

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



191 



ing the rent necessary for licenses; and tlu-y, 

 therefore, though they opposed the resolution, 

 could not accept tin- amendment which merely 

 meant Non pouumnt. Mr. W. E. Forster said, 

 though he hud always opposed the Permissive 

 Bill, believing it to be oppressive and impracti- 

 cable, he intended to support this resolution, 

 because it embodied the principle of local con- 

 trol. Tin- evil of drunkenness, he believed, 

 could most effectually be checked by those who 

 had the local knowledge; and he also held that 

 the wishes of the inhabitants of a district should 

 be consulted. Lord Hartington declined to vote 

 tor tlie resolution, to which different meanings 

 were attached by its supporters. The resolu- 

 tion was rejected by 262 to 164. Mr. Wheel- 

 house's amendment was negatived without a 

 division ; and Lord T. llervey's proposition, to 

 defer legislation on the subject until the report 

 of the Lords' Committee on Intemperance had 

 been received, was defeated by 169 to 121. 



On June 13th, in the House of Lords, Lord 

 Truro moved the second reading of a bill to 

 prohibit vivisection. On evidence given be- 

 fore the Royal Commission on the subject, 

 Lord Truro denied that great medical and sur- 

 gical discoveries had been made through vivi- 

 section, and he told the House that the oppo- 

 nents of vivisection would persevere until they 

 should secure its prohibition. Lord Shaftes- 

 bury, who supported the bill, argued that 

 the restrictions imposed by the bill of 1877 

 had not had the effect of preventing cruelty. 

 Some anaesthetics inflicted more pain than 

 the operation itself. The question was tak- 

 ing a prominent position in Europe, even in 

 Rnsssia. The system had a tendency to bru- 

 talize the human heart. He repudiated the 

 doctrine that the Almighty sanctioned the 

 infliction of these refined tortures on any of 

 his creatures. The Bishop of Peterborough 

 deprecated the abolition of vivisection in the 

 interest of humanity, though he would guard 

 the practice by any conditions which might be 

 thought necessary. He had heard from the 

 lips of one of the greatest surgeons that an 

 operation which had been discovered in our 

 own times, and by which thousands of human 

 lives had been saved, was owing to observa- 

 tions made on twelve rabbits which had been 

 subjected to vivisection. Lord Aberdare, as 

 one who had filled the office of President of the 

 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ani- 

 mals, opposed the bill on the ground that it 

 would prohibit vaccination and many useful 

 operations. The motion was negatived by 97 

 to 16. 



On August 15th Parliament was prorogued. 



Immediately after the prorogation Great 

 Britain was the scene of a determined and pas- 

 sionate political campaign, which was opened 

 by Mr. Gladstone at Chester and Sir Charles 

 Dilke at Chelsea. Meetings addressed in the 

 latter part of October at Manchester by Lord 

 Salisbury, Mr. Cross, and Colonel Stanley, were 

 remarkable for their enthusiasm, as well as the 



meetings addressed the following week in the 

 same city by Lord Hartington and Mr. Bright, 

 on which occasion the Liberal champinn- 

 welcomed by equally large crowds and with an 

 much enthusiasm as had greeted the represen- 

 tatives of the Government the week before. 

 Hardly any new arguments were presented in 

 these oratorical displays, which seemed mainly 

 to have been intended to rouse the political 

 spirit of the constituencies. The Prime Min- 

 ister's speech at the Guildhall on Lord Mayor's 

 day had been expected with general curio-ity. 

 as likely to contain some interesting references 

 to the Ministerial policy and *he relations of 

 the empire. But Lord Beacon^field wa* more 

 than usually reserved. He spoke with omi- 

 nous mystery of the state of Europe, "covered 

 with millions of armed men," and would only 

 express a qualified hope of the maintenance 

 of peace. He enjoined Englishmen to hold 

 fast by the motto, Imperium et Libertcu, and 

 pointed out the manifold perils of an " insular 

 policy." He, as well as the Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer, rejoiced in the improvement of 

 trade, and was hopeful that financial embar- 

 rassments would soon disappear. The most 

 remarkable and crowning episode of party 

 warfare was Mr. Gladstone's extraordinary 

 campaign in Scotland, which began in the last 

 week of November and lasted almost without 

 interruption for fully two weeks. In the be- 

 ginning of the year Mr. Gladstone had been 

 invited to become the liberal candidate for 

 Mid-Lothian, a constituency traditionally sub- 

 servient to the Conservative influence of the 

 ducal house of Buccleugh. During the fii>t 

 week of the campaign he reviewed for the 

 Mid-Lothian electors the whole field of poli- 

 tics, domestic, foreign, financial, ecclesiastical, 

 and local, in a series of elaborate speeches. 

 Quitting Edinburgh, he went north into Perth- 

 shire, and, again returning to the southwest, 

 delivered his rectorial address before the Uni- 

 versity of Glasgow, instantly resuming the po- 

 litical controversy and sustaining it all the way 

 home through Scotland and the north of Eng- 

 land as far as Chester. During this campaign 

 he attracted the general attention of the coun- 

 try, and it was described as having never been 

 surpassed as a succession of grand oratorical 

 displays. 



Ireland during the year was the scene of a 

 violent agitation, and in some localities of se- 

 vere distress. In consequence of the poor 

 harvests and the general decline in the prices 

 of farmers' produce, the tenants of Ireland de- 

 manded a proportionate reduction of rents. 

 The first public demonstration occurred on 

 June 8th, when an open-air meeting was held 

 at Westport in County Mayo, which was at- 

 tended by from four to five thousand men. 

 The sentiments of the meeting were expressed 

 by the inscriptions on the banners, such as 

 "The land for the people," " Down with job- 

 bing landlords," and others of a similar char- 

 acter. The principal speaker on the occasion 



