GREAT BRITAIN. 



359 



wealth, power, and influence, and the threat- 

 ening attitude of the Russian Government in 

 reference to the extension of its territory and 

 sway in Central Asia, have all, by turns, dur- 

 ing the year 1872, caused anxiety to the Brit- 

 ish statesmen in authority. But, as we have 

 already intimated, the engrossing subject of 

 thought among the citizens interested in pub- 

 lic affairs, during the greater part of the year, 

 was the arbitration of the Alabama and other 

 claims, at Geneva. The excitement, which 

 preceded the declaration of the commissioners 

 that they could not consider the indirect 

 claims, died away only to be revived with great 

 violence on the announcement of the award ; 

 and it was a remarkable evidence of the 

 strength and hold on the public confidence 

 which the Gladstone cabinet possessed, that it 

 could survive after sanctioning a decision 

 which was so distasteful to the great majority 

 of the higher and middle classes. The award 

 of the Emperor William in favor of the claim 

 of the United States, in regard to the bounda- 

 ries between Washington Territory and Brit- 

 ish Columbia, was an added disappointment ; 

 yet, it is a matter of rejoicing and of congratu- 

 lation to the British ministry that these disa- 

 greements between the two nations, which 

 seemed at one time to threaten a rupture of 

 friendly relations, were settled. 



The Gladstone cabinet was greatly strength- 

 ened in October, 1872, by the accession of Sir 

 Roundell Palmer, at that time raised to the 

 peerage as Lord Selborne, to the Lord High 

 Chancellorship, in place of Lord Hatherley, re- 

 signed. Lord Selborne, who is regarded as one 

 of the ablest of British jurists and statesmen, 

 is the second son of the late Rev. William 

 Jocelyn Palmer, Rector of Wexbury, Oxon, and 

 was born there, November 27, 1812. He was 

 educated at Rugby, Winchester, and Trinity 

 College, Oxford, graduating from the latter as 

 a first-class in classics, in 1834, having already 

 received three high prizes for scholarship. The 

 year of his graduation he was elected a Fellow 

 of Magdalen College, and obtained the Eldon 

 Law Scholarship. In 1835 he received the 

 chancellors prize for the Latin essay. In 1837 

 he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, 

 practised with great success as a chancery-bar- 

 rister, and was made Queen's counsel iu 1846. 

 He was elected to Parliament for Plymouth, as 

 a Liberal Conservative, in 1847, was not re- 

 elected at the general election in July, 1852, 

 but regained the seat in June, 1853, and held it 

 till March, 1857. He withdrew as a candidate 

 before the election of that year. In 1861 he 

 was elected member of Parliament for Rich- 

 mond, and continued to sit for that borough 

 till 1872. He was appointed Solicitor-Gen- 

 eral and knighted, at Lord Palmerston's in- 

 stance, in 1861. From 1863 to 1866 he was 

 Attorney-General, going out of office at the in- 

 coming of the Derby-Disraeli Administration, 

 and, though a cordial supporter of Mr. Glad- 

 stone in the House of Commons, had held no 



office until his nomination as Lord High Chan- 

 cellor, October 15, 1872. He brings to that 

 important office, which is essentially that of 

 law adviser to the Crown, and ex officio Speak- 

 er of the House of Lords, a profound knowledge 

 of the law in all its departments, a remarkable 

 literary culture, and a very high reputation for 

 integrity, conscientiousness, and religious prin- 

 ciple. 



The complete publication of the British cen- 

 sus of April, '1871, puts us in possession of 

 many facts of interest in regard to the popula- 

 tion of the United Kingdom. The following 

 table, compiled from the different tables for 

 England and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, 

 shows the fluctuations in the population of 

 each country for each decade of the last seven- 

 ty years. 



The division of the sexes in the United 

 Kingdom at the census of April 3, 1871, was 

 as follows : 



Among the cities of over 100,000 inhabitants, 

 there were in England and Wales: London, 

 including the Metropolitan and City of London 

 Police District, population, 3,883,092; Liver- 

 pool, 493,346 ; Manchester, 355,665 ; Birming- 

 ham, 343,696 ; Leeds, 259,201 ; Sheffield, 

 239,947; Bristol, 182,524 ; Bradford, 145,827; 

 Newcastle-on-Tyne, 128,160 ; Salford, 124,805 ; 

 Hull, 121,598; and Portsmouth, 112,954. In 

 Scotland: Glasgow, 477,144; Edinburgh, 196,- 

 500; and Dundee, 118,974. In Ireland: Dub- 

 lin, 245,722 ; and Belfast, 174,394. 



The tendency of the population to congre- 

 gate in the cities and towns is very marked 

 both in England and Wales, and Scotland. In 

 England and Wales, of a population of 22,704,- 

 108, 12,900,297 were living in the urban dis- 



* This is exclusive of the inhabitants of smaller islands 

 in the British seas (144,430), and army, navy, and mei> 

 chant seamen abroad (207.198), which, added to the above, 

 make the population of the United Kingdom^ April 3 

 1871, 81,817,108. 



