GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



by the reading of the royal address till the 

 21st. Mr. Arthur Peel was re-elected Speaker. 

 When Mr. Bradlaugh appeared to take the 

 oath, Sir Michael Hicks-Beach raised the 

 stereotyped objections, but the Speaker re- 

 fused to allow his transactions in the former 

 Parliament to be made the basis of a mo- 

 tion. 



The speech from the throne referred to the 

 Afghan boundary delimitation, the negotia- 

 tions on the Bulgarian question, the Anglo- 

 Turkish Commission in Egypt, and the annexa- 

 tion of Burmah, and announced an inquiry into 

 the government of India. With reference to 

 home-rule for Ireland, the Queen was made to 

 express deep sorrow for the hostility excited 

 in Ireland against the legislative union, and 

 resolute opposition to any disturbance of that 

 fundamental law. The practice of organized 

 intimidation in Ireland was deplored, and an 

 application for larger powers to enable the 

 Government to protect subjects in their legal 

 rights was foreshadowed. The continued de- 

 pression in British trade and agriculture was 

 mentioned. The legislative programme em- 

 braced nearly all the subjects contained in the 

 electoral platform of the Conservative party in 

 the autumn. Bills were promised on the fol- 

 lowing subjects: For transferring to repre- 

 sentative councils in the counties of Great 

 Britain local business which is now transacted 

 by the Courts of Quarter Sessions and other 

 authorities, and for the reform of county gov- 

 ernment in Ireland ; measures involving the 

 consideration of the incidence of local burdens, 

 for facilitating the sale of glebe-lands, in a 

 manner adapted to the wants of the rural 

 population ; as also for removing the diffi- 

 culties which prevent the easy and cheap 

 transfer of land, for mitigating the distressed 

 i condition of the poorer classes in the western 

 Highlands and islands of Scotland, for the more 

 effectual prevention of accidents in mines, for 

 extending the powers of the Railway Com- 

 mission in respect to the regulation of rates, 

 and for the codification of the criminal law. 



In the debate on the address, Mr. Gladstone, 

 denying that the act of union was a funda- 

 mental law of an empire that had existed for 

 six centuries before it was enacted, intimated 

 that he would propose, if placed in power, to 

 grant Ireland a large measure of self-govern- 

 ment, which was a repetition of his declara- 

 tions made after the elections. The Govern- 

 ment, which had no prospect of further support 

 from the Parnellites, immediately gave notice 

 of a bill dealing with social order in Ireland 

 hy the suppression of the National League. 

 The Government were sustained on two hostile 

 amendments, one of them against burdening 

 the people of India with the expenses of the 

 Burmese War. On Jesse Collinjrs's amend- 

 ment censuring the omission of a pledge in the 

 address to promote allotments and small hold- 

 ings, the Irish members joined the Gladstone 

 Liberals and the Radicals, and the Government 



were defeated by 329 votes against 258. Lord 

 Hartington, Mr. Goschen, and a few other 

 Liberals voted with the Conservatives. 



Mr. Gladstone, on again taking office, was 

 deserted not only by the Whigs, who had be- 

 gun to fall away from the previous Radical 

 ministry, but by many Radicals who were 

 opposed to home- rule. Mr. Chamberlain and 

 Mr. Trevelyan, however, though foes of sepa- 

 ration, took office with pronounced Home- 

 Rulers, such as John Morley and Lord Rose- 

 bery. In seeking re-election and on accepting 

 office, Mr. Morley and Sir Charles Russell, the 

 Attorney-General, were unsuccessfully opposed 

 in their boroughs as being Home-Rulers. 

 Jesse Collings, after receiving the appoint- 

 ment of Secretary of the Local Government 

 Board, was unseated on account of electoral 

 irregularities in his district. 



The ministry was ostensibly formed on the 

 basis of "examination and inquiry." The 

 question of home-rule had formed no part of 

 the electoral programme, but was taken up 

 when the Liberals found that they could not 

 attain power without an alliance with the 

 Irish. Mr. Gladstone, convinced by experience 

 of the futility of coercion that left a stigma on 

 the Liberal party, was anxious to wash his 

 hands of "separate and restrictive criminal 

 legislation," and satisfy the national desires of 

 the Irish people in a way to end the Irish 

 question. In his speech to his constituents on 

 taking office he indicated the task that he had 

 set before himself, which was to evolve a 

 scheme of comprehensive legislation dealing 

 with the question of social order, the agrarian 

 difficulty, and the demand for self-government 

 in Ireland. In a letter to Lord de Vesci he 

 said he was desirous of obtaining information 

 from Irishmen of all classes and sections. 



The country was impatient for information 

 regarding the plan of legislation, but the Irish 

 question was postponed till the close of the 

 financial year. The Tories had already raised 

 the cry that the empire was in danger, and 

 assiduously stimulated the anti-Irish senti- 

 ment. They attacked the administration un- 

 der Lord Aberdeen, the new Viceroy, and Mr. 

 Morley's reluctance to carry out evictions ; but 

 the Liberals sustained the Government when 

 this question was brought to a vote. The fol- 

 lowers of Mr. Gladstone hoped that the country 

 would become familiar with the idea of home- 

 rule, and that the prestige of their leader 

 would carry through a project that contained 

 adequate safeguards for the preservation of the 

 imperial union. The difficulty of uniting the 

 Liberal party on any plan that would be 

 acceptable to the Nationalists appeared during 

 the discussion of the subject in the Cabinet. 

 After the Marquis of Hartington had publicly 

 announced his readiness to lead a secession of 

 Liberals, it became known that Mr. Chamber- 

 lain and Mr. Trevelyan had refused to accept 

 Mr. Gladstone's measure, though their formal 

 resignation from the Cabinet wasnot announced 



