which will prevent any 
 administration of it injurious to English interests. It is quite 
 true that the English Government is not represented upon the 
 Board of Management of the Company in proportion to its 
 holding, but its power is not the less felt, and as its only object 
 can bo to secure the maintenance of the Canal in good condition, 
 and keep it open for the transit of ships of all nations on fair 
 terms, there is not any room for serious conflict of opinion between 
 its nominees and the other directors. In the last resort, and if 
 war or other difficulties should come, England is quite strong 
 enough to take charge of, and administer for the benefit of those 
 whom it may concern, a property in which she is the largest holder. 
 The Opposition leaders put themselves, in the discussion of this 
 question, in direct antagonism to the feeling of the country. 
 They denounced the purchase of the shares in itself, first as a 
 challenge to other countries, and then as a wasteful expenditure. 
 The policy of the Government Avas now too bold and reckless, and 
 now too weak and timid. One day the Government was arraigned 
 for taking Egypt under its protection, and the next it was 
 denounced for making a bargain which gave it no real control 
 over the Canal. Then the bargain itself was criticised in a 
 huckstering spirit ; the shares, the Opposition leaders said, might 
 have been bought cheaper, and the commission paid to Messrs. 
 Rothschild was too great. Nothing in the way of objection was 
 too extravagant or too contemptible for Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Lowe,
 
 49 
 
 and the Marquis of Hartington ; but tlie only result of then 
 opposition to the purchase was to discredit them with the country, 
 nnd to induce the general belief that if they had continued in 
 power England would have neglected a great opportunity. 
 
 The annexation of the Fiji Islands, a measure long demanded 
 as well in Imperial as colonial interests, must be jDlaced to the 
 credit of the Government. Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues 
 showed themselves desirous to diminish rather than increase 
 our colonial possessions. For them the Empire was too great a 
 burden. The colonies did not exactly pay. Indeed, their policy, 
 except that they would have wished the colonies to quit the 
 Imperial connection of their own motion, was very much that of 
 the statesmen of the last century, who did not believe in colonies 
 which did not pay every farthing they cost, and so lost England 
 what were then her best and richest possessions. 
 
 The scheme for a confederation of South Africa, to include not 
 only the British colonies, but the Dutch Independent Republics, 
 met at first with a good deal of opposition. The leading politicians 
 of the Cape Colony did not like it ; it would have mei^ed them in 
 a crowd of politicians, the leadership of wliom they could only 
 have assumed by the exhibition of special Parliamentary or admin- 
 istrative abilities ; and the Dutch Republics were too much 
 enamoured of their own way of Avarfare and their own indepen- 
 dence. Cut later events have convinced even the strongest 
 opponents of the scheme of its wisdom ; and the annexation of the 
 Transvaal Republic, which the anarchy prevailing there, and the 
 hopeless contest into which the Boers had wantonly entered with 
 the neighbouring native tribes, rendered necessary, has prepared 
 the way for the welding together of the whole of that part of 
 South Africa which is inhabited by Europeans in one great 
 federation. 
 
 How necessary the annexation of the Transvaal was, and how 
 great was the peril in which the Boers had put not only themselves, 
 but the English colonists round about them, by their reckless 
 policy, the Zulu War has sufticiently shown. The military organ- 
 isation of King Cetewayo, whom the Boers foolishly provoked, and 
 who, beginning to feel his power, had talked of washing the spear:} 
 
