358 



GREAT BRITAIN. 



officers for the localities for which they act, 

 and (for the House of Commons) all English 

 and Scottish peers ; and all persons convicted 

 of treason or felony, are ineligible to election 

 to Parliament. 



The debates in Parliament of the greatest 

 interest to the people of the United States 

 were those with reference to the Geneva Con- 

 gress for the settlement of the Alabama and 

 other claims under the Washington Treaty. 

 (See ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA for 1871, Art. GEEAT 

 BRITAIN, p. 373.) When the case or statement 

 on the American side was drawn up, and 

 served upon the British Cabinet, it will be re- 

 membered that, after about a month of silence, 

 there was a most violent denunciation of the 

 United States Government, because "its case " 

 included a demand for indirect damages, in 

 consequence of the depredations of the Ala- 

 bama and other Confederate privateers. Not 

 alone in Parliament, but throughout England, 

 the excitement was great; and, with scant 

 courtesy, Mr. Gladstone stated, in the House 

 of Commons, on the 13th of May : " We ar- 

 rived at the conclusion that those indirect 

 claims were not within the scope of the arbi- 

 tration to which we had agreed, and there- 

 fore that it would not be possible for us to 

 be parties to their submission to the arbitra- 

 tors at Geneva." Between the first demon- 

 strations in Parliament (January 18, 1872), and 

 the first session of the Congress of Arbitra- 

 tors on the 15th of April, there was an active 

 correspondence maintained between the two 

 Governments, and a supplementary article to 

 the Treaty of Washington, the terms of which 

 were said to have been suggested by Earl 

 Granville, the British Foreign Secretary, was 

 ratified by the Senate, explaining and modify- 

 ing the claim for indirect damages. The Brit- 

 ish Government went on with the prepara- 

 tion of a counter-case, aud a note reserving 

 their rights in the arbitration, and the Amer- 

 ican counsel prepared on their part a reply to 

 this " counter-case." On the 28th of June, 

 the arbitrators announced their decision that 

 the indirect claims should be excluded from 

 the consideration of that tribunal. (For the 

 subsequent history of this arbitration, as well 

 as its award, see DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE.) 

 The year 1872 was in Great Britain one of 

 disaster and misfortune to the great mass of 

 the working-class. The grain-crops were very 

 moderate, severe storms and gales devastated 

 large sections, and destroyed growing and 

 gathered crops, extensive fires not only 

 burned dwellings, but ricks of hay and grain, 

 the price of coals trebled, and in some sections 

 quintupled ; manufacturing was generally un- 

 profitable, in part from the advanced cost of 

 fuel and raw material, and in part from the 

 extensive and protracted strikes; the poor 

 rates, already a tax almost unendurable, were 

 increased, and yet the suffering of the abject 

 poor was not materially diminished, either by 

 emigration or the partial supply of their wants 



by the poor-law unions. The question of 

 pauperism in all its bearings, as connected 

 with crime, with insanity, with taxation, and 

 labor, though slightly ameliorated by judicious 

 private effort, continued to be the most pressing 

 one with which the rulers and people of Great 

 Britain were called to grapple, and one to 

 which the passing years had thus far brought 

 no adequate solution. Yet there were also 

 formidable topics for the consideration of 

 thoughtful statesmen in both the home and 

 foreign relations of the United Kingdom. The 

 immense cost of the merely nominal royalty, 

 and its incapacity for any active service, was 

 a consideration which, though driven out of 

 Parliament, by the intense conservatism of 

 the mercantile class, and the English gentry, 

 who compose the great bulk of the members 

 of the Commons, and probably also by their 

 feeling of personal loyalty and esteem for the 

 Queen, yet cannot be long kept down.' The 

 great mass, including the working-classes, are 

 fast losing their reverence for royalty, and, 

 when the time comes for the throne to pass 

 into other hands, if not before, the power of 

 these classes will be felt. So, too, with the 

 questions of church establishment and of hered- 

 itary peerage. The opposition to these relics 

 of the past is increasing with each year, and 

 must eventually work their destruction. The 

 introduction of the secret ballot in the election 

 of members of Parliament, awkwardly and 

 grudgingly as it has been granted, must inevi- 

 tably lead to greater independence in voting, 

 and to a further increase ot the suffrage-fran- 

 chise. Abroad, the colonies are giving the 

 home government so much trouble that there 

 is serious thought of throwing them off, and 

 encouraging their independence. With regard 

 to the North American and Australian colo- 

 nies, it is only a question of time, and probably 

 of very brief time, how soon they shall be en- 

 couraged to set up for themselves. This, of 

 course, implies, to some extent, a loss of the 

 prestige of the British Government ; but that 

 joss is destined to come, nay, has already come 

 in part, and the separation of these colonies 

 can hardly add greatly to it. The govern- 

 ment of India, since the dissolution of the 

 India Company, has been administered wit 

 great ability, and, though there are 

 grounds of apprehension from the fanaticism 

 of the Mohammedan reformers, as well as 

 from other causes, and the condition of the la- 

 boring classes is, from famine, short crops, pes- 

 tilence, and the oppression which is still prac- 

 tised, not such as to inspire great confidence, 

 yet, from the extension of railways in all direc- 

 tions, and the more just and impartial admin- 

 istration of British officials, there is great im- 

 provement, and ground for hope in the fu- 

 ture. The prevalence of communistic views in 

 France, the precarious tenure by which the 

 house of Savoy held its power in Spain (since 

 relinquished by the abdication of Amadous), 

 the rapid growth of the German Empire in 



