308 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



in referring to Irish rule was taken from the active 

 life of the great statesman. Gladstone's sole aim 

 throughout his career was the adaptation of legis- 

 lative enactment to the moral and .material wants 

 und progress of the people. He pinned his faith to 

 moral principles and the sure progress of truth and 

 right. In his last illness, amid the agonies of that 

 painful disease, cancer, he was supported and en- 

 abled to bear with patience and resignation the 

 awful suffering by tender ministry of his wife and 

 family, and his deep faith in Divine Providence. It 

 is worthy of comment that two of the greatest 

 statesmen in contemporary history, Bismarck, the 

 4 Iron Chancellor," and Gladstone, the "Grand Old 

 Man," were scarcely known to each other. Glad- 

 stone is at rest in the finest memorial of the church 

 he loved, amid the dust of those whom the world 

 has delighted to honor, and, by the grim irony of 

 fate, the great commoner and the coroneted earl 

 who was almost his only enemy in life lie side by 

 side, at rest from the fret and fever of earthly am- 

 bition. 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, a mon- 

 archy in western Europe, formed by the union of 

 the Kingdom of England, the Principality of Wales, 

 and the Kingdom of Scotland, constituting together 

 the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of 

 Ireland, the whole forming the United Kingdom, 

 which holds supreme dominion over the Empire of 

 India and colonies and dependencies of various 

 kinds self-governing colonies, colonies adminis- 

 tered by the Crown, and protectorates under native 

 laws and rulers constituting, with the United 

 Kingdom, the British Empire. The reigning sov- 

 ereign is the Queen-Empress Victoria, born May 24, 

 1819, the daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent, who 

 was the fourth son of George III. The heir appar- 

 ent is Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, born Nov. 9, 

 1841, whose only surviving son, George, Duke of 

 York, born June 3, 1865, is next in succession. 



The power to legislate for the United Kingdom 

 and, except so far as is delegated to local legislative 

 authorities, for the whole British Empire, is vested 

 in the British Parliament, consisting of the House 

 of Lords and the House of Commons. The members 

 of the House of Lords are princes of the blood royal ; 

 spiritual lords, which are the metropolitan bishops 

 of ancient English sees ; hereditary peers of Eng- 

 land, of Great Britain, or of the United Kingdom ; 

 law lords and life peers created by the sovereign on 

 the advice of the ministers; and representatives 

 elected from the Scotch and Irish peerages. There 

 were 580 peers oti the roll in 1897. The House of 

 Commons numbers 670 members, of whom 495 

 represent English and Welsh, 72 Scotch, and 103 

 Irish const it uencies. Every proprietor, householder, 

 or lodger paying a rent of 10 a year possesses the 

 parliamentary franchise. The number of registered 

 electors in the three kingdoms in 1897 was 6,470,074. 

 The committee of ministers called the Cabinet, 

 representing the actual majority in the House of 

 Commons, exercises in fact the executive authority 

 in the United Kingdom and in the empire that is 

 nominally vested in the Crown. The Prime Min- 

 i-ier selects his col leagues and dispenses the patron- 

 age of the < 'rown ; ho initiates to a great extent the 

 policy of the Government and the legislation of 

 Parliament, and when his policy is defeated in Par- 

 liament or reversed at the polls he resigns with the 

 rest of the Cabinet and advises the Queen as to the 

 political leader who is most competent to form a 

 new Cabinet. The Cabinet formed on June 25, 1895, 

 by Lord Salisbury, consisted, in the beginning of 

 1898, of the following members : Prime Minister and 

 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the Marquis 

 <>f Salisbury; Lord President of the Council, the 

 Duke of Devonshire; Lord High Chancellor, the 



Earl of Halsbury ; Lord Privy Seal, Viscount Cross ; 

 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Lord James 

 of Hereford ; First Lord of the Treasury. Arthur J. 

 Balfour; Secretary of State for the Home Depart- 

 ment, Sir Michael E. Hicks-Beach 1 ; Secretary of 

 State for the Colonies, Joseph Chamberlain ; Secre- 

 tary of State for War, the Marquis of Lansdownc ; 

 Secretary of State for India, Lord George Hamil- 

 ton ; First Lord of the Admiralty, G. J. Goschen ; 

 President of the Local Government Board, Henry 

 Chaplin ; President of the Board of Trade, C. T. 

