372 



GREAT BRITAIN. 



not now in the cabinet, but have all, except 

 Field-Marshal H. R. H. the Duke of Cambridge, 

 commanding-in-chief, been appointed by Mr. 

 Disraeli and his associates of the cabinet : Jun- 

 ior Lords of the Treasury, Viscount Mahon, 

 Rowland Winn, Esq., Sir James D. H. Elphin- 

 stone, Bart. ; Political Secretary to the Treas- 

 ury, William Hart Dyke, Esq. ; Financial Sec- 

 retary to the Treasury, William Henry Smith, 

 Esq. ; Junior Lords of the Admiralty, Admiral 

 Sir Alexander Milne, G. 0. B., Vice-Admiral 

 Sir J. W. Tarleton, K. 0. B., Captain Lord Gil- 

 ford, R. N., Sir Massey Lopes, Bart. ; Secretary 

 to the Admiralty, Hon. Algernon Fulke Eger- 

 ton ; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, 

 Rt. Hon. Colonel Thomas E. Taylor ; President 

 Local Government Board, Rt. Hon. George 

 Sclater-Booth ; Vice- President Committee of 

 Council, Rt. Hon. Viscount Sandon ; President 

 Board of Trade, Rt. Hon. Sir Charles B. Ad- 

 derley; Works and Public Buildings, Rt. Hon. 

 Lord Henry G. Lennox ; Attorney -General, Sir 

 Richard Baggallay ; Solicitor- General, Sir John 

 Holker; Judge Advocate- General, Rt. Hon. 

 Stephen Cave. 



The election and the necessity of forming a 

 new cabinet occurred so late that the new 

 Parliament (the twenty-first of the Uniied 

 Kingdom) was not assembled and constituted 

 until March 5th, a month later than usual. 

 At that time the only business transacted was 

 the election of a Speaker, the choice falling on 

 Rt. Hon. H. B. W. Brand, who had long been 

 the " whip," or directing manager, of the Liberal 

 party. Writs were issued for new elections of 

 the members of the House of Commons who 

 had accepted office, and Parliament adjourned 

 to March 19th. At that time the Queen's 

 speech was read, and business commenced in 

 earnest. The previous Parliament and admin- 

 istration had left no immediately important 

 legacies of vexed questions to their successors, 

 and the session of Parliament was mainly oc- 

 cupied by local questions and financial meas- 

 ures. The report of the Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer showed a surplus of 6,000,000= 

 $30,000,000, to be disposed of, notwithstanding 

 the heavy expenses of the Ashantee War, and 

 the duty on sugar and on horses was repealed, 

 and one penny in the pound taken off the In- 

 come tax, which now stands at two pence in 

 the pound, on lands and tenements, on the in- 

 come of occupiers of farms one penny ; in Scot- 

 land and Ireland, three farthings; nurseries 

 and market-gardens, two pence ; compositions 

 of tithes, four-sevenths 'of a penny ; on incomes 

 proper (Schedules C., D. and E.,) two pence per 

 pound, incomes under 100=$500 being ex- 

 empt; and incomes under 300=:$!, 500; of 

 which 80= $400, are exempt. Other matters 

 of importance were:, the termination of the 

 Ashantee War ; -the grant of 25,000=$125,000 

 to Sir Garnet Wolseley in consideration of his 

 services in that war ; a bill regulating the sale 

 of intoxicating liquors, one altering and amend- 

 ing the laws relating to the appointment of 



ministers to parishes in Scotland, generally 

 known as the Patronage Bill ; one for the bet- 

 ter administration of the laws respecting the 

 regulation of public worship ; and one for the 

 relief of the famine in India. Home-rule prop- 

 ositions were promptly voted down, receiving 

 but 61 yeas to 458 nays. No acts were passed 

 of special interest to the United States. The 

 new Parliament has 652 members in the House 

 of Commons, of whom 487 are from England 

 and Wales, 60 from Scotland, and 105 from 

 Ireland. The House of Lords consists of 492 

 members, of whom 4 were peers of the blood 

 royal, 2 archbishops, 28 dukes, 32 marquises, 

 169 earls, 37 viscounts, 24 bishops, 195 barons, 

 16 Scottish representative peers, and 28 Irish 

 representative peers. Several of the peers on 

 the roll are minors. 



The war with Ashantee, which had made 

 considerable progress before the close of the 

 year, was carried forward under the vigorous 

 leadership of Sir Garnet Wolseley to success- 

 ful termination in February Coomassie, the 

 capital of Ashantee, being captured on the 

 4th of that month and burned on the 6th, 

 and King Koffee sending an embassy to sue 

 for peace on the 13th. On their return to 

 England in March, the troops under the com- 

 mand of Sir Garnet Wolseley were reviewed 

 by the Queen in person. (See ASHANTEE.) 



The marriage of Prince Alfred, Duke of 

 Edinburgh, second son of the Queen, to the 

 Grand-duchess Marie of Russia, only daugh- 

 ter of the Czar Alexander II., was celebrated 

 at St. Petersburg, January 21st, and the Duke 

 and Duchess took up their residence in Eng- 

 land in March. The remains of Dr. Living- 

 stone, who had died in Central Africa, May 4, 

 1873, were brought from Africa and buried 

 with great ceremony in Westminster Abbey, 

 April 18th. The decision of the British Gov- 

 ernment, to send an expedition to the north- 

 pole, made on the 17th of November, was an 

 event of interest to science. 



Religious Statistics of the United Kingdom. 

 In England the Established Church is Protes- 

 tant Episcopal. Its fundamental doctrines and 

 tenets are embodied in the Thirty-nine Articles, 

 agreed upon in convocation in 1562, and re- 

 vised and finally settled in 1571. Within a 

 few years past, there has been a constantly 

 increasing sentiment on the part of many of 

 the citizens of Great Britain that the union 

 between the Established Church and state 

 should be severed, and that the Church of 

 England, like the dissenting bodies, should be 

 maintained wholly on the voluntary principle. 

 The changes which would be produced by 

 disestablishment would be very great. The 

 Queen is now by law the supreme (human) 

 governor of the Church, and possesses the 

 right, exercised through her prime-minister for 

 the time, to nominate and in reality to appoint 

 incumbents for all vacant archbishoprics and 

 bishoprics, as well as to a very considerable 

 number of deaneries, prebendaries, and canon- 



