314 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



inent the poor-law relief with Government aid not 

 to exceed three fourths of the whole, granted on the 

 condition that the guardians applied the labor test. 

 For the next crop Parliament voted to supply seed 

 and the Government furnished implements for 

 spraying potatoes to the boards of guardians in the 

 famished districts. Mr. Davitt's motion charging 

 that no adequate means had been taken to avert 

 starvation was rejected bv 235 votes to 133. On 

 June 7 the celebration by Nationalists of the anni- 

 versary of the battle of Antrim produced Orange 

 riots in Belfast more serious than had occurred 

 since 1886, necessitating the occupation by troops 

 of some quarters of the town. As in former dis- 

 turbances, public houses were looted and the street 

 pavements were torn up to furnish cobblestones, 

 which are the favorite weapons of the Belfast rabble. 

 When Sir William Harcourt declined to support 

 Mr. Redmond's amendment to the address asserting 

 the Irish claim for an independent Parliament and 

 Executive, and when the amendment was defeated 

 by an enormous majority, the separation between 

 the Irish Nationalists and the British Radicals, 

 which began in 1897 on the education question, was 

 made apparent. When Irish representatives brought 

 up the question of financial relations, urging that 

 Ireland was overtaxed, a part of the Liberals sus- 

 tained the view of the Government, as also on the 

 question of local government. On the question of 

 a Catholic university for Ireland the leader of the 

 house conceded the claim of the Irish party, but 

 put off the matter until local government was out 

 of the way. 



The criminal-evidence bill deals with a subject 

 that has been brought before Parliament many times 

 in the past twenty-five years. It had the support of 

 a majority of the judges and legal practitioners. 

 Previous statutes allow a prisoner to be heard in 

 certain cases, dependent often on the form of the 

 indictment. Some feared that the present act by 

 allowing him to be cross-examined on questions of 

 character would place him at the mercy of the 

 prosecuting attorney ; hence limits were set to the 

 questions that can be put to him. He can not be 

 questioned about other offenses than the one charged 

 nor as to bad character. The bill contains a clause 

 enabling a wife to give evidence in behalf of her 

 husband or a husband in behalf of his wife. Neither 

 the prisoner nor the wife or husband can be called 

 as a witness except on the prisoner's own applica- 

 tion. The power of the person charged to malke an 

 unsworn statement not subject to cross-examina- 

 tion remains intact. The person charged or the 

 wife or husband can give testimony at any stage 

 of the proceedings, but if the prisoner is the only 

 witness for the defense he is to be called imme- 

 diately after the close of the prosecution. The 

 act applies to England and Scotland, but not to 

 Ireland. 



The London municipalities bill, which was not 

 proceeded 'with, was violently opposed by the Pro- 

 gressives, who, when it was first adumbrated by 

 Lord Salisbury, saw in it a design to rob the 

 county council of its chief powers and return prac- 

 tically to the old system of parishes in order to 

 frustrate the policy which the local allies of the 

 Tory party were unable to defeat in the county 

 elections. The special juries act abolishes the nu- 

 merical limit of 48 fixed for the panel by former 

 legislation, and loaves it to the sheriff to decide 

 what Is a sufficient number of persons to be sum- 

 moned to the assi/cs as special juiors. The prison 

 act amalgamates the convict prison directors with 

 the prison commissioners, establishes visitors to 

 conviot prisons, directs that prisoners for debt or 

 for nonpayment of fines are not to be placed in 

 association with criminal prisoners or obliged to 



wear prison dress, and empowers the Home Office 

 to make rules for the treatment of prisoners, which 

 are to be submitted to Parliament, and which must 

 have regard for the sex, age, health, industry, and 

 conduct of prisoners and not prescribe corporal 

 punishment except in special cases. 



The inebriates act provides that an habitual 

 drunkard, admitted by himself or found by a jury 

 to be such, on being convicted of an offense commit- 

 ted under the influence of drink, maybe committed 

 to a state or certified inebriate reformatory, to be 

 detained there in addition to or in lieu of any other 

 sentence. The Secretary of State has power to es- 

 tablish state reformatories and to certify reforma- 

 tories established by county or borough councils or 

 others of fit character. Both the treasury and the 

 borough or county councils may contribute toward 

 the expenses of certified reformatories. A person 

 committed to a reformatory is maintained at his 

 own charge provided he has an estate more than 

 sufficient to maintain his family. The existing re- 

 treats for habitual drunkards are licensed no longer 

 by the justices, but by the county or borough coun- 

 cils, and a person committed under the habitual- 

 drunkards act may be detained in such a retreat 

 for the maximum period of two years, instead of 

 one year. The libraries act makes it a misde- 

 meanor to be disorderly or abusive or to gamble 

 in a public library or in the library of a provident 

 or friendly society or a trade union. 



A new vagrancy act makes a man who lives on 

 the earnings of prostitution liable to be sentenced 

 as a rogue and a vagabond to three months' hard 

 labor, and on a second conviction to be whipped, 

 the whipping clause being preserved just to meet 

 such cases. A bail act enables justices of the 

 peace, although they may decide that a person 

 ought to be indicted and tried at assizes or quarter 

 sessions, to dispense with sureties for his appearance 

 at trial unless it tends to defeat the ends of justice. 

 The importation of fictitious foreign postage stamps 

 and of lottery advertisements is prohibited in the 

 customs and inland revenue act of 1898, which also 

 requires an account of importations of diamonds. 

 One of the shipping acts makes the owner respon- 

 sible for damages caused by his ship previous to 

 its registration ; the other establishes a general 

 lighthouse fund and enacts that light dues arc to 

 be levied by periods or by voyages, and not accord- 

 ing to the number of 'lights that a ship passes. 

 The reserve forces and militia act enables first-class 

 reservists of good character, up to the number of 

 5,000, to agree to serve in the permanent army dur- 

 ing the first twelve months of their reserve service, 

 and also permits the militia to volunteer for foreign 

 service. 



The companies act of 1867 provided that shares 

 must be paid for in cash unless a contract staling 

 the fact of their allotment for goods or other valu- 

 able consideration shall have been filed with the 

 registrar of joint-stock companies. The new act 

 extends relief in cases when the company or person 

 interested satisfies the court that the failure to reg- 

 ister a contract was accidental, or where it is found 

 just and equitable to grant relief. A superannua- 

 tion scheme was enacted for elementary-school 

 teachers, who are only admitted to the benefits 

 of the fund on proving their physical capacity 

 to the education department at the time of re- 

 ceiving their certificates and contribute at the rate 

 of 3 a year for men and 2 for woman teachers. 

 The superannuation allowance begins at the age 

 of sixty-five. 



The church benefices act invalidates the transfer 

 of the right of patronage unless it is registered, 

 unless twelve months have elapsed since the ad- 

 mission of the last incumbent, and unless the whole 