 D
 
 50 
 
 of his soldiers in llie white men's blood, had long been a danger to 
 the colony of Natal. Sir Bartle Frere deemed the danger imme- 
 diate, and although, when he sent, towards the end of the year 1878, 
 a kind of ultimatum to Cetewayo, in which he demanded satisfac- 
 tion for certain outrages committed on the frontier, and the dis- 
 bandment of the King's army, and upon the rejection of his 
 demands commenced war, he had no authority from the Goverji- 
 mcnt to take such action, there can be no doubt that he acted 
 with a full knowledge of impending danger, and the subsequent 
 difficulties experienced by the troops under Lord Chelmsford only 
 confirm the view which he took of the situation. Sir Bartle 
 Frere's error was, not that he over-estimated the danger, but that 
 lie underrated it. He had no sufficient idea of the discipline and 
 courage of the Zulu army. There was at the time a larger force 
 of English troops in South Africa than any Governor-General was 
 likely, for a long time to come, to have at his disposal, and he no 
 doubt calculated that with this force he could easily compel 
 Cetewayo to accept his terms. Sir Bartle Frere's miscalculation 
 or indiscretion has been of the greatest service to the whole of our 
 South African colonies, and consequently to the mother country. 
 The danger, the extent of which can hardly be over-estimated, has 
 been dispelled, and at a cost far less than would have been required 
 if the struggle had been put off. The power of England has been 
 exhibited in the most unmistakable manner. The Zulu army, 
 after a disaster to our troops deeply to be regretted on account of 
 the loss of brave men it involved, and ever memorable for the 
 mdecent and unpatriotic manner in which it was ^^ exploited '' by the 
 Opposition, was thoroughly defeated and scattered on all sides. 
 King Cetewayo is a prisoner. His country has been divided between 
 chieftains whose policy is marked out for them by the English 
 Government, and who are to be controlled by English Residents. 
 As the chief of another tribe and race, Secocoeni, whom the Boers 
 in their arrogance had also provoked, has been captured, and his 
 army destroyed or dispersed, there remains no other clement of 
 disturbance in South Africa than the discontent of the 
 Transvaal Boers. That discontent arises entirely from the 
 protection which British rule gives the natives, whom the
 
 51 
 
 Boers — whose cause Radical and Home Rule Menibci\ 
 of Parliament are fond of advocating— have been accustomed to 
 treat practically as slaves. But this discontent, which has been 
 very much magnified by some newspapers, is not at all dangerous. 
 Tiie Boers will have to content themselves, and tlic great majority 
 of them are already content, with the freedom British rule gives 
 them, and accept its obligations. We cannot restore to them a 
 so-called mdependence which was a scandal upon civilisation. 
 
 THE EilLSTERN QUESTION.— It is impossible to 
 treat adequately of the policy of the Government on the Eastern 
 Question within the limits of this pamphlet. The foreign policy 
 of the Government has been clear, straightforward, and consistent 
 throughout ; and although we cannot pretend, as we have said, to 
 give here anything like a full exposition of tliat policy, or a 
 sufficient record of the signal successes achieved by it, we may 
 describe in broad outline its principal incidents and its decisive 
 triumph. 
 
 When the disturbances in Bosnia and the Herzegovina first 
 broke out in the Summer of 1875, nothing v.-as wantfng for their 
 suppression — they arose nominally out of the exactions of the 
 tithe-farmers — but a little energy on the part of the Porte and 
 scrupulous fair dealing on the part of Austria. But the Porte 
 was weak, and Austria, too, was v/eak ; and Lord Derby, who 
 had frankly said to the Turkish Government, ''Put down this 
 insurrection, and at the same time redress all the grievances which 
 induced it," found himself practically compelled to give his sup- 
 port to that Andrassy Note which recommended to the Porte 
 reforms which were made impossible by the fact that they ema- 
 nated from an agreement of the three Northern Powers, of which 
 Russia was really the author. It was clear for the Porte, then, 
 that the insurrection was no mere protest against bad government. 
 It was the commencement of a fresh campaign against Turkish 
 rule ip ^'Urope. The Porte accepted the Andrassy Note, but the 
 insurgents repudiated it. Then came the Berlin Memorandum, 
 marking most clearly the character of the insurrection, and really 
 aiming, as Lord Derby said, at the occupation of Turkish territory
 
 52 
 
 by Russia and Austria. Any participation in this scheme was 
 naturally rejected by the English Government j and then came 
 the events T^hich are still fresh in the recollection of every reader, 
 the participation of Servia and Montenegro in the war, the 
 Turkish victories, the Russian ultimatum, the Conference, and 
 the War. 
 
