GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



373 



a profit by the loss of unseaworthy vessels, it 

 prohibited over - insurance and double insur- 

 ance, and made underwriters liable only for 

 actual losses ; it created an implied contract 

 of seaworthiness on the part of the owners ; 

 and it extended to seamen the employers' lia- 

 bility act. The President of the Board of 

 Trade tried to win the consent of ship-owners 

 to his cherished scheme, and, when his negotia- 

 tions failed, made a speech, which was an ap- 

 peal from the House to the country, and with- 

 drew the bill. His bill for enduing the rail- 

 way commissioners with real powers met with 

 the same fate, as it was opposed not only by 

 the railway companies, but by the farmers and 

 traders also, who objected to the legalization 

 of terminal charges and other changes in the 

 law in favor of the companies. 



The criminal law amendment bill was in- 

 tended for the protection of young girls. It 

 contained provisions enabling the police to 

 clear the streets, and creating new offenses 

 against public morals that condemned it in the 

 eyes of lawyers. The bill to extend to the four 

 exempted cities and to make perpetual the Irish 

 Sunday-closing law was obstructed by a few 

 Irish members, both Nationalists of the ex- 

 treme type and Conservatives. The existing 

 act was prolonged by the expiring acts contin- 

 uance bill. The Parnellites forced the Govern- 

 ment to exclude Ireland from the operations of 

 the bill against corrupt practices at municipal 

 elections. The law of evidence amendment 

 bill, which revived and made permanent cer- 

 tain provisions of the crimes act for the exam- 

 ination of prisoners, was carried in the face of 

 their opposition. The most important Irish 

 measure proposed was the purchase of land 

 bill, which provided for the advance to tenants 

 by the Government of the whole of the pur- 

 chase-money for the acquisition of their hold- 

 ings in fee simple. Mr. Trevelyan declared 

 that no such liberal offer had ever been held 

 out by any government to any class of citi- 

 zens; that it would end the block in the land 

 market which prevented the operation of the 

 purchase clauses in the act of 1881, and would 

 induce the tenant-farmers to purchase their 

 holdings, and thus erect a bulwark of honesty 

 and order in a class of peasant proprietors. The 

 principle of the bill was accepted on all sides, 

 but provisions for a local guarantee were criti- 

 cised, and other parts of the bill were opposed 

 by both Parnellites and Conservatives. All 

 these and the other principal Government 

 measures were withdrawn after the vote in 

 the House of Lords on Lord Cairns's amend- 

 ment to the franchise bill, when the Prime 

 Minister announced on the 10th of July that 

 an autumn session would take place, and that 

 in consequence the Government was compelled 

 to make a sweeping and impartial sacrifice of 

 the ministerial measures. One of the principal 

 bills that were finally enacted was the cattle- 

 diseases act, forced on the Government by the 

 Tories. It was introduced into the upper house 



February 14. The Duke of Richmond obtained 

 a large majority for his amendments, throwing 

 upon the Privy Council the responsibility of 

 determining whether the laws of foreign coun- 

 tries were strict enough to justify the admission 

 of imports instead of resting satisfied with the 

 protection afforded by foreign laws unless there 

 was proof of the contrary, and removing the 

 limitation of two years given to the bill by the 

 Government. In the House Mr. Dodson pro- 

 posed to restore the bill to its original shape, 

 but the committee decided against the minis- 

 terial proposal, and this decision, with some 

 hesitation, was accepted by the Government. 

 The bill became law May 19. In the early part 

 of the session the Government was defeated 

 by the same combination that insisted on pre- 

 cedence for the cattle-diseases bill, who car- 

 ried a resolution in favor of immediate relief 

 for local tax-payers. Mr. Broadhurst proposed 

 a bill for the enfranchisement of leaseholders, 

 which gave an opportunity to Lord Randolph 

 Churchill to avow advanced views on the sub- 

 ject of the rights of property as the representa- 

 tive of the Tory Democracy. The Marquis of 

 Salisbury brought forward the project of social 

 reform of which he is the special advocate, that 

 of securing better dwellings for the working- 

 people, and a parliamentary commission of both 

 houses was appointed to inquire into the hous- 

 ing of the poor. Parliament was prorogued 

 August 14. Of the fifty -four Government 

 measures that became law the most impor- 

 tant were the conversion of stock act for light- 

 ening the burden of the national debt, the act 

 for the repression of corrupt practices at mu- 

 nicipal elections, the act relating to the con- 

 tagious diseases of animals imported from 

 abroad, and the act for the extension of the 

 hours of polling in boroughs. Among the 

 minor acts was one enabling a husband or a 

 wife to give evidence in criminal proceedings 

 instituted by either against the other for the 

 protection of their property. This is a com- 

 plement to the act of 1882, conferring rights 

 to hold separate estates on married women. 

 Another act substitutes fines for imprisonment 

 as a penalty for disobeying decrees for the res- 

 titution of conjugal rights. The Manchester 

 ship-canal bill was pressed to a second reading, 

 though strongly opposed. The objections to 

 the project are based upon the danger to the 

 navigation of the Mersey. The people of Liv- 

 erpool have been taught to believe that if the 

 canal is made, the channel of the river will silt 

 up and Liverpool will share the fate of Chester 

 and become an inland city. Captain Eads, the 

 engineer of the Mississippi improvement, who 

 was retained by the promoters of the enterprise, 

 pronounced these fears groundless. A law was 

 passed prohibiting the erection of buildings ex- 

 cept for religious purposes on disused burial- 

 grounds, putting an end to the practice of 

 speculative builders of acquiring leases of old 

 cemeteries in London for the erection of 

 dwelling-houses. Another of the minor en- 



