GREAT BRITAIN. 



331 



they had bat a very slight representation in 

 the House of Commons, yet exerted consider- 

 able influence over a portion of the members. 

 These complained that Mr. Gladstone, while 

 professedly a Liberal, had no sympathy with, 

 and no feeling for, the working-classes. These 

 two classes of objections to the premier, 

 though coming from opposite directions, 

 were creditable to Mr. Gladstone, as indicating 

 his impartiality, yet lost him a considerable 

 number of votes. Very early in the session 

 the University Education Bill (Ireland), a fa- 

 vorite measure of Mr. Gladstone, and one 

 which he had laid before Parliament at the 

 previous session, was introduced, and occa- 

 sioned considerable bitter discussion. It was 

 debated at intervals for nearly three weeks, 

 and when it was moved, on the 1 1th of March, 

 tliut it be advanced to a second reading (a test 

 vote), the motion was lost by 287 votes against 

 284. Interpreting this vote as equivalent to a 

 declaration of a want of confidence in the min- 

 istry, he asked for an adjournment of the 

 House to the 13th, that the ministers might de- 

 cide upon their course. On the 13th, it being 

 announced by Mr. Gladstone in the Commons, 

 and by Earl Granville in the Lords, that the 

 ministry had resigned, o wing to the adverse vote 

 of the Commons, and that the Queen had sent 

 for Mr. Disraeli to form a Conservative cabi- 

 net, a further adjournment to the 17th was 

 airrufd to. Meantime Mr. Disraeli had exerted 

 himself to form a cabinet which would com- 

 mand the confidence of the Commons, but had 

 been unsuccessful, and had been compelled to 

 inform the Queen that he was nnable to form 

 an administration at that time. The Qneen 

 had then sunt to Mr. Gladstone, and requested 

 his return to office, with some modification 

 of his cabinet, and on the 20th it was an- 

 nounced that he had resumed office, making 

 the cabinet changes we have already noticed. 

 The reasons why Mr. Disraeli was not ready 

 to assume office as premier were, probably, that 

 the House of Commons had a majority of Lib- 

 erals, who, though a few of them might have 

 been dissatisfied with some of Mr. Gladstone's 

 measures or those of some members of his cab- 

 inet, were still more unwilling to submit to 

 the rule of a Conservative, and especially one 

 so fearless and reckless as they believed Mr. 

 Disraeli to be, and that many of the old school 

 of Conservatives would give him but a lan- 

 guid support. He knew very well that, with 

 such material to be controlled, a month would 

 not pass before a vote of want of confidence 

 would overturn his cabinet. After the re- 

 sumption of power by the ministry on the 

 20th of March, both parties were very cautions 

 fir sometime, but it soon became evident that 

 Mr. Gladstone held his position by a very frail 

 tenure, and that his continuance in office, 

 even to the close of the parliamentary session, 

 would be due rather to the inability of the 

 Conservatives to nnite npon a programme 

 which would be popular, and a cabinet which 



conld command the support of the House of 

 Commons, than upon any inherent strength 

 in the Liberal party. Two or three Govern- 

 ment bills of some importance were defeated 

 by decisive majorities, though in a very thin 

 House, and Mr. Gladstone was compelled to 

 withdraw several Government measures, to 

 avoid their defeat. But, on the other hand, 

 several important measures were carried, and 

 the Ashantee War, which had occurred dur- 

 ing the session, was so well managed as to 

 give the premier some additional prestige. 

 The odious task of having to ask for an addi- 

 tional allowance for the Duke of Edinburgh 

 (the second son of the Queen), in view of his 

 approaching nuptials, was performed by Mr. 

 Gladstone with great skill, and in such a way 

 as not to lose many votes. As he had taken 

 npon himself the added duties of Chancellor of 

 the Exchequer, his budget was somewhat anx- 

 iously looked for, and, when presented, did 

 credit to his reputation as the ablest financier 

 in Great Britain. About $25,000,000 of 

 the national debt had been paid off with- 

 in the year, and there was a clear surplus 

 of $27,500,000 left from the revenue of 1872- 

 '73. In his new budget, Mr. Gladstone pro- 

 posed reductions of expenditure wherever they 

 were possible, the limiting of the expenses of 

 the Ashantee War to a specified sum, and the 

 abolition or material reduction of the income 

 tax, the most odious of the burdens which 

 British citizens were compelled to bear. He 

 was doubtful, at that time, whether this tax, 

 which had amounted, for the year ending 

 March 81, 1873, to about $37,000,000, could be 

 wholly abolished, but was prepared to recom- 

 mend a great reduction of it. Later in the 

 season, however, though the expenses of the 

 Ashantee War, in consequence of the unex- 

 pected protraction of the resistance, were 

 larger than his first estimates, he resolved to 

 recommend the entire abolition of the income 

 tax in the budget for 1874-'75. The adjourn- 

 ment of Parliament took place on the 5th of 

 August, 1873, and without any noticeable 

 event. Mr. Gladstone, during the recess, care- 

 fully studied the state of public feeling, and 

 put himself in a position to ascertain as nearly 

 as possible the exact strength of the parties 

 which would be arrayed against him. He 

 found these very formidable. The Roman 

 Catholics, under the lead of their bishops, 

 were to a man opposed to his Irish Educational 

 Bill, or to any modification of it which he 

 might be disposed to 'make; and, though this 

 might not be a measure to bo pushed at the 

 next session, it was doubtful whether this 

 hostility would not extend to his other meas- 

 ures. The aristocracy, and especially the 

 clerical portion of it, the bishops and the cler- 

 gymen of aristocratic families, were hostile to 

 him, because they suspected him of being in 

 favor of disestablishment in England as he hnd 

 been in Ireland; and the Scottish peers and 

 members who were connected either with the 