 The policy of the English Government has been throughout 
 consistent. It warned the Porte so far back as May, 1876, before 
 tlie fleet was sent to Besika Bay, that it could not protect it 
 {igainst its own misconduct. It made it quite clear that England 
 would never fight for Turkey, even if the maintenance of English 
 and European interests made it necessary for her to act in opposi- 
 tion to Russia. This warning was often repeated by Lord Derby, 
 and, vrhen the Conference of Constantinople met, the Sultan and 
 ].is iMinisters Avere given, not more clearly, but more directly, to 
 understand that England would regard with the greatest dissatis- 
 faction the refusal of the reforms proposed, and must leave them to 
 meet any attack wliich that refusal might precipitate. 3 The Porte, 
 however, refused to accept the scheme of the Conference, which, it 
 must be allowed, was hardly put in the form calculated to make 
 its acceptance probable, whilst declaring its determination to 
 adopt certain reforms which would undoubtedly have vastly im- 
 proved tlie condition of the peojile, whether Mohammedan or 
 Christian. The English Government would have left the Porte 
 to carry out these schemes, but that did not suit the purpose of 
 the Russian Government, whicli, secure of the neutrality of 
 Germany, was resolved upon war. General Ignatielf made a 
 round of the capitals of Europe to propose the adoption of a 
 protocol, which, professedly intended " to terminate the incident '* 
 of the Conference, was to take note of the Turkish promises of 
 reform, and leave it to the Powers to watcli events and reserve 
 their action in the matter. The English Government had no ob- 
 jection to sign such a protocol if Russia would formally engage to 
 disarm, but this Russia would not do, and finally a protocol was 
 signed at London on the 31st March, 1877, in the main correspond- 
 ing to the Russian draft, but accompanied by a declaration on the 
 part of Count Schouvaloflf, which amounted simply to this, that the
 
 53 
 
 Sultan miglit send an Ambassador to St. Petersburg to treat of a 
 mutual disarmament. As the Frencli Ambassador pointed out, 
 this declaration was not calculated to spare the susceptibilities of 
 the Porte, which would not accept the protocol, and the Russian 
 Government had its pretence for the declaration of war which 
 soon followed. The English Government severely condemned this 
 conduct of the Russian Gorernment, which Lord Derby showed 
 had no warrant for the allegations it put forward in defence of its 
 conduct, and had committed a gross breach of its Treaty obliga- 
 tions. Lord Derby and his colleagues, however, determined to 
 remain neutral so long as certain special English interests, set out 
 in a despatch dated the 6th of May, were not affected. 
 
 Meantime the Opposition — or, to speak more correctly, Mr. 
 Gladstone and his immediate friends — had been doing their utmost 
 to help the designs of Russia — in the first instance, to justify her 
 declaration of war ; and in the second place, to drag England 
 >)ehind what it was assumed would be the Czar's triumphal 
 chariot. The war went on, with the resvdt that every day the 
 English people, at first disposed to look indifferently upon the 
 contest and take no part in it, recognised more and more the 
 injustice of the Russian pretensions, and the danger threatening 
 English interests in the triumph of the Russian armies, until at 
 last the Turks were defeated everywhere, the Russians advanced 
 within sight of Constantinople, and the Sultan sued for peace. 
 The imminence of this catastrophe, the necessity of preparing to 
 protect English interests, which, from the complete everthrovv of 
 the Turks, were likely to be gravely imperilled in any Treaty im- 
 posed by Russia, induced the Government to summon Parliament 
 for an earlier date, than usual. The two Houses met on the 17tk 
 January, 1878, and on the 24th the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 announced that on the following Monday he would m©ve a Supi)le- 
 mentarj' Vote for Naval and Military Services. The same day 
 Lord Cantarvon — who had offered his resignation once before, 
 i\^hen it was proposed that the British Fleet should enter the 
 Dardanelles, and had before that received a severe rebuke from 
 the Premier for a most indiscreet and unfair statement of his own 
 opinions, delivered, as if commissioned by the Goveimment, to a
 
 54 
 
 dex3utation which waited upon him upon a subject of an 
 altogether different kind — resigned, and his resignation was 
 accepted. 
 
