320 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



because he had taken a vacant farm. , The Chief 

 Secretary endeavored to bring about a confer- 

 ence between representatives of the landlords' 

 c-i invention and of the United Irish League re- 

 spectively with a view to settling the general 

 terms on which the land could be transferred to 

 the farmers. The landlords refused to take part 

 in such a conference. In the sales which the 

 Land Commission had effected the instalments 

 paid annually were 4 per cent., extinguishing 

 the debt in from forty to fifty years, but the 

 purchaser was required to pay at once 25 per 

 cent, of the purchase money in cash. The in- 

 stalments were considerably lower than the rents. 

 The tenants were willing to pay eighteen years' 

 purchase, but the landlords wanted twenty-seven 

 vr:u>' purchase. 



In August Parliament adjourned for an au- 

 tumn session to begin in October. The conflict 

 over the education bill was fiercer than ever and 

 raged fiercer yet out of doors during the recess. 

 Of the new rules of procedure only half had been 

 carried, and the remaining ones had little chance 

 of going through in the face of the obstinate re- 

 sistance of the Opposition. The London water 

 bill was still in an incipient stage. The educa- 

 tion bill was carried through the Commons by 

 application of the closure. The Government ac- 

 cepted the amendment of Col. Kenyon-Slaney ac- 

 cording to which a majority of the board of man- 

 agers under a trust deed can control the religious 

 education in a voluntary school by dismissing 

 teachers and preventing the parson from giving 

 instruction if it is contrary to the doctrines and 

 usages of the Church of England. In the House 

 of Lords the Bishop of Manchester introduced 

 an amendment throwing upon the school rates 

 the expense of keeping the schoolhouses in re- 

 pair. 



Coronation of Edward VII. The coronation 

 of the King was appointed to take place in June. 

 Great preparations were made, not only by the 

 Government in fitting up Westminster Abbey 

 for the ceremony, in decorating the streets of 

 London, and in arranging processions, pageants, 

 and feasts, but by the persons who were to take 

 part in the spectacle, and especially by the busi- 

 ness people who provided food, raiment, and 

 stocks of goods of many kinds, lodging-places, 

 and stands on the route of the procession for 

 the multitudes that would gather from the vari- 

 ous parts of the United Kingdom, from British 

 colonies and dependencies, and from many for- 

 eign countries. Many speculative traders who 

 involved their capital and credit deeply secured 

 themselves against the King's death by insuring 

 his life. A few weeks before the appointed date 

 the King was seized with an acute attack of 

 perityphlitis or appendicitis. An operation was 

 necessary which Kept him confined to his bed, 

 and in place of the festivities there was general 

 anxiety and gloom, instead of thriving trade there 

 was loss and stagnation in the retail business of 

 London. The Australian Premiers, the Indian 

 princes, the royal guests from European courts, 

 the special envoys of foreign governments who 

 had already arrived, with the nobility and 

 gentry of the three kingdoms and throngs of 

 visitors from abroad, disappeared into the coun- 

 try or scattered themselves over the Continent. 

 AH official plans of presentations and confer- 

 ences were disarranged and missions and creden- 

 tials lapsed or were abandoned. The King re- 

 covered and the coronation took place on Aug. 9 

 with the same ceremonial that was originally 

 planned, but with less brilliant pomp and dis- 

 play and a smaller concourse of participants and 



onlookers. King Edward was presented by the 

 Archbishop of Canterbury and greeted with the 

 homage of the people as the undoubted King 

 of the realm, after which he swore to govern ac- 

 cording to the statutes of Parliament and the 

 laws and customs of the United Kingdom of 

 Great Britain and Ireland and dominions thereto 

 belonging; to cause law and justice to be exe- 

 cuted in all his judgments; and to maintain the 

 laws of God, the profession of the Gospel, the 

 Protestant Reformed religion, the settlement of 

 the Church of England, its doctrine, worship, 

 discipline, and government, and the rights and 

 privileges of the bishops and clergy. The corona- 

 tion oath was followed by the ceremonies of 

 anointing, presenting with spurs and sword, 

 oblation of the sword, investment with the orb, 

 cross, and ring, presentation with the scepters, 

 the solemn crowning, enthronement on St. Ed- 

 ward's chair, and homage by bishops, the princes 

 of the blood, and the orders of the peerage. Then 

 Queen Alexandra was anointed and crowned with 

 Queen Edith's crown and invested with the scep- 

 ter and ivory rod, insignia of the Queen Consort. 



A review of the Channel squadron, the home 

 squadron, and the recently formed cruiser squad- 

 ron by the King at Spithead a week later ended 

 the coronation festivities. The three squadrons 

 massed there were the force maintained for the 

 defense of British shores in the event of a con- 

 flict on the seas. The Channel squadron con- 

 sisted of 6 battle-ships and 4 cruisers, the home 

 fleet of 10 battle-ships and 6 cruisers, and a cruiser 

 squadron of 6 ships. There were also 3 flotillas 

 of destroyers which exhibited their speed and 

 maneuvers.. On coronation day the King pre- 

 sented to the nation Osborne house and estate, 

 in the Isle of Wight, the private property and 

 favorite residence of the late Queen, left to him 

 by her will, and in making the gift he expressed 

 a hope that it be converted into a convalescent 

 home for invalid officers of the navy and army. 

 Parliament subsequently voted the sum neces- 

 sary to carry out this purpose. Many peers were 

 created or elevated in the peerage and other dis- 

 tinctions were conferred. A new order of merit 

 was instituted, the Imperial Service order, to 

 which 250 companions can be appointed from 

 the home civil service and 175 from the colonies 

 and protectorates after twenty-five years of meri- 

 torious service or sixteen years in unhealthful 

 colonies or protectorates. 



The Autumn Session. When Parliament re- 

 assembled the Government demanded all the time 

 for its own measures. The Irish members de- 

 manded a day for reviewing the conduct of the 

 Irish executive. This Mr. Balfour would not 

 promise unless the leader of the Opposition, Sir 

 Henry Campbell-Bannerman, was prepared to 

 move a vote of censure. A violent demonstra- 

 tion accompanied the adoption under the closure 

 of the Government motion, resulting in the Mi- 

 pension of an Irish member who had already been 

 sentenced in Ireland to six months' hard labor. 

 The Nationalists in Ireland were in a different 

 situation than they were when the former land 

 war brought them into conflict with the authori- 

 ties of Dublin Castle. Now, through the county 

 councils, they controlled the whole local admin- 

 istration. Their indignation was the greater at 

 the suspension of trial by jury and habeas corpus 

 and the application of the other despotic features 

 of the crimes act throughout the greater part 

 of Ireland where there were no agrarian or po- 

 litical disturbances, -though the excitement was 

 rendered intense by the action of the Govern- 

 ment. 



