servants, and British officials. The number of British troops has been increased, and the artillery is kept entirely in British hands. There are still some states in India where native rulers hold power, but they have a British resident at their courts, and they would not be allowed to make war on each other, or injure British interests. Lastly, in 1877 the Queen was proclaimed Empress of India, and the native rulers now own her as their sovereign.

XXXVI.

GREAT PARLIAMENTARY LEADERSPALMERSTON, DISRAELI, GLADSTONE.

Four names are connected with most of our parliamentary history since the Reform Bill-those of Peel, Palmerston, Disraeli, and Gladstone. They were all great leaders in the House of Commons, the place from which a statesman can exercise the highest influence. Since the retirement of Gladstone no one has had the same chance of occupying as great a position, for both Lord Salisbury and Lord Rosebery, the Conservative and Liberal prime ministers, have been in the House of Lords. A member of the Lords may be a capable prime minister and an excellent statesman, but he cannot be a great parliamentary leader in the sense that both the Pitts and the four men mentioned above were great, because he cannot sit in the Commons and sway the House by his speeches, nor can he take any active part at elections.

When in 1846 Peel gave Britain free-trade in corn, and was, within a few days of the passing of the Act, driven from office by those Tories whom he had

angered by what they called his treachery, he was less than sixty years of age. It might have been thought that a man who was in reality so much. respected, whom even his bitterest foe, Disraeli, described as being "the greatest member of Parliament" that had ever lived, would survive to become prime minister again. But it was not so. Peel died in 1850 from a fall from his horse without ever again holding office.

His death left Lord Palmerston, an Irish peer, the man most trusted by the nation. Although a Whig, Palmerston was by no means the sort of Palmerston.

leader modern Liberals would follow. He

or

had no liking for great legislative measures changes. He was opposed to any further lowering of the franchise, and so long as he lived he would have nothing to do with more reform in Parliament. As most men trusted Palmerston, they too were quite willing to see him put off reform, and generally leave home affairs alone.

In foreign policy, on the other hand, Palmerston displayed an activity which his party nowadays would think to be contrary to their traditions. As foreign minister he liked to do as he wished, "to make strokes off his own bat", as he said, and twice he gave much offence to the Queen by doing things without consulting her. On the second occasion he had to resign. Men said "Palmerston is smashed", but he knew better. When the news of the Crimean winter came home, and Britain heard the stories of the neglect and stupidity at head-quarters—of coffee sent out unroasted, and consignments of boots all to fit the left foot, there was great anger with Aberdeen's government. Aberdeen resigned, and the only man that the country would accept as prime minister

was Palmerston. It was a time of trouble, and a strong man was wanted. It was said that “ we turned out the Quaker and put in the Pugilist". Palmerston made an excellent pugilist. He brought the Crimean War to an end; he too had to deal with the dangers of the Mutiny, and he did so with a firm hand. So great was the trust that Britons felt in him, that even when he went wrong they preferred his rule to that of anyone else. On one occasion we got into a dispute with China because the Chinese had boarded a Chinese vessel flying the British flag. It had no right to fly it, and the Chinese were doing us no injury. Palmerston, however, said our flag was insulted, and went to war about it. His enemies in Parliament thought this a good chance to attack him. Gladstone, Disraeli, Lord John Russell, and Bright, men of very different opinions, all fell on him and defeated him. Palmerston did not resign, but dissolved Parliament; the electors sent him back with a large majority. Several of his opponents lost their

seats.

The secret of his power was that he was a thorough Briton; he believed in his country, his country believed in him. So for ten years, with one short interval, he remained prime minister. He was often supported by many who did not, strictly speaking, belong to his party, because he was not a party man. It was not till his death, in 1865, that the modern division between Liberals and Conservatives was clearly drawn.

In Palmerston's ministry Gladstone had been chanGladstone and cellor of the exchequer. He had shown the Party of great skill in dealing with money matters. the People. He was so attractive a speaker that he could make even the figures of a budget interesting.

But he had a very different idea of the duties of his party from Palmerston. Palmerston knew that he would make great changes. "Whenever he gets my place," he said, "we shall have strange doings.'

Gladstone aimed at putting power really into the hands of the masses. He was not a Whig; he was rather a Radical. He began to break the connection with the old-fashioned Whig party, which had been largely made up of men well born and from old or wealthy families. Gladstone's party, the Liberals, was to be the party of the people; his policy that of 'Peace, Retrenchment, and Reform ".

Great Measures.

Thus Gladstone's ministries are marked by great legislative measures. He caused the state to undertake all sorts of duties, instead of leaving them to private persons; and whatever he thought to be unjust, ineffective, or useless he tried to set right, improve, or abolish, without regarding whether it had existed for a long time or not. Thus he passed the Education Act, which increased the number of schools, showing that the Government intended everyone to learn at least to read and write; and the Ballot Act, which secured voters from being influenced at elections, by making it impossible to find out how they had voted. He abolished the system whereby officers in the army could buy promotion, and so threw the highest ranks in the army open to any man who showed great ability. Further, he disestablished the Irish Protestant Church because it was not the church of the people at large, and he carried an Irish Land Act which improved the position of Irish tenants. He saw that Ireland had had bad government, and he hoped to satisfy Irishmen by his reforms. As we shall see, he was not successful. Opposed to Gladstone stood Disraeli. He had

become the leader of the Protectionist Tories who had rebelled against Peel. But Disraeli was Disraeli. much too clever to think that anything could be done with "Protection" as a party cry. He set himself, in his own phrase, "to educate his party". Educating He knew that if the Liberals offered reforms, a Party. the Conservatives could not afford to lag behind. He had once said of Peel's action in taking over the Whig measure of free-trade, that "Peel had caught the Whigs bathing, and had walked away with their clothes". It was exactly what he came to do himself. Thus in 1867, when the Liberals were crying out for reform in the franchise, he resolved to take the wind out of their sails by a Reform Bill of his own. He passed a most Radical measure, giving household franchise in the towns. It was, as Lord Derby described it, "a leap in the dark", yet all the same, in Disraeli's words, "it dished the Whigs". The Conservatives took the credit.

Yet Disraeli was much more than a clever party leader. The Liberal cry was "Peace, RetrenchDisraeli an ment, and Reform". He too would be a Imperialist. reformer. But he recognized that peace and retrenchment could be carried too far. Britain needs must be at war sometimes; to shrink from war would make other nations try to override us; to make war cheaply was to make it badly. Disraeli in fact

was

an Imperialist. He believed in the British empire; he wished to extend it, to make its power felt abroad, even at the risk of war. Thus he sent the British fleet to Constantinople in 1878, when the Russian armies were within striking distance of the town. This firmness made Russia pause and agree to the Treaty of Berlin. Disraeli himself, by this time made Lord Beaconsfield, went to the Conference,