 The Vote of Credit for £6,000,000, proposed by the Chancellor 
 of ihe Exchequer, was granted, after debates which set in a re- 
 markable light the factious conduct of the Opposition. Mr. 
 Forster raised a discussion of six nights by an amendment affirm- 
 ing that there was no occasion for the Yote, and practically^ 
 expressing approval of the Kussian terms of peace ; and although 
 he withdrew the amendment at the instance of Lord Hartington, 
 his followers took a division on it, and raised other debates, in 
 which Mr. Gladstone made passionate speeches in opposition to 
 the Governm.ent and the Yote. Meantime the English Fleet had 
 entered the Dardanelles, the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano 
 had been published, and Austria bad proposed a Congress, to 
 which the English Government had agreed, upon the condition 
 that the whole of the Treaty of San Stefano should be submitted, 
 to its consideration. To this demand Eussia returned a practical 
 refusal, and the Government of Lord Beaconsfield called out the 
 Keserve Forces. This step cost the Ministry the resignation of 
 Lord Derby, whose difference with his colleagues appears to have 
 been this, that whilst he was quite at one with them as to the 
 object to be attained — he insisted very strongly upon the submis- 
 sion of the whole of the Treaty of San Stefano to the Congress — 
 he was not prepared to agree to the only means by which that 
 object could be attained. A remarkable despatch, in v/hich the 
 Marquis of Salisbury, who succeeded the Earl of Derby as Foreign 
 Secretary, stated the position and summed up the demands of 
 England, produced a great effect upon all the Continental Govern- 
 ments, and contributed largely to obtain for the Government that 
 overwhelming popular support which never failed it in the subse- 
 quent stages of t.he question. The two Houses of Parliament 
 thanked Her Majesty for calling out the Reserves, after debates in 
 which the Opposition only demonstrated their own weakness, and 
 the announcement that Indian troops had been called to Malta,. 
 although much grumbled at in both Houses, was decisively? 
 approved by Parliament, and heartily applauded by the public.
 
 The blow struck homo at St. Petersburg. Count ►ScliouYaloff, 
 who bad been summoned tbere by the Emperor, returned to London 
 towards the end of May with most conciliatory instructions. The 
 demands of the British Government were accepted. The whole Treaty 
 of San Stefano was to be submitted to the Congress, to the meeting 
 of which there was now no obstacle. The Earl of Beaconsfield and 
 the Marquis of Salisbury represented this country at Berlin, and 
 achieved the most signal triumph of which English policy can 
 boast during the last sixty years. The Government may proudly 
 claim for itself this credit, that without the loss of a single man 
 and at an expenditure of less than a twentieth part of the sum 
 engulfed in the Crimean AVar, it forced Russia to content herself, 
 although her armies were already at the gates of Constantinople, 
 with some comparatively small acquisitions of territory in Asia 
 Minor, and to accept a settlement of the Eastern Question, one 
 chief result of which must be to destroy every hope of the exten- 
 sion of her empire to the Bosphorus and the ^Egean, and render 
 vain all the dreams her rulers have so long indulged in of reigning 
 at Constantinople and dominating the Mediterranean. We have 
 described in detail elsewhere* tlie character of* the changes 
 made by the Treaty of Berlin in the settlement Piussia 
 attempted to impose at San Stefano. We need only say now, 
 that the Treaty and the Convention of Constantinople, by which 
 we have acquired possession of Cyprus and tnkcn guarantees for 
 the better government of Asia Minor, have thoroughly approved 
 themselves. The difficulties which have been met with in the execu- 
 tion of some of the stipulations of the Treaty were no greater than 
 had been anticipated, and the prophecies of failure and disaster, in 
 which Sir William Harcourt and other leaders of the Opposition 
 indulged, have been signally falsified.' 
 
 All those stipulations of the Treaty of Berlin which materially 
 affected the Treaty of San Stefano, and were .intend ed to provide 
 security against any further attempt of Russia to realise her 
 ambitious aspirations, have been completely carried out ; 
 the objects with which the English Government demanded 
 the revision of the terms imposed upon Turkey by Russia in a 
 * ** The Treaty ©f Berlin and the Convention of Constantinople.*'
 
 56 
 
 Congress, and Lords Beaconsfield and Salisbury went to Berlin to 
 assert, have been entirely achieved. Such provisions of the Treaty 
 as have not yet been carried out in their integrity, like the settle- 
 ment of the frontier of Greece and Turkey, and the delimitation 
 of Montenegro, only concern the English Government so far as it 
 is one of the parties to the settlement at Berlin. Whatever their 
 conclusion, no English interest will, even in the remotest manner, 
 be affected. The Government has secured all that it insisted 
 upon at Berlin, all that in English interests particularly, and 
 European interests generally, it proposed to accomplish, when it 
 demanded that the compact between Turkey and Russia should 
 be revised hj a European tribunal, and prepared to enforce its 
 demand. 
 
