452 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. (THE SESSION OF PARLIAMENT.) 



for the budget, as well as for the Afghan settle- 

 ment and the Egyptian arrangement, upon the 

 late Cabinet. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach de- 

 clared that he would under other circumstances 

 have framed a very different budget. The Irish 

 members demanded their privilege in Parlia- 

 ment, when Mr. Bright, at a banquet to Lord 

 Spencer, denounced them as ''disloyal to the 

 Crown and directly hostile to Great Britain," 

 and said that they " had displayed a boundless 

 sympathy for criminals and for murderers," but 

 the leader of the House objected to raising a 

 question of privilege on utterances made out- 

 side. The Chancellor of the Exchequer prom- 

 ised further advances to meet the demands of 

 the Irish Roman Catholic clergy on the educa- 

 tion question. 



The understanding with the Parnellites en- 

 abled the Government, in the few weeks that 

 remained between their assumption of the ad- 

 ministration and the end of the session, to ac- 

 complish much more than their predecessors 

 had hoped to do in the way of legislation. A 

 list of bills of a non-contentious character was 

 announced as the programme with which the 

 ministry was prepared to proceed in the be- 

 ginning of July. Some of these had been 

 abandoned by Mr. Gladstone, and some were 

 new measures. 



The Australasian Federal Council bill was 

 passed without serious opposition (see AUS- 

 TRALASIA). The bill creating the office of Sec- 

 retary of State for Scotland was carried through, 

 though Sir Lyon Playfair led a vigorous attack 

 on the transfer to the new Secretary of the su- 

 perintendence of education, previously exer- 

 cised by a committee of the Privy Council. 

 Lord Salisbury introduced a bill embodying the 

 recommendations of the royal commission on 

 the dwellings of the poor, a project which he 

 had taken under his special care. 



Two of the measures that were enacted, the 

 bill removing the disabilities of recipients of 

 medical relief and the criminal amendment bill, 

 were attended by considerable public excite- 

 ment during their discussion. Over the first a 

 curious contest took place in Parliament. The 

 full effect of the disqualification of hospital and 

 dispensary patients was not appreciated by the 

 politicians of either party when the question 

 was before Parliament in the earlier part of 

 the session. A struggle now took place be- 

 tween Conservatives and Liberals, in which 

 they endeavored to wrest from each other the 

 credit of passing a bill for its removal to which 

 there was no serious opposition. Upon the 

 maintenance of the disqualification by the up- 

 per house, Mr. Jesse Collings brought in a bill 

 to enfranchise recipients of medical relief. Mr. 

 Balfour, the President of the Local Government 

 Board, adopted it as a Government measure. 

 He admitted that the Government would have 

 been willing to let the subject rest if the Radi- 

 cals had not endeavored to make party capital 

 out of it, and that he shared to some extent the 

 opinions of the opponents of the measure who 



objected to giving votes to recipients of charity, 

 and feared that the franchise would eventually 

 be extended to the whole pauper class, and a 

 strong motive for thrift and self-help removed. 

 His timid and unskillful handling of the meas- 

 ure enabled the Radicals to obtain possession 

 of it again by carrying against the Government 

 an amendment admitting to the franchise re- 

 cipients of medical comforts, as well as of treat- 

 ment and medicines ; but in the upper house, 

 by a piece of sharp practice, a Conservative 

 peer took it out of the hands of the Liberals. 



The criminal law amendment bill for the 

 protection of young girls was forced upon 

 Parliament by means of a sensational popular 

 agitation that scandalized English society and 

 attracted the attention of the civilized world. 

 The editor of^the "Pall Mall Gazette " started 

 the agitation in favor of a change in the law of 

 seduction, raising the age of legal consent, 

 which under the existing law was twelve 

 years. He asserted that there exists in Lon- 

 *don a market, patronized by wealthy lechers, 

 in which very young girls are sold, the usual 

 price being twenty -five dollars; that physi- 

 cians are found willing to examine them and 

 sign certificates that they are maidens; that 

 secluded and padded rooms exist in which to 

 accomplish their ruin by violence if they re- 

 sist ; and that there are agencies for sending 

 the victims abroad, where they are inducted 

 into a life of prostitution. These statements 

 were supported by a mass of corroborative 

 evidence and detailed instances, based partly 

 on an official report and partly on investiga- 

 tions made by the reporters of the newspaper. 

 A young girl was procured for Mr. Stead, the 

 editor, examined, examined again while under 

 the influence of chlorofoim by a medical man, 

 taken to a house where her violation could 

 have been accomplished with impunity, and 

 then sent to France, where she was committed 

 to the care of respectable people. When 

 threatened with prosecution, the editor inti- 

 mated that prominent merchants and profes- 

 sional men, members of Parliament, noblemen, 

 and even princes of the royal family, could be 

 forced to depose experiences in connection 

 with the traffic in maidens. He offered to 

 submit his proofs to the Archbishop of Can- 

 terbury, Cardinal Manning, and Mr. Samuel 

 Morley, representing the Anglican, the Roman 

 Catholic, and the Dissenting churches. They 

 accepted the trust, and alter examining the 

 evidence, including the case of the girl pro- 

 cured for the editor for the purpose of show- 

 ing that the agencies described were still in 

 operation, they reported that the existence o 

 such practices was established. The leaders 

 of the Salvation Army aided Mr. Stead in his 

 inve>tigations and took a prominent partj 

 the agitation. An enormous mass -^meetins 

 was held in Hyde Park, and a petition witl 

 500,000 signatures in favor of raising the age 

 of consent to eighteen years was presented to 

 Parliament. Mr. Gladstone expressed hirnseli 



