VIEW OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

Mr. Gladstone is standing at the table in the background. There are no desks for members in the British Parliament

one of the Whigs who had opposed that measure said: "Now we must educate our masters."

tablished.

Gladstone fully agreed that more provision should be made for educating the people, and in 1870 he passed a law for establishing new elementary schools Elementary in places which needed them, and supporting schools esthem by local taxes. Other laws have since increased the number and importance of these schools, but England is still far behind the United States in its free public school system.

Mr. Gladstone passed many other laws for doing away with injustices and abuses. One of these was a reform by which officers in the army were no Other uselonger obliged to purchase their offices from ful laws. those who went before them, thus making it easier for a poor man to secure promotion. Another was a law by which voting in elections was made secret, by ballot, instead of being done openly as before; thus poor men could vote for whom they pleased, without fear of their employer, landlord, or anybody. He also opened the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge to Dissenters, Catholics, and Jews, who formerly were prevented, by religious tests, from being graduated there.

These reforms followed one another so rapidly that they quite took the breath away from many people. As a result, Gladstone's government began to Mr. lose its hold on the country. Disraeli, the Gladstone leader of the Conservatives, jokingly described (1874). the Liberal ministers, in Parliament, as "a row of extinct volcanoes," and of Mr. Gladstone he said:

defeated

"You have now had four years of it. You have despoiled churches. You have examined into everybody's affairs. You have criticized every profession and vexed every trade. No one is certain of his property, and

nobody knows what duties he may have to perform tomorrow. I believe that the people of this country have had enough of the policy of confiscation."

And so it seemed, for when the elections were held in 1874 the Liberals were defeated, and Disraeli and the Conservatives came into office.

Gladstone

again Prime

Gladstone was now sixty-five years old, and he decided to retire from the leadership of his party, while continuing to sit in the House of Commons. As it proved, events were too strong for him. Disraeli and Minister. his party showed such favor to the Turkish (1880-1885). Empire, where Christians were being greatly abused, that Mr. Gladstone attacked their policy; and when Disraeli (now Earl of Beaconsfield) was forced to resign his position as Prime Minister, Mr. Gladstone was for a second time (1880-1885) called to that office. And, during this term as Prime Minister, he became so much interested in attempting to settle the questions relating to Ireland that he continued to lead the Liberal party even after his second fall from office. So, for twenty years after 1874, he was one of the most important persons in British politics, and was Prime Minister-not merely for a second time-but for a third and a fourth time also. It was in this period especially that he came to be known all the world over as England's “Grand Old Man.”

But, as the measures with which he was now concerned dealt mainly with Ireland, it will be well to consider them separately, in another chapter.

TOPICS FOR THOUGHT AND SEARCH

1. Read an account of the boyhood and school life of Gladstone. 2. Compare Gladstone and Disraeli as men and as statesmen. 3. Compare the changes made by the reform of Parliament in 1832 with those made in 1867.

4.

With what sort of reforms was Gladstone occupied in his first Prime Ministership? With what was he chiefly occupied in his later ministries?

XXXIX

ENGLAND AND IRELAND

POINTS TO BE NOTICED

Ireland in early times; English conquest and rule; confiscations of lands in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; "tenant farmers" and "absentee" landlords; other English oppressions of Ireland.

Effects of the American Revolution and the French Revolution on Ireland; the Act of Union; changes in the early nineteenth century.

Charles Stewart Parnell, and the Irish Land League; the "three F's'; Irish land question practically settled.

The "Home Rule" movement; Gladstone converted to it; division in the Liberal party; Gladstone fails to pass his Home Rule bill, in 1886 and 1893.

Causes of the weakening of the Home Rule movement; present state of the question.

In order to understand the disturbing questions about Ireland, which filled the latter part of Victoria's reign, we must look at the whole history of Ireland's connection with England.

The inhabitants of Ireland were Celts, like the early Britons, and until the twelfth century were independent of the rulers of their sister island. They Ireland in became Christians before the English did, early times. and in literature and art they reached a high stage of civilization. But in industry and in government they lagged behind, largely because they remained organized by clans and tribes, and were ruled over by a number of petty Kings.

English
Kings

conquer

(1171-1542).

Henry II. was the first King of England to make himself "Lord of Ireland"; but, for long after his time, all that this title meant was the possession of a small district about Dublin, called "the Ireland Pale," and a very loose lordship over the Celtic chiefs and Kings who ruled the rest of the island. It was not until the time of the Tudors that the English "Lord of Ireland" became its King, ruling over the whole land, and forcing the English language and English customs upon it.

the race which had conquered it. To these hatreds were later added those caused by robbing the Irish of much of their lands, and by great economic and political injustice.

Irish lands

When an Irish chieftain rebelled, or was accused of treason, the English government confiscated the land of his whole tribe, regardless of the rights of confiscated those who were not concerned in his guilt. (1534-1652). These confiscated lands were then given out to English and Scottish colonists, who settled on them; or else they were granted to favorites of the crown, who drew the rents from the lands without living in Ireland.