 Ritchie ; Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Earl Cadogan ; 

 Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Lord Ashbourne, for- 

 merly Edward Gibson ; Secretary for Scotland, Lord 

 Balfour of Burleigh ; First Commissioner of Works, 

 A. Akers-Dotiglas ; President of the Board of Agri- 

 culture, W. H. Long. 



Area and Population. The area of England is 

 50,867; of Wales, 7,442 ; of Scotland, 29,785 ; of Ire- 

 land, 32,583; of the Isle of Man, 227; of the Chan- 

 nel Isles, 75 square miles; total, United Kingdom, 

 120,979 square miles. The estimated population of 

 England and Wales and the islands in 1897 was 

 31,055,355 ; of Scotland, 4,218,279 ; of Ireland, 4,550,- 

 929 ; total, United Kingdom, 39,824,503. The pop- 

 ulation of the metropolis in June, 1897, was 4,463,- 

 169 for the registration district, and 1,828. 

 for the outer ring ; total for greater London, 

 6,291,677. The population of the principal English 

 municipal boroughs in 1897 was as follows: Liver- 

 pool, 633,078 ; Manchester, 534,299 ; Birmingham, 

 505,772; Leeds, 409,472; Sheffield, 351.848; Notting- 

 ham, 232,934; Bristol, 232,042; Bradford, 231,260; 

 Kingston-upon-Hull, 225,045; Newcastle, 217,555; 

 Salford, 213,190; Leicester, 203,599; Portsmouth, 

 182,585 ; Cardiff, 170,063. In Scotland, Glasgow had 

 714,919 inhabitants in 1897 ; Edinburgh, 292.364 : 

 Dundee, 163,090. In Ireland, Dublin had 361,891 

 inhabitants in 1891. The number of marriages it 

 England and Wales in 1896 was 242,445 ; of births 

 917,201 ; of deaths, 527,929 ; excess of births, 389,272 

 The number of marriages in Scotland was 30,256 ; of 

 births, 129,153; of deaths, 70,634; excess of births 

 58,519. The number of marriages in Ireland 

 22,856 ; of births, 107^641 ; of deaths, 75,700 ; exec 

 of births, 31,941. The number of persons, native 

 and foreigners, who emigrated from the Unitei: 

 Kingdom to the United States in 1897 was 132.098 ; 

 to British America, 22,702 : to Australasia, 12,491 ; 

 total, 213,450. The total for 1896 was 241.95 

 comprising 144,913 males and 97,039 females. Enj: 

 lish emigrants numbered 94.719 in 1897; Scotch 

 16.140; Irish, 35,681 ; total, 146,540. The net emi 

 gration in 1896, after deducting 159,913 immigrants 

 was 82,039; the net emigration of natives of the 

 British Islands, after deducting 101,742 returned, 

 was 60,183. 



Finances. The estimated revenue for the year 

 ejiding March 31, 1897, was 100,480,000. and the 

 estimated expenditure was 102,324.921. The actual 

 receipts amounted to 103.949,885, and the actual 

 disbursements to 101,476,669, leaving a surplus of 

 2.473,216, compared with one of 4,209,472 in 1896 

 and one of 765,341 in 1895. Including 8,249,OiK) 

 paid over to local taxation accounts, the total rev- 

 enue was 112.199.000. The net receipts from 

 customs were 21.266.131, of which tobacco pnid 

 11,018.048, tea 3,799.372, rum 2,111,297, brandy 

 1,303,617, other spirits 903,278, wine <JI.',>!MUM, 

 currants 11 7,265, coffee 172,333, raisins 214.0M), 

 and other articles 3:>0.(i51. The excise recei) ts 

 were 27,435.096. of which 16,013,412 came fn.m 

 spirits, 10,901,094 from beer, 272.183 from rail- 

 ways, 240.866 from licenses, and 7,541 from other 

 sources. The yield of the estate duty was 7.159,581 ; 

 of the temporary estate duty, collected on property 

 of persons dying after Aug. 1, 1894, 107,507; of 