 THE AFGHAN WAR.— The announcement that the 
 Government of India had addressed something like an ultimatum 
 to the Ameer of Afghanistan, although it came as a surprise upon 
 the public generally, was not unexpected by those who had watched 
 the course of affairs in Central xlsia. As Sir Henry Rawlinson 
 has said : " There have been for some years two distinct elements 
 of mischief ever present and ever threatening danger — the intract- 
 able character of the ruler of Afghanistan and the persistent 
 advance of Russia towards the Indian borderlands." The intract- 
 ability of the Ameer, and his dislike and distrust of England, were 
 the fault of our English Radical Governments. The advance of 
 Russia is a danger which they have recognised, but have never 
 screwed up courage to take precautions against. The policy of 
 " masterly mactivity " pursued by Lord Lawrence, and which prac- 
 tically consisted in the declaration that the Indian Government 
 could give no help, not even that of moral influence, to the settle- 
 ment of the war of succession in Afghanistan, and the offensive 
 announcement to Shere Ali that it would recognise any person 
 who might obtain possession of the throne quite as readily as him- 
 self, naturally irritated the Ameer. The Indian Government of 
 that day insisted that he was bound at all times and in all circum- 
 stances, by the engagement of his father, made in the Treaty of 
 1855, to be the friend of the friends and the enemy of the enemies
 
 57 
 
 of tlie Indian Government, but it declined to recognise any corres- 
 ponding obligation on its own part, and substantially said that its 
 alliance was to be only with the winning side. Lord Mayo 
 removed some of the distrust felt by the Ameer, and whilst refus- 
 ing some rather extravagant demands made by him, led him to 
 believe that he could rely upon the friendship of the English 
 Government. The Ameer was not, indeed, quite satisfied, for the 
 English Government refused him certain guarantees which he 
 asked, but he still desired to be on friendly terms with us. 
 
 The advance of the Russians in Central Asia, which Liberal 
 statesmen and Liberal newspapers are never weary, as if they had 
 received a word of command from St. Petersburg, of proclaiming a 
 mere development of civilisation rather advantageous than in- 
 jurious to our rule in Lidia, began, in 1873, to alarm Shere Ali. 
 The capture of Khiva and the practical subjection of the Khanate 
 — for the independence left a portion of it is but a phantom of 
 diplomacy — led him to estimate very closely the value of the 
 alliance with England concluded by Dost Mohammed, and which 
 still subsisted. He sent a special envoy to Simla to put the matter 
 before the Indian Government. Lord Northbrook seems to have 
 been disposed to proffer the Ameer the assistance of the Govern- 
 ment of India against unprovoked aggression, although it is diffi- 
 cult, after the letters and speeches of Lord Northbrook, to know what 
 he really did intend. It is certain, however, that Mr. Gladstone's 
 Government " pooh-poohed " the whole difficulty. There was no 
 danger, it said, of Russian interference with Afghanistan. Its 
 members could of their own knowledge guarantee the Czar's love 
 of peace, and, above all, they could not commit themselves to any- 
 thing which might have made it necessary to raise the Estimates. 
 However, they instructed Lord Northbrook to say, and his Lord- 
 5>hip seems to have said, that if the Ameer would "refer," in the 
 case of any actual or threatened aggression by Russia, to the 
 British Government, it would endeavour, by every means in its 
 power, to settle the matter and avert hostilities. The Ameer, who 
 knew how General Kaufmann was in the habit of making war, was 
 naturally not assured by such a vague and meaningless declara- 
 tion, and seems from that moment to have come to the
 
