GREAT BRITAIN. 



357 



ereign of Great Britain is her Majesty Alexan- 

 drine, Victoria L, of the United Kindgom of 

 Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, and of -the 

 colonies and dependencies thereof, Empress 

 of India, Defender of the Faith. The Queen 

 was born May 24, 1819, succeeded to the 

 throne June 20, 1837; was crowned June 

 28, 1838, married February 10, 1840, to the 

 late Prince Albert, of Coburg and Gotha, 

 prince-consort, who died December 14, 1861. 

 The heir-apparent is H. R. H. Albert Edward, 

 Prince of Wales, born November 9, 1841. 

 The present premier is Rt. Hon. William 

 Ewart Gladstone, First Lord of the Treas- 

 ury, who has held office since December 9, 

 1868. The members of the cabinet, during 

 the year 1872, were: Lord High Chancellor, 

 Rt. Hon. Lord Selborne, Baron Selborne, 

 formerly Sir Roundell Palmer, raised to the 

 peerage and nominated Lord High Chancellor, 

 October 15, 1872; Lord President of the 

 Council, Most Hon. the Marquis of Ripon; 

 Lord Privy Seal, Rt. Hon. Viscount Halifax; 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt. Hon. Robert 

 Lowe ; Secretary of State for the Home De- 

 partment, Rt. Hon. Henry Austin Bruce ; Sec- 

 I'etary of State for Foreign Affairs, Rt. Hon. 

 Earl Granville; Secretary of State for the 

 Colonies, Rt. Hon. the Earl of Kimberley; 

 Secretary of State for India, his Grace the 

 Duke of Argyll ; Secretary of State for War, 

 Rt. Hon. Edward Card well ; First Lord of the 

 Admiralty, Rt. Hon. George Joachim Gos- 

 chen ; President of the Board of Trade, Rt. 

 lion. Chichester Samuel Fortescue; Chief 

 Secretary for Ireland, Most Hon. the Mar- 

 quis of Hartington ; Vice-President of the 

 Committee of Privy Council on Education, Rt. 

 Hon. William Edward Forster; President of 

 the Local Government Board, Rt. Hon. James 

 Stansfeld ; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lan- 

 caster, Rt. Hon. Hugh Culling Eardley Child- 

 ers, appointed August 9, 1872. The Postmas- 

 ter-General (not now in the cabinet) is Rt. 

 Hon. William Monsell. The only changes in 

 the cabinet for 1872 were Lord Selborne, who 

 succeeded Lord Hatherley as Chancellor of 

 the Exchequer, and Sir H. 0. E. Childers, who 

 succeeded Earl Dufferin as Chancellor of the 

 Duchy of Lancaster, taking a seat in the cabi- 

 net in place of the Postmaster-General. The 

 House of Peers, when full, has now 478 mem- 

 bers, namely, 4 princes of the blood, 2 arch- 

 bishops, 20 dukes, 19 marquises, 110 earls, 23 

 viscounts, 24 bishops, 232 barons, 16 Scottish 

 representative peers elected for each Parlia- 

 ment, and 28 Irish representative peers elected 

 for life. The House of Commons had, in 

 1872, 658 members, of whom 493 sat for coun- 

 ties, cities, boroughs, and universities in Eng- 

 land and Wales; 60 for counties, cities, 

 burghs, and universities in Scotland; and 105 

 for counties, cities, and boroughs, and one uni- 

 versity, in Ireland. 



The Gladstone cabinet remained in power 

 during the year, slightly strengthened in their 



majorities by the absence of any very impor- 

 tant home topics of discussion, and by some 

 moderate concessions to the Conservatives, as 

 well as by the indisposition of the opposition 

 to make an issue on any point where they 

 could not be sure of a strong majority. The 

 recovery of the Prince of Wales from his se- 

 vere illness, about the commencement of the 

 year, was duly improved by Parliament to pro- 

 mote loyal feeling toward the royal family; 

 and though Sir Charles W. Dilke moved, in 

 his place in the House of Commons, an inquiry 

 into the expenditures of the civil list, looking 

 to an exposure of the extravagant expendi- 

 tures of the royal family, and defended his 

 proposition in a very able speech, the time was 

 unpropitious for any such inquiry, and his 

 motion was defeated by 276 negative votes to 

 2 affirmative, after a reply by Mr. Gladstone, 

 who entered into a comparison of the cost 

 of royalty, during the present and former 

 reigns, eulogized the Queen, and denied with 

 some warmth the statements of Sir Charles 

 Dilke. One of the most important measures 

 for home government, passed during the parlia- 

 mentary session of 1872, was the Ballot Act. 

 This was debated at great length, amended 

 repeatedly, and finally passed the House of 

 Commons by a majority of 58 in a very full 

 house. In the Lords it was further amended, 

 and finally, after one or two committees of 

 conference, passed. Its duration is limited to 

 December 31, 1880, though, probably, an im- 

 proved act will be passed by that time, All 

 elections for members of Parliament must 

 henceforth be by secret ballot. The law 

 enacts that the ballot-paper must show the 

 names of the candidates for election, with a 

 number printed on the back, and a counterfoil 

 attached having the same number; and that at 

 the time of voting the ballot-paper shall be 

 marked on both sides with an official mark, 

 and delivered to the voter within the polling- 

 place, and the number of such voter on the 

 register of votes shall be marked on the coun- 

 terfoil, and the voter having secretly marked 

 his vote on the paper, and folded it up so as to 

 conceal his vote, shall place it in a closed box, 

 in the presence of the officer presiding at the 

 polling-station, after having shown to him the 

 official mark at the back. 



This seems to us, after one hundred years' 

 experience, in this country, of voting by ballot, 

 exceedingly complicated, but it will doubtless 

 be simplified by the next Parliament. The 

 qualifications necessary for eligibility to elec- 

 tion as a member of Parliament are, to have 

 been born in the United Kingdom, and to have 

 attained the age of twenty-one years. Natu- 

 ralized foreigners, excise custom, stamp and 

 other revenue officers ; all judges of the United 

 Kingdom, except the Master of Rolls in Eng- 

 land ; all priests and deacons of the Church of 

 England, ministers of the Church of Scotland, 

 and Roman Catholic clergymen ; all govern- 

 ment contractors, and all sheriffs and returning 



