412 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



advanced from the Irish Church surplus. T. P. 

 O'Connor's laborers' bill enables the rural 

 sanitary authorities to provide dwellings for 

 laborers through the medium of the Board of 

 Works by treasury loans. 



A section of the Liberal party showed a de- 

 sire to give a wide extension to the principle of 

 local self-government. 



The Conservatives pressed for the amend- 

 ment of the Bright or purchase clauses of the 

 land act, asking to have the Government ex- 

 tend more liberal loans and otherwise encour- 

 age the peasants to buy their holdings before 

 they become further depreciated. 



The amendments offered by the Land League 

 proposed to make judicial rent run from the 

 date of application, to give the court power to 

 suspend proceedings for ejectment pending the 

 determination of a fair rent, and to declare im- 

 provements to be by presumption the tenant's 

 property. Mr. Parnell proposed furthermore 

 to admit to the benefit of the act the leasehold- 

 ers, 100,000 of the flower of the Irish tenantry, 

 who are now for the most part rack-rented. 



Foreign and Colonial Policy. Egyptian affairs 

 were made the subject of pertinacious inquiry 

 in Parliament, rather than of direct attacks, 

 except by Irish and independent members. 



On July 10th the agreement made provision- 

 ally with M. de Lesseps, recognizing the exclu- 

 sive right to build a canal on the isthmus, 

 was communicated to Parliament. The storm 

 which it excited raged more violently outside 

 the House of Commons than inside. (See SU- 

 EZ CANAL.) The South African policy of the 

 Government was more vigorously assailed than 

 the Egyptian policy, in which it was credited 

 with having carried out Lord Beaconsfield's 

 ideas, and, as being in some sense still " under 

 fire," was not to be closely criticised, provided 

 Egypt were not relinquished. (See CAPE COL- 

 ONY.) 



Of the questions raised regarding French ac- 

 tion in Tonquin, on the Congo, and in Mada- 

 gascar, the ministry treated that of Mr. Shaw's 

 arrest only as a matter of direct concern. Rep- 

 aration was secured in the form of an indem- 

 nity to the missionary. In all questions of 

 foreign policy great care was taken to avoid 

 wounding French susceptibilities. The Ilbert 

 bill aroused in and out of Parliament the most 

 intense and resolute opposition of any part of 

 the Government's policy. The Government 

 adhered obstinately to the measure until the 

 end of the year, but only to yield at last and 

 offer a compromise, which was still not accept- 

 able. (See INDIA.) 



Political Parties. The tendency of the Minis- 

 terial party in 1883 was to follow more and 

 more the counsels of the advanced and stal- 

 wart section, particularly of Mr. Joseph Cham- 

 berlain, who conducted the most difficult and 

 important legislation of the session. The plan 

 of closer party co-operation in Jhe constituen- 

 cies has worked better since the novelty wore 

 off, and the organizations assumed a less arti- 



ficial form. The Conservatives, who at first 

 loudly decried the u caucus," and predicted the 

 demoralization and " Americanization " of poli- 

 tics, imitated it themselves by founding Con- 

 servative clubs. The Radical section of the 

 Liberals was ready with a programme for the 

 session of 1884 soon after Parliament. It was 

 the assimilation of the borough and county fran- 

 chise first, and a London municipality next. 



The Conservatives continued to be led by the 

 Marquis of Salisbury in the House of Lords, and 

 by Sir Stafford Northcote in the House of Com- 

 mons. Commotion in political circles was cre- 

 ated by a letter from the pen of Lord Randolph 

 Churchill, printed in the " Times " in April, 

 calling upon the party to decide on one of 

 these or on Lord Cairns for its leader, and ad- 

 vocating the claims of Lord Salisbury. The 

 latter, without assuming such pre-eminence, 

 was more strenuous and active than ever, and 

 rallied about him the more vigorous spirits of 

 the party. Sir Stafford Northcote, after the 

 close of Parliament, attempted a Mid-Lothian 

 compaign in Belfast, but only succeeded in 

 arousing dangerous political and religious pas- 

 sions, and stirring the fires of hereditary strife 

 in Ulster. The party suffered from the ill- 

 health of its leader in the popular House. 

 Conservative successes in some of the by- 

 elections indicated dissatisfaction with the 

 course of the Government in some particu- 

 lars, but were not sufficiently marked to pre- 

 sage a return to Conservative guidance. The 

 Marquis of Salisbury's gloomy warnings of 

 the destruction of the Constitution, confiscation 

 and communism, and Americanization of Brit- 

 ish institutions, met with no popular response. 

 His party offered no positive programme, no 

 constructive ideas with which they could ap- 

 peal to the constituencies. The scheme of 

 tenement-house reform, the propositions to 

 lighten local taxation, and vague and imma- 

 ture projects to protect the British farmer, 

 are the principal bids for popular support. 



The Irish National Party. The conflict between 

 the Government and the Irish leaders was not 

 renewed in 1883. The latter ceased their agra- 

 rian agitation, because the farmers were in a 

 measure satisfied with the advantages secured 

 under the land act. Warned by the revela- 

 tions of conspiracy and the hideous crimes, for 

 which the Land League was made answerable, 

 they perceived that the active agitation of the 

 national question would appeal chiefly to the 

 desperate revolutionary minority, and result 

 in the relentless destruction of their organiza- 

 tion by the English Government. The land 

 act embodied the principles on which they 

 proposed to settle the land question. 



The most remarkable incident of the debates 

 was the controversy between Mr. Forster and 

 Mr. Parnell in the debate on the address. The 

 ex-Chief' Secretary for Ireland, on February 

 22d, rose to explain the motives for his resig- 

 nation. The main reason he declared to be 

 his inability to obtain the powers he desired. 