 58 
 
 conclusion that liis only safety ay in securing the friend- 
 ship of Eussia. When the Government of Lord Beacons- 
 field assumed power, in the spring of 1874, Lord Northbrook was- 
 still Governor-Greneral of India, and it was in vain that the 
 Marquis of Salisbury, who, with his colleagues, saw the danger of 
 throwing the Ameer into the Russian camp, urged the necessity 
 of taking measures to secure his friendship or prevent him fiom 
 doing mischief. Lord Northbrook did not question the desirability 
 of what the Home Government recommended, but he did not see 
 the immediate necessity for taking any steps in the matter, and he- 
 had no fear of the Russian advance, and altogether — that was 
 always his plea — the season was not a convenient one for doing 
 anything. The English Government meanwhile had, however,, 
 seen more and more distinctly the danger of the position, and Lord 
 Lytton went out to India with instructions to secure the friendship 
 of the Ameer, or, failing that, to prevent Afghanistan being used 
 by Russia to menace or disturb British India. He was authorised 
 to offer the Ameer substantial pecuniary aid, the formal recogni- 
 tion of his dynasty — for which he had before asked in vain — and 
 an explicit pledge of material support in case of unprovoked 
 foreign aggression. But the Ameer had already thrown in his 
 lot with Russia. He had ah-eady received a number of com- 
 munications from General Kaufmann, which the Russian com- 
 mander violated the understanding between his own Government 
 and that of England in making. The overtures of the Viceroy 
 were rejected under one excuse or other. The Ameer refused 
 to receive a British Envoy even temporarily in his territory ; 
 and so matters stood when, in the summer of 1878, «i 
 Russian Mission was ostentatiously welcomed at Cabul. After 
 that it was necessary for the English Government to act imme- 
 diately and vigorously. The Viceroy at once announced to the 
 Ameer his intention to send a Mission to Cabul, headed by an 
 officer of rank. Sir Neville Chamberlain. The departure of <ho 
 Mission was announced in sufficient time to enable the Ameer to 
 make all proper arrangements for its reception ; but when Major 
 Cavagnari, who preceded Sir Neville Chamberlain, arrived at Alj 
 Musjid, a passage was refused the Mission. No more distinct
 
 59 
 
 act of hostility could have been shown by the Ameer. To have 
 tolerated it would have been to throw Afghanistan into the arms 
 of Russia, and to have suffered a loss of prestige in our own 
 Indian dominions, the disastrous effect of which can hardly 
 be exaggerated. However, the Home Government, con- 
 sulted by the Viceroy, gave the Ameer an opportunity of 
 apology and submission. He did not avail himself of it, and 
 English troops at once occupied the passes through which an 
 enemy might have advanced upon India. When they marched 
 towards Cabul in the spring, they met with little resistance ; 
 Shere All had fled to Turkestan long before their approach, 
 leaving all authority in the hands of his son, Yakoob Khan. 
 The death of Shere Ali, which took place very soon after his 
 flight from Cabul, left Yakoob Khan with as complete authority 
 over Afghanistan as any ruler of that turbulent country 
 can hope to enjoy ; and in May he came into the English 
 camp at Gundamak, and there concluded a peace, which recognised 
 his sovereignty over Afghanistan, but left Enghuid in possession 
 of the frontier, which the best military authorities had declared to 
 be necessary and desirable. In accordance with th« Treaty, and 
 at the urgently expressed wish of the Ameer himself. Major 
 Cavagnari, whose services had been recognised by signal honours, 
 went to Cabul as English Resident. His reception was at first 
 perfectly satisfactory ; but on the 3rd September, certain regiments, 
 whether mutinying for want of pay, or paid to commit the outrage, 
 besieged the house in which the English Resident and his suite 
 were quartered, and after a long and desperate fight, in which Sir 
 Louis Cavagnari and his companions bore themselves nobly, mur- 
 dered them. This outrage was soon avenged. The troops which were 
 retiring on India, turned their faces again towards Cabul, and 
 although the numerical strength of the force under General Roberts 
 was small, and the road was most difficult, he entered Cabul on the 
 12th October, little more than a month after the crime had been 
 committed which he went to punish. Yakoob Khan, the extent 
 of whose complicity in the murder of Sir Louis Cavagnari has 
 not yet been determined, had come into the English camp some 
 time before the army reached Cabul, and all resistance seemed to
 
