and returned bringing, as he said, "Peace with Honour". He had made Britain play a great and dignified part, and Britain was proud of him. Another stroke of his policy was his purchase by telegram of about £4,000,000 shares in the Suez Canal, which the Khedive wished to sell. The Canal is very important to us as a maritime and colonial power, and we thus got a powerful voice in its management.

Thus Disraeli made his party willing to consider reforms, and he made it imperialist. This has become of great consequence, because in late years most Britons have grown to think a great deal more of the empire than they did fifteen years ago. Among other things that have caused this growth. of imperialist feeling have been the two jubilees of our Queen, and the enthusiasm which not only all at home, but her scattered subjects all over the world, feel for her. We hold peace to be a good thing, but if events in China or Africa should call us to war, we do not shrink from war. So with this growth of imperialist ideas Gladstone's party cry of Peace and Retrenchment has become out of date and unpopular.

When in 1880 Disraeli's ministry fell and Gladstone came in again, he intended to pursue the same policy as before namely, to make reforms at Gladstone home, and interfere as little as possible and Ireland. abroad. He was not, however, successful. He had a war against the Boers of the Transvaal, which ended disastrously; and he was drawn to interfere in Egypt. We shall see more of these events in the next chapter. But what stood in Gladstone's way even more than affairs in the Transvaal and in Egypt, was the Irish party. They were trying to get Home Rule. The Irish members in the House of

Commons did their best to hamper Gladstone's legislation. In Ireland many tenants refused to pay their rents. Landlords and bailiffs were threatened and fired on. Some violent and reckless men used dynamite for outrage and intimidation. At last the Irish secretary, Lord Frederick Cavendish, was stabbed in Phoenix Park. In consequence Gladstone, who had always wished to rule Ireland mildly, was compelled to pass very severe measures to keep order there.

Rule.

At length he became convinced that the policy of severity, of "coercion", as it was called, was a failure, Home and he resolved to grant Home Rule. This meant to repeal the Union of 1800. A number of Liberals, headed by Mr. Bright, Lord Hartington, Mr. Chamberlain, and Mr. Goschen, would not agree to this. They broke off from Gladstone, and, taking the title of Liberal Unionists, supported Lord Salisbury. The Home Rule Bill was rejected; and though six years later Gladstone got it through the House of Commons, it was thrown out in the Lords. So far, the bulk of opinion in England and Scotland has been against it, but Ireland remains strongly in favour of it.

Thus Ireland proved a great stumbling-block in Gladstone's way. First he made the Irish hate him because he had to pass stern laws against the crimes that went on in Ireland; and then, when he tried to satisfy the Irish by promising Home Rule, he wrecked his own party in doing so. In consequence, his latter years were so much taken up with Irish legislation that many of his ideas of reform at home. had to be abandoned. Yet, though in this latter period we do not find so many striking measures, there are some: the lowering of the franchise, by

which agricultural labourers got votes in 1884; and the Parish Councils Bill, which allowed rural districts to govern themselves, may stand as examples.

Gladstone retired in 1894, and died four years after. We are still too close to him to be able to form a confident judgment about his work. He has not yet passed into the province of history. The view we take is sure to be tinged by our political opinions. One party will look too much at his failures, the other at his successes. No doubt both successes and failures were on a grand scale. He has been worshipped, and hated. He raised his party to a wonderful height of popularity; in his latter days he brought it to the ground in confusion and humiliation. Time alone will enable the historian to strike a just balance.

XXXVII. BRITISH POWER IN AFRICA.

The result of the long wars during the eighteenth century, ending with the struggle against Napoleon, was to leave Britain almost alone as a colonial power. Spain and Portugal indeed kept some of their colonies, but they gave little attention to them. In consequence, those that did not revolt were badly governed, and made no progress. Only British colonies seemed to prosper. But lately there has arisen in European nations a fresh desire for colonies. Ger- The Expansion many, France, Italy, recognizing that of Europe.

much of Britain's power comes from her colonial empire, have begun to strive to spread their power abroad also. Russia, too, has held steadily to a policy of extending her dominions eastward in Asia; and lately the United States have embarked on the same

course by taking Cuba and the Philippine Islands. In China, too, we see the European powers in rivalry for trading liberties, spheres of influence, and naval stations. But in no part of the world is this new European colonial spirit, this imitation of British policy, more marked than in Africa.

Twenty years ago, save in the South and in the valley of the Nile, the European settlements formed The Scramble a scanty fringe on the coast.

African

for Africa. colonies could not prosper while this was the case, for as a rule the climate of the coast is deadly to Europeans. Sierra Leone is called "the White Man's Grave", but many other coast stations equally deserve the name. The interior, being higher, is more free from the fevers that haunt the marshy coasts of East and West Africa. But much of the interior was then a No-man's Land, only half explored, belonging to savage tribes who owned no European masters. Now, however, almost the whole continent is parcelled out among European nations. We shall see in this chapter how Britain has fared in this "scramble for Africa".

Cape Colony came finally into our hands from the Dutch in 1815. It was only very gradually that our power spread inland. At first the colonists had to contend with the Kaffirs, and many wars were fought ere these were reduced to obedience. Further, the Boers, the descendants of the Dutch colonists, did not get on well with the British, and in 1835 some thousands of them trekked northwards, taking with them wives and children, flocks and herds, and settled in Natal. This was annexed by Britain, so many Boers moved farther inland and founded the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic, so as to get clear of British rule. It was not till 1854 that Cape