750 



VICTORIA. 



sistence. Roughly speaking, Ireland, from the 

 union to 1880, was never governed by the ordi- 

 nary law. The union, according to its advocates, 

 was to be the bond of peace and lasting affection 

 between the two countries; it was followed by 

 eight v years of coercive legislation." 



The home-rule movement began quietly about 

 1870, and in 1874 was made an issue at some of 

 the elections about 60 Irish members being re- 

 turned as pledged to it. What they asked was an 

 Irish parliament to deal with affairs concerning 

 Ireland only. Mr. Parnell entered Parliament in 

 IS7.">. and became the leader of the home-rule 

 party, of which Mr. Isaac Butt had been, if not 

 the originator, an active member. A rather in- 

 effective land act had been passed in 1870; the 

 demand now came to be for three things which 

 were called the three F's fair rent, fixity of ten- 

 ure, free sale. 



About this time (1876-79) Ireland was threat- 

 ened through three poor harvests with another 

 famine. Mr. Parnell was joined by other ener- 

 getic Irish patriots, who organized the great asso- 

 ciation known as the Land League. Its object 

 was to change the system of land tenure, to abol- 

 ish landlordism, and enable the peasant to own 

 the land he tilled. There were 1,200 evictions in 

 1S76. over 1,300 in 1877, over 1,700 in 1878, and 

 nearly 4,000 in 1879. Mr. Parnell came to Amer- 

 ica to raise money for the sufferers, and went back 

 with nearly $250,000 for that purpose, besides a 

 large amount for carrying on the work of the Land 

 League. A bill for compensating evicted tenants 

 pa*sd the Commons, .but failed in the House of 

 Lords. 



The Conservative Government went out in 1880, 

 and Mr. Gladstone's ministry came in. It was ex- 

 pected that the Government and the Irish party 

 would work together, but the expectation was dis- 

 appointed. The Government would not go as far 

 as the Land League desired. The Irish people 

 \\cre advised to refuse to pay rent above a certain 

 valuation, and to refuse dealings with rack-renters 

 and evicting landlords and agents. This form of 

 warfare took the name boycotting Boycott being 

 the name of the first man against whom it was 

 used. .\11 violence was steadily discouraged by 

 the leaders, but the advice was not always fol- 

 lowed by the starving evicted peasants. 



The breach between the Government and the 

 Irish party came to a head when the Government 

 brought in a 'coercion bill; the Irish members re- 

 sorted to obstruction tactics until the Speaker for- 

 bade further debate. The arrest of Michael Davitt 

 just after this was the occasion of the expulsion of 

 a large number of Irish members 36, it is said 

 who tried to speak against it in the Commons. 



Kven Mr. Bright was now against the Irish 

 party, and the proposed coercion act was carried. 

 A land act also was passed. It created a land 

 court or courts, to which a tenant might appeal 

 if he thought the landlord fixed his rent too high. 

 This was much criticised, but it has been pro- 

 ductive of great good in bringing relief to tenants 

 from exorbitant demands. Mr. Parnell and the 

 other leaders thought it did not go far enough. 

 They advised that no appeals be taken to the land 

 court till after they had been approved by the 

 !>and League authorities. Mr. Gladstone had five 

 of them arrested for defiance of law and -ent to 

 Kilmainhain jail. They put out a manifesto ad- 

 vising tenants to pay no rent till they were rc- 

 >1 and constitutional rights restored. Crime 

 increased under what Mr. Bright had called "the 

 poisonous remedy of coercion." The historian 

 ' Ministerialists argued that within ten 

 month- tlie mutilation of animals in Ireland had 



increased to 47, therefore the liberties of a nation 

 of 5,000,000 should be suspended. They forgot 

 that in the same ten months of the same year 

 there was a total of 3,489 convictions in England 

 for cruelty to animals, many cases of which were 

 of the most horrible kind." 



Then, while still the prisoners were at Kilmain- 

 ham jail, a peace was concluded between them 

 and the Liberals. The agreement was called the 

 Kilmainham treaty. Parnell agreed to act with 

 the Liberal party if provision were made for can- 

 celing the arrears of rent that had accumulated 

 against the smaller tenantry, and the coercion act 

 abandoned. It was abandoned, and the prisoners 

 were released. 



On May 6, 1882, occurred the horrible crime 

 in Phoanix Park, Dublin the murder of the Chief 

 Secretary for Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, 

 and the Undersecretary. Mr. Burke. This was a 

 blow to the cause of Ireland. The arrears bill was 

 passed, the franchise was extended to every house- 

 holder in Ireland, and a land-purchase bill was 

 prepared but not carried through on account of the 

 fall of the Gladstone ministry. The Land League, 

 which had been suppressed, was revived under the 

 name National League. When Mr. Gladstone be- 

 came Premier again in 1886 he presented a home- 

 rule bill which had the support of the Irish mem- 

 bers, but divided his own party and led to another 

 change of ministry. The scandal against Mr. Par- 

 nell led to a division in the Irish party in 1890, 

 and a bitter fight ensued between his partisans 

 and those who believed that his continued leader- 

 ship would be damaging to the cause. 



Under the Salisbury ministry another great 

 step was taken recently toward good government 

 by the establishment of a system of local legisla- 

 tion and administration, to take the place of the 

 old scheme of executive control of the affairs of 

 communities through grand juries. 



The Australian Federation. The Australian 

 colonies act was passed in 1850 for the better ad- 

 ministration of the Government there. It gave the 

 colonies of New South Wales, Victoria. Van Die- 

 men's Land, and South Australia representative 

 government. Other colonies have been established 

 from time to time and made mainly self-governing. 

 In recent years the colonies have been taking 

 steps toward a federation : the question was sub- 

 mitted to a referendum in the various colonies, 

 and in January, 1899. the premiers met in a new 

 Federal Council to recast the commonwealth bill 

 that was ratified in 1898 in Victoria, Tasmania, 

 and South Australia : and the amended scheme of 

 federation was accepted by five of the colonies. 



Relations with the United States. In the 

 early years of the reign there were several causes 

 of friction between England and the United States. 

 One difficulty arose out of the arrest in New 

 York of a Canadian who had killed an American 

 in the fray over the destruction of the Caroline. 

 a steamboat fitted out on the American side of 

 the Niagara for use by the rebels, but which was 

 fired and sent o\'er the falls by loyal Canadian*. 

 This was settled when, after the British Govern- 

 ment had declared the raid to have been a public 

 act. the Canadian was released. Another compli- 

 cation was caused by the question of the right 

 of search for impressing British seamen and *up- 

 pressing the slave trade. The Creole, a slave ship. 

 had been taken into an English port in the We*t 

 Indies by the negroes who had mutinied: the 

 authorities had refused to assist the crew, and the 

 negroes had gone free. The northeastern boundary 

 was still unsettled. In 1842 Lord Ashhurton. who 

 \\as known to be friendly to the United State*. 

 wa* sent over as commissioner, and he concluded 



