GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



317 



French Minister of \Vur, Botilanger, with the 



and machinery iirrc ary for I he manu- 



PO of the Lcbci rifle. Loewe's notion wus 



nil tin- more condemned l>y patriotic (icrmans 



inasmuch as i ho offer was made af tin- time of 



- Imaehcle atTair, when everything pointed 



tn a war between (icnnaiiy and France, and 



when Loe\\e\ ('n. were employed by the (ierman 



(m\ eminent to manufacture the Mauser rifle. 



How far tho anti.-rmitrs aiv carried away by 

 their fanaticism was shown by the Buschhoff 

 At X a n ten, a small place in Westphalia, 

 a child five years old was found dead in u barn 

 with his throat cut The barn being near the 

 shop of a .Jewish butcher, Iiiisehhoir, he \\a- ae- 

 ciised of murdering the child in order to provide 

 blood for mysterious rites. No clew of the actual 

 murderer being found, Buschhoff was put on 

 trial, and at the end of two weeks, after all the 

 testimony had been heard, the public prosecutor 

 asked, on behalf of the Crown, for the prisoner's 

 acquittal, claiming that the accused had proved 

 an ulibi for every minute of the day of the mur- 

 der. The jury, after a short conference, an- 

 nounced their verdict of "Not guilty." 



<;KKAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, a 



constitutional monarchy in western Europe. The 

 legislative, authority for the British Empire is 

 vested in the two Houses of Parliament, and 

 is practically exercised by the lower house or 

 House of Commons, consisting of 670 members, 

 of whom 377 sit for rural constituencies, coun- 

 ties, and county divisions, 284 for boroughs, 

 and 9 for universities. Of the English mem- 

 bers. 253 represent counties, 237 boroughs, and 5 

 universities; of the Scotch members, 39 sit for 

 counties, 31 for boroughs, and 2 for universities ; 

 of the Irish members, 85 are elected by county 

 districts, 16 by boroughs, and 2 by universities. 

 The number of registered voters in 1H91 was 

 4.838,080 in England and Wales, 593,877 in 

 Scot land, and 741.711 in Ireland : in all, 0,173.<><;s. 

 ci instituting about one sixth of the total popula- 

 tion. In 1882, prior to the last reform act. the 

 total number was 3,152,910. The voting is 

 secret and by ballot. Any man of full age is 

 qualified to sit in Parliament, unless he is a 

 clergyman of the English or Scotch Establish- 

 ment or of the Roman Catholic Church, a 

 (iovernment contractor or a sheriff or returning 

 oflieer, an English or Scotch peer, or an Irish rep- 

 resentative peer. When a seat in the House 

 of Commons becomes vacant a writ, for t he- 

 election of a new member is issued by the 

 vote of the House, or on the authority of the 

 Speaker if the House is not sitting. Th< 

 sions of Parliament have commonly lasted from 

 the middle of February till about the end of 

 August in recent times, except in the last two or 

 three years, when the sessions have been longer 

 and more irregular. Parliament is summoned by 

 royal writ, which is issued at least thirty-five days 

 before the meeting, and is prorogued by proclama- 

 tion of the sovereign, all unfinished legislation 

 thereupon falling to the ground. Parliament is 

 dissolved by proclamation, which is usually 

 issued after prorogation. If a Parliament has 

 lasted seven years, it expires by lapse of time. 

 During the present century no Parliament has 

 been dissolved by statutory limitation. The last 

 Parliament lasted from Aug. 5, 1886, till July 



! ". !-:>.': the one immediately preceding, from 

 .Ian. 12 to Jinn- _':. I*M; : the one In-fore U. at. 

 from April 2, 1880, till Nov. IN. ihsr, ; th- 



: of that one |p, in March 5. 1H74, till 

 March 24, 1SSO : ami the < ne previous to that, 

 from Dee. Id. 1H08. till .Jan. W, 1*7-1. The 

 authority of Parliament is virtually absolute, be- 

 ing restricted by no written ( 'oust i'tut ion. Min- 

 isters and members are governed by a e- n- 

 servative regard for constitutional precedents; 

 yet the.-e can be, and have bee-i, annulled and 

 new precedents created by the simple vote of the 

 majority. Such action always proceeds from 

 strong popular pressure, the constituents from 

 whom the members receive their mandates being 

 the final arbiters and repositories of supreme and 

 unlimited political power. 



The House of Lords is composed of English 

 peers, who have seats by virtue of hereditary 

 right or by creation of the sovereign ; of Irish 

 representative peers, elected for life by the Irish 

 nobility; of Scotch peers, elected for each Parlia- 

 ment ; and of English bishops, who are lords by 

 virtue of their office. There were 559 peers on 

 the roll of the House in 1891. All bills to be- 

 come law must receive the vote of the majority 

 of both houses; yet matters of a political and 

 contentious nature are rarely contested in the 

 House of Lords, which gives its attention to 

 social or imperial matters of a minor and non- 

 political character, and to ecclesiastical and legal 

 Questions which are decided in the sense in- 

 dicated by the ecclesiastical and legal members. 



The executive authority, nominally vested in 

 the Crown, is exercised by the Cabinet, which is 

 selected and dominated to a great extent by the 

 Prime Minister, the statesman who is the recog- 

 nized leader of the party, having a majority of 

 votes in the House of Commons. With the as- 

 sistance of his colleagues he disposes of the 

 patronage, decides all political, foreign, and im- 

 perial questions falling within the wide province 

 of executive action, and arranges and controls 

 the business of Parliament. When the Cabinet 

 to control the votes of a majority of the 

 Commons, and finds its policy condemned by a 

 clear expression of the sense of the House", it 

 either resigns, or if, as is often the case, it con- 

 siders that it still possesses the contidene-e of a 

 majority of the voters Parliament is elissolved, 

 anil writs for a general election are h 

 When a Cabinet resigns the retiring Prime Min- 

 ister advises th'.> sovereign to call on the lend- 

 er of the new majority, almost invariably the 

 chosen lead r of the opposing great party, to 

 form a new Cabinet. The Cabinet at the begin- 

 ningof 1892 was composed of the following mem- 

 bers : Prime Minister and Secretary of State for 

 Foreign Affairs, the Marquis of Salisbury, ap- 

 pointed Aug. :5, 1886, to the premiership, ami 

 constituted Foreign Secretary on Jan. 14. I""-? : 

 Lord High Chancellor. Lord HakboiT, formerly 

 Sir Hardinge S. GifTard : Lord President of the 

 Council. Viscount Cranbrook. formerly (Jat home 

 Hardy, appointed .Ian. 11. 1^7; Chancellor of 

 the F.xchequer, George .lo-ichim Goschen, ap- 

 pointed .Ian. 14. 1SS7: Secretary of State for the 

 DOOM Department. Henry Mat:i ve-tary 



of State for War. Kdward Stanhope, appointed 

 Jan. 14, 1887: First Lord of the Treasury. 

 Arthur J. Balfour. apjointed in November. 189i ; 



