366 



GEEAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



to prevent his becoming a charge^ upon the 

 public. 



Parliament guarded against the appropriation 

 of the invention of electric lighting by monopo- 

 lies inimical to the public interest by a gen- 

 eral law on the subject. The electric lighting 

 bill reserves the right to the Board of Trade to 

 impose regulations and conditions on compa- 

 nies licensed to supply the electric light, as to 

 the limits and conditions of supply, safety, 

 price, and with regard to public inspection. 

 New conditions may be inserted when the prog- 

 ress of knowledge shows them to be desirable. 

 The bill also provides for the expropriation of 

 the works of any company after the lapse of 

 fifteen years, if the local or municipal authori- 

 ties find it advantageous to take the business 

 into their own hands. The price must be the 

 actual value of the plant at the time of purchase, 

 to be determined by agreement, or by arbitra- 

 tion. If municipalities desire to establish pub- 

 lic works for electric lighting originally, they 

 are empowered to do so. 



IEELAND. The " new departure " in Ireland, 

 which was announced in the beginning of 

 May, was a reversal of the policy of repressing 

 Irish opinion, and a condemnation of all the ut- 

 terances of the Ministry since the breaking up 

 of the Land League in the previous October. 

 Earl Cowper resigned the viceroyalty so as 

 not to stand in the way of the new policy. He 

 was replaced by Earl Spencer, who had been 

 Lord Lieutenant twice before. As he retained 

 his position as President of the Privy Council, 

 he was the first ruler in Dublin Castle who 

 had a seat in the Cabinet. His active duties as 

 Privy Seal were transferred to Lord Carling- 

 ford, Minister without a portfolio. Mr. Forster 

 stood out against a change of policy, and, after 

 a protracted Cabinet meeting, resigned his post. 

 The following day, May 2d, Mr. Gladstone an- 

 nounced to Parliament the release of the three 

 imprisoned members of Parliament, Parnell, 

 Dillon, and O'Kelley, without conditions or stip- 

 ulations, the intended discharge of all the 

 " suspects " not believed to be complicated in 

 the commission of crimes, and the intention of 

 the Government to take counsel with the Irish 

 representatives on the amendment of the land 

 act, and to rely on the ordinary law, fortified 

 with some new enactments, after the lapse of 

 the protection act. 



The ground of the release of the imprisoned 

 members was stated by the Prime Minister to 

 have been information received by the Govern- 

 ment that if the question of arrears was settled 

 on the basis of a bill offered by Redmond, one 

 of the Land-League members, they would 

 " range themselves on the side of law and or- 

 der." A bitter wrangle followed, in which 

 the Conservatives and their new ally, the late 

 Chief Secretary, asserted that Gladstone had 

 made a secret compact with Parnell, and the 

 Government and the Irish members angrily 

 repudiated the charge. Before this ques- 

 tion of fact was fairly opened, the hopes of 



all who looked forward to peace and recon- 

 cilement with the Irish people were dashed 

 by a political murder in Dublin, which 

 was apparently the work of conspirators, 

 whose purpose was to prevent the prospective 

 reconciliation, and keep alive the animosities 

 between the two countries. The successor to 

 Forster in the Chief Secretaryship was Lord 

 Frederick Cavendish, a representative of the 

 Whig section of the party, but one who had 

 betrayed no prejudices or convictions in Irish 

 questions. He was only known as a diligent 

 official, esteemed by the men of all parties for 

 his genial qualities (see OBITUABIES). On May 

 6th, the day after his arrival in Ireland, while the 

 new Secretary and Under- Secretary Burke (see 

 OBITU ABIES) were walking together in Phoenix 

 Park, they were assassinated by four men, who 

 were driven up rapidly in a jaunting-car. They 

 leaped out, stabbed their victims several times 

 with long knives, and drove away. The crime 

 plunged the minds of the Irish representatives 

 into a gloom of despair, and excited in the 

 minds of many Englishmen a ferocious spirit 

 of revenge. A bill for the prevention of crime, 

 more stringent by far than the protection act, 

 was introduced by the Home Secretary, Sir 

 William Harcourt. The Irish party, assisted 

 by Mr. Cowen and a few other English mem- 

 bers, contested stubbornly the harsher enact- 

 ments of this, the severest measure of repres- 

 sion since Lord Grey's coercion act. They 

 openly resorted to obstructive tactics, but con- 

 ducted them so artfully that no plain instance 

 of obstruction could be singled out. On the 

 29th of June, when the bill had been twenty- 

 three days in committee, Mr. Gladstone rallied 

 his followers for an all-night sitting. The next 

 morning, when Lyon Playfair, chairman of the 

 committee, returned to the House, he pro- 

 ceeded to name Parnell and fifteen of his fol- 

 lowers as guilty of systematic obstruction 



(see DlSCIPLINAEY POWEK OF LEGISLATIVE AS- 

 SEMBLIES, etc.). The sixteen members were 

 suspended en bloc, although it was shown that 

 several of the members named were not then 

 in the House, and others had been absent dur- 

 ing the night. Mr. O'Donnell. who was under- 

 stood to speak of the " infamy " of punishing 

 him for obstruction when he was at home 

 asleep, was suspended for two weeks. Later 

 in the day nine other Irish members were 

 named and suspended. By this illegitimate 

 proceeding the bill was carried through com- 

 mittee, and the urgency rule was revived to 

 prevent any further stoppage. George Otto 

 Trevelyan, who succeeded the murdered Chief 

 Secretary, vigorously urged the passage of the 

 measure as one which would be welcomed by 

 the Irish people. 



The crimes bill was ostensibly directed 

 against secret societies and illegal combina- 

 tions, but its provisions were shaped to para- 

 lyze the Land League, to destroy the right of 

 meeting and of newspaper discussion, and to 

 make boycotting and resistance to eviction 