 60 
 
 have been abandoned. A subsequent combination of tribes, wTiicli 
 tlie General does not seem to have been prepared for, compelled 
 Sir Frederick Roberts to abandon Cabul, entrench himself in the 
 8herpur cantonments, and ask for reinforcements. Before, how- 
 ever, the reinforcements reached him, he had inflicted upon the 
 Afghans the most decisive defeat they have ever sustained at our 
 hands. They at once dispersed, and although slight attacks upon 
 our positions — highland raids they may be called — are now 
 and then reported, our authority is firmly established, and the 
 only question which now remains to be determined is by what 
 territorial and other arrangements the purposes for which we 
 originally went to war — namely, the establishment of our exclusive 
 control over the Foreign policy of Afghanistan, and the absolute 
 protection of our Indian frontier — can be most efficaciously and 
 economically insured.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Afghan War 
 
 Afghau War Expenses, Divisions in Lords and Common?, 1878 
 
 Afghanistan, Winter Session re, 1878 . 
 
 Africa (South) Act, 1877 . 
 
 Agricultural Holdings Act, 1875 . 
 
 Appellate Jurisdiction Act, 1876 . 
 
 Army Discipline and Ilegulation Act, 1879 
 
 Army, Improvements in . . . 
 
 Army Promotion and Retirement Act, 1877 
 
 Artisans' Dwellings Act, 1875 
 
 Artisans' Dwellings Act, 1879 
 
 Bankruptcy Law Amendment Bill, 1878 and 1879 
 
 Banks of reserved liability authorised, 1879 
 
 B.ir Education and Discipline Bill, 1878 
 
 Bishopric of St. Albans constituted, 1875 
 
 Bishopric of Traro constituted, 1876 
 
 Bishoprics Act, 1878 
 
 Burials Acts' Consolidation Bill, 1877 . 
 
 Burials— see Public Health (Interments) Acb 
 
 Canal Boats' Regulation Act, 1877 
 
 Children, Employment of, Regulated . 
 
 Church Patronage (Scotland) Act, 1874 
 
 Commons, Enclosure of, Act, 1876 
 
 Companies Act, 1879 . . 
 
 Compensation for unexhausted Improvements 
 
 Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act, 1875 
 
 Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, 1878 
 
 Corrupt Practices Act, 1879 
 
 County Government Bill, 1878-9 . 
 
 Criminal Code Bill, 1878-9 
 
 Crossed Cheques Act, 1876 . 
 
 Deck Loading Prohibited in Winter 
 
 Disease in Cattle, Precautions against . 
 
 Disraeli's, j\Ir., Address to Electors of Bucks in 1874 
 
 Dog Tax raised from 5s. to 7s. 6d., 1878 
 
 Eastern Question 
 
 Andrassy Note .... 
 
 Berlin Memorandum ... 
 
 Conference of Constantinople 
 
 Vote of Credit (see Financial Policy) 
 
 British Fleet in Dardanelles 
 
 San Stefano Treaty 
 
 Reserves Called ^Out ... 
 
 Movement of Indian Troops 
 
 Treaty of Berlin .... 
 
 Convention of Constantinople 
 
 Acquisition of Cyprus . 
 Education Act, 1870, Amendment of, 1876 
 Education (Scotland) Act, 1878 . 
 
 26 
 
 37 
 
 28, 
 28, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 56 
 27 
 27 
 20 
 12 
 16 
 28 
 43 
 21 
 9 
 33 
 30 
 31 
 26 
 17 
 17 
 24 
 22 
 34 
 22 
 6 
 6 
 16 
 31 
 12 
 9 
 25 
 28,33 
 28, 30 
 28,30 
 17 
 17 
 25 
 3 
 39 
 51 
 51 
 51 
 53 
 54 
 54 
 54 
 54 
 54 
 55 
 55 
 55 
 18
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Education, Increased Grants for .... 
 •' Emprots of India," Opposition to the Title, 1876 
 liindowed Schools' Commission, powers transferred, 1874 
 Epping Forest Act, 1878 . . 
 Eactories Act, 1874 .... 
 Factories and Workshops Act, 1878 
 Fiji Islands, Annexation of . 
 Financial Policy and Administration . 
 
 Income Tax .... 
 
