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



453 



in favor of that limit. Although strong class 

 antagonisms were aroused by the agitation, 

 the question was discussed without party feel- 

 ing in Parliament. The Home Secretary in- 

 troduced a bill, which was elaborated in the 

 House of Commons in a temperate and prac- 

 tical spirit. Defilement of girls under thirteen 

 years of age was made a felony, instead of 

 twelve years, which was previously 

 the minimum age and still is in the 

 law of marriage. The legal age of 

 consent was raised to sixteen years, 

 and the seduction of girls between 

 the ages of thirteen and sixteen was 

 made a misdemeanor. If accom- 

 panied by intimidation or the use of 

 stupefying draughts, or even false 

 pretenses, such as a promise of mar- 

 riage, it becomes a criminal offense. 

 Mr. Stead, the originator of the agi- 

 tation that resulted in this amend- 

 ment of the law, was afterward tried 

 for the abduction of the girl Arm- 

 strong and abetting an assault upon 

 her in having her examined by a 

 French midwife. It was brought ^_ 



out in the evidence that she was 

 not a " child in stock " obtained 

 from a professional procuress, as Mr. 

 Stead supposed, but had been en- 

 gaged from her mother, probably 

 for service, by bis agent, Rebecca 

 Jarrett. He was sentenced to three 

 months' detention for abetting an 

 indecent assault, while Jarrett and 

 the midwife were sent to the peni- ^ 

 tentiary. 



Lord Ashbourne's Irish land-pur- 

 chase bill differed from Mr. Trevel- 

 yau's measure of the preceding ses- 

 sion in substituting for the local guar- 

 antee, which would not work, the 

 retention by the Land Commission 

 of 20 per cent, of the purchase - 

 money, if the state advanced the 

 whole amount, until the purchasing tenant 

 paid off a part in installments. Mr. Gladstone's 

 objections on financial grounds were met by 

 limiting the amount to be advanced by the 

 state in any single year to 5,000,000. Lord 

 Spencer criticised the bill, but admitted its 

 necessity. It was treated with indifference by 

 the Irish members, and criticised by Conserva- 

 tives as well as by Liberals, but was passed in 

 both houses as a non-contentious measure. 

 The Irish laborers bill was passed in substan- 

 tially the same form in which it was intro- 

 duced by the Liberals. 



Lord Salisbury's housing of the working- 

 classes bill was intended to give effect only to 

 the non-contentious recommendations of the 

 commissioners. The provision for the sale of 

 prison-sites for less than their market value 

 was strongly objected to as savoring of state 

 socialism, and was accordingly dropped. Other 

 features in the bill were criticised on the same 



ground, yet it became law without much oppo- 

 sition. The bill provides that a person letting 

 a house without taking reasonable precautions 

 that it is in a proper sanitary condition, is lia- 

 ble for damages if sickness or death result from 

 such neglect. It requires all persons letting 

 houses, to the rich as well as to the poor, to 

 keep them in a healthful and habitable condi- 



LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL, 



Secretary for India. 



tion, as was required before in the case of fur- 

 nished houses or lodgings. The bill in the pro- 

 visions directed against overcrowding empow- 

 ers the Local Government Board, instead of 

 the parish authorities, to build lodging-houses 

 for the working-classes under Lord Shaftes- 

 bury's act. It also contains a remarkable pro- 

 vision amending the Settled Land Act by per- 

 mitting tenants for life of entailed estates to 

 sell or lease land for laborers' dwellings at less 

 than the market value. 



Mr. Bradlaugh again raised the question of 

 his right to sit in the House of Commons for 

 Northampton, and was again excluded by a 

 vote of 263 to 219. In Lord Randolph Church- 

 ill's able speech on the Indian budget, he went 

 out of his way to attack the supineness of Lord 

 Ripon's administration, and thus revived the 

 controversy ever that remarkable episode of 

 the Gladstone ministry. Mr. Shaw-Lefevre's 

 bill reducing the minimum rate for telegrams 



