GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. (CHANGE OF MINISTRY.) 



447 



ernment came on in the House of Commons. 

 The Conservative leader laid stress on the ab- 

 sence of a clearly defined line of policy in the 

 ministerial programme. The proclamation au- 

 thorizing the calling out of the reserves had 

 been issued, and Mr. Gladstone had announced 

 the intention of renewing the Suakin campaign, 

 completing the Berber Railroad, and " smash- 

 ing " the Mahdi in the autumn. Sir Stafford 

 Northcote protested against incurring fresh 

 risks and sacrifices without a recognition of the 

 British responsibilities for Egypt and those 

 portions of the Soudan that are necessary for 

 the security of Egypt. Mr. Morley, represent- 

 ing the section of the Radicals that disap- 

 proved of the intervention in Egypt and in the 

 Soudan, offered a counter-motion deprecating 

 further operations against the Mahdi. In the 

 division on the vote of censure the ministerial 

 majority dwindled down to 14 votes, 288 mem- 

 bers Conservative, Irish, Nationalist, and In- 

 dependent voting against the 

 Government ; while of the 302 

 Liberals who voted with the Gov- 

 ernment against Sir Stafford 

 Northcote's motion, 112 support- 

 ed Mr. Morley's amendment. The 

 Egyptian financial agreement was 

 assailed by the Conservatives and a 

 division was taken in March, which 

 gave the Government a majority 

 of 48. The sanguinary but result- 

 less campaign against Osman Digna 

 was criticised by the opponents of 

 the Egyptian policy of Mr. Glad- 

 stone on both sides of the House. 

 The Afghan question then arose. 

 There was a wide-spread impres- 

 sion that the antagonism the Lib- 

 erals had provoked, especially in 

 Germany, hindered the settlement 

 of the dispute, and that retractions 

 and concessions of the ministry in 

 the diplomatic conduct of the case 

 increased the dangers of the situa- 

 tion. The Conservatives were care- 

 ful not to lay themselves open to 

 the charge of wishing to precipi- 

 tate a war or to embarrass the Gov- 

 ernment by a partisan attack. The 

 war credit, in which the cost of the 

 Egyptian expeditions was lumped 

 with the money destined for war 

 preparations, was introduced with 

 a stirring speech from Mr. Glad- 

 stone. Soon after, the Govern- 

 ment abandoned the position it 

 had taken in reference to the 

 affair on the Kushk and withdrew its claims 

 for satisfaction, to the disappointment of the 

 advocates of a vigorous policy. The budget 

 was delayed because the Cabinet insisted on 

 postponing controversial legislation until the 

 seats bill was disposed of. The succession du- 

 ties proposed by Mr. Childers displeased the 

 Tories, who objected to imposing additional 



taxes on the land-owning class until they were 

 relieved of the burden of paying nearly the 

 whole of the local rates. The manufacturers 

 and sellers of beer and whisky, and the farm- 

 ers who grow the grain of which those bever- 

 ages are made, raised an outcry against the 

 proposed beer and spirit duties, which met 

 with a sympathetic response among the masses 

 of the people who were affected as consumers. 

 To lay a higher tax on the poor man's drink, 

 at the same time that Spanish wines were to 

 be introduced under the low rate of duty paid 

 by French wines previously, was an aggrava- 

 tion of an old popular grievance against the 

 Liberal party. The proposed tariff changes 

 also increased the discrimination against whis- 

 ky, which has long been a subject of Irish 

 complaints, making alcohol in that form pay 

 six times as much duty as in the malt liquors 

 drunk by the English people. The Conservatives 

 offered an amendment to the tax bill, which 



SIB MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH, BART., 



Chancellor of the Exchequer. 



united the diverse interests prejudicially affect- 

 ed by the new taxes. The "whip" of the 

 Ministerial party sent out an ordinary notice 

 to the Liberal members, many of whom had 

 not returned from the Whitsun vacation when 

 the debate came on. A dozen or more Liber- 

 als left the House while the debate was pro- 

 ceeding, and about sixty were absent when the 