 Repeal of Sugar Duties 
 
 Repeal of Horse Duty 
 
 Reduction of House Duty 
 
 Grants to Local Taxation 
 
 Maintenance of Lunatics . , 
 
 Reduction of National Debt 
 
 Vote of Credit (sec Eastern Question) 
 
 Dog Tax 
 
 Tobacco Duty 
 
 Zulu War Charges 
 Fishing Rights niad'j liable to Rating, 1874 
 Flogging Question, Lord Hartington's Conduct on the 
 Friendly Societies Act, 1875 
 ijirain Cargoes, Danger of, provided against 
 Oi-and Jury Law Amendment Bill (Ireland), 1878- 
 Halifax's (Viscount) Resolution on Afghan War defeated, 
 Highways Act, 1S78 . 
 Horse Duty abolished, 1878 . . . 
 House Duty reduced, 1878 . 
 Income Tax reduced, 1874 . 
 
 Income Tax raised, 1876 and 1878, with Exemptions 
 Industrial Schools authorised, lS7u 
 Intermediate P^ducation (Ireland) Act, 1878 
 Irish University Act, 1879 
 Justices' Clerks Act, 1877 . ... 
 
 Land Transfer and Titles Bill, 1874, and Act, 1875 
 Licensing Act, 1874 .... 
 Load-line on Vessels, Establishment of. 
 Local Taxation Grants increased, 1874 
 Lords' House of. Jurisdiction in Appeals restored 
 Lowe's, Mr., Apology for Conduct on Royal Titles Bill 
 Masters and Workmen Act, 1875 
 Merchant Shipping Bill, 1875, Acts, 1876 . 
 Mines made liable to rating, 1874 
 National Debt, Provision for Reducing, 1875 
 National School Teachers' (Ireland) Act, 1879 
 Obstruction, 1879 .... 
 
 Parliament, Early Meeting of, 1878 
 Patent Law Amendment Bill, 1879 
 Peace Preservation Acts (Ireland), 1875 
 Prisons Act, 1877 .... 
 
 Public Health Act, 1875 . . , 
 Public Health (Interments) Act, 1879 
 Public Works' Loans Acts, 1875, and 1879 
 Public Prosecutor, Office of, instituted, 1879 
 Rating Act, 1874 .... 
 
 Regimental Exchanges Act, 1875 . 
 Rivers' Pollution Bill, 1875, Act, 1876 . 
 Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Act, 1878 
 
 35; 
 
 39, 
 
 1878 
 
 PAGB 
 
 17 
 14 
 7 
 26 
 6 
 24 
 49 
 34 
 
 38,39 
 35 
 36 
 36 
 29 
 36 
 
 36, 41 
 
 40,42 
 39 
 39 
 40 
 6 
 20 
 11 
 17 
 
 27, 30 
 27 
 26 
 36 
 39 
 35 
 
 38, 3) 
 
 19 
 
 25 
 
 32 
 
 22 
 
 6, 13 
 
 5 
 
 14 
 
 36 
 
 16 
 
 15 
 
 9 
 
 13, 17 
 6 
 
 36, 41 
 32 
 29 
 27 
 28 
 8 
 19 
 11 
 34 
 
 13, 28 
 
 30 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 11,16 
 26
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Iloyal Titles Act, 1876 1-1 
 
 .School Boards, Dissolution authorised when unnecessary, 1876 . . 19 
 
 School Fees remitted to Poor Persons, 1876 18 
 
 l^haftesbury, Lord : his Opinion on the Social Legislation of the Govern- 
 ment 24 
 
 Shooting Rights made liable to Rating, 1874 6 
 
 Soldiers' Pay, Increase of .44 
 
 Stamp Duties on Benefices Repealed, 1877 39 
 
 Stamp Duty on Civil Service Appointments Repealed, 1875 ... 36 
 
 Suez Canal Shares, Acquisition of 47 
 
 Sugar Duties Repealed, 1874 35 
 
 Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879 28, 30 
 
 Territorial Waters Jurisdiction Act, 1878 26 
 
 Tobacco Duty raised, 1878 39 
 
 Transvaal Annexed 49 
 
 Universities Act, 1877 19 
 
 University Education (Ireland) Act, 1879 -32 
 
 Unseaworthy Ships Act, 1875 ........ 13 
 
 Valuation Bill, 1878 and 1879 26, 28, 30 
 
 Winter Assizes Act, 1876 17 
 
 Women and Children's Employment in Factories Restricted ... 6 
 
 Woodlands, Rating made liable to, 1874 6 
 
 Zulu War ; 49 
 
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