332 



GREAT BRITAIN. 



Roman Catholic Church or the Kirk of Scot- 

 land were disposed to turn to the Conserva- 

 tives for aid and protection. In Ireland, the 

 doctrine of Homo Rule was greatly agitated, 

 and, though there were but few Home-rulers 

 in Parliament, a large proportion of the peo- 

 ple of Ireland sympathized with them, and he 

 could not rely ujion these to stand by him on 

 any critical occasion. The working-men were 

 greatly dissatisfied with him; they had asked 

 for a farther extension of the suffrage, but had 

 been somewhat sternly lectured for bringing 

 that question before Parliament, which they 

 were told was fully occupied without it. 

 There were then, with a few exceptions, only 

 the middle class, the merchants, manufacturers, 

 commercial men, farmers, yeomen, and gentry, 

 including the dissenting bodies, to whom he 

 could look for support, and of these full one- 

 half, by education, affiliation, or deliberate 

 choice, were Conservatives. His own infirm- 

 ities of temper, too, the result in part, doubt- 

 less, of an overwrought nervous system, had a 

 tendency to alienate some who might other- 

 wise have been his stanch friends. Alto- 

 gether the outlook was not cheering. But the 

 premier was a man of great pluck and re- 

 source, and he made a gallant fight through 

 the autumnal and early winter months, until 

 he found that the next session of Parliament 

 was likely to open without an assured work- 

 ing majority of Liberals. He then at once de- 

 cided to dissolve the existing Parliament and 

 appeal to the people by a new election. The 

 forms of the British Government require 

 that this act should be nominally performed 

 by the Queen, with the advice and consent of 

 her ministers, and the premier issues an ad- 

 dress professedly to the electors of his own 

 borough, town, or county, but renlly to the 

 party which he represents throughout the 

 country. The dissolution of Parliament was 

 proclaimed on the 24th of January, 1874, and 

 the writs for a new election ordered at once. 

 In his address to the electors of Greemvieh, 

 Mr. Gladstone said that the welfare of the 

 country could not bo effcctnnlly promoted by 

 a Government which was not invested with 

 adequate authority. That authority, when 

 sunk below the point necessary for the due de- 

 fciiM- ami prosecution of the public intr: 

 could in no way be BO effectually restoi 

 by an appeal to the people. The Government, 

 weakened last March in its effort to settle, 

 upon "jtist and enlarged principles," the ques- 

 tion of Irish education, was reminded of its 

 diminution of strength during tlio session l.y 

 the "summary and rapid dismissal " in the 

 Homo of I,onls of measures which had cost 

 much time and labor in the House of Com- 

 mons. 



Mr. Glndntone continued : " Thi state of 



thing*, which was not satisfactory at the close 



of the last cession, and which has not admit- 



f remedy by the method of resignation 



and a change of Government, has not improved 



during the recess, especially tho latter part 

 of llie recess; and flu- time lias now arrived 

 when the Administration, able to anti. 

 and survey the principal parts and the general 

 character of the work which awaits it, has 

 been called on to consider whether it could 

 reasonably undertake such work without a 

 fresh access of strength, iiud to frame it? advice 

 to her Majesty accordingly. The question 

 whether ministers ought to retain or abandon 

 office should be decided by a general election, 

 with the opportunity which it affords IVr 

 broad declarations of policy and issues truly 

 national, and cannot be satisfactorily solved 1 y 

 isolated contests of which the issue is in a 

 greater degree dependent on close discipline 

 and finished and concentrated organization." 



In stating what work the new Parliament 

 would have to do, Mr. Gladstone made a very 

 rapid review of the conditions of the foreign 

 relations of the country, and of the important 

 measures which were likely to come hi tore 

 it a review more remark aide for what it 

 did not contain than for what it did and then 

 based his claims for the maintenance of his 

 party and ministry in power not on w hat they 

 had done or might do to improve the intelli- 

 gence, education, and prosperity of the ennn- 

 try. but solely on their economy and their 

 intention of abolishing the income tax. It 

 was an appeal wholly directed to the pock- 

 ets of the tax-payers. That it failed is 

 not to the discredit of the British nation. The 

 result of the elections, though belonging prop- 

 erly to the year 1874, may be briefly stated 

 as being the return of a decided though not 

 a large majority of Conservatives to the i 

 of Commons, and the promotion of Mr. Dis- 

 raeli for a second time to the premiership. 



One of the most important acts of the Par- 

 liament which was dissolved January 24, 1*74, 

 and one of considerable interest to the mem- 

 bers of the legal profession in the I'nited 

 States, was one constituting a new Supreme 

 Court of Judicature. This act conns into op- 

 eration on November 2, 1874. The following 

 is an outline of its principal provisions: 



The first part of the statute, relates to the 

 constitution and Judges of the Supreme Court. 

 All the existing courts fire to lie united and 

 consolidated together, and to constitute one 

 Supreme Court of Judicature in Kughind. < >f 

 this court there are to be two permanent divis- 

 ions one of which, under the name of" lltr 

 Majesty's High Court of Justice." is to 

 cise original jurisdiction us set forth in tho 

 act; the other, to lie called "Her Miij. 

 Court of Appeal," is to exercise such powers 

 as may be incident to the determination of 

 any appeal. 



the " High Court of Justice" is to consist 

 of (as first Judges) the Lord-Chancellor, the 

 Lord Chief-Justice of England, tin Ma-tcr of 

 the Rolls, the Lord Chief-Justice of the < 

 mon Pleas, the Lord Chief-Baron of the Ex- 

 chequer, the several Vice-Chancellors, the 



