Legisla Queen Victoria. CHAP. III. progress, or that the Speaker do leave the chair, twice in the same committee. Nevertheless, on July 31st, tion under when the South African Bill was still being discussed, Mr. Parnell and his friends kept the House in continuous session for twenty-six hours, and only the threats of Sir S. Northcote to put the new rules in force induced the obstructives to yield. On April 12th, 1878, another exciting scene took place. Mr. O'Donnell made a violent attack upon the character of the murdered Earl of Leitrim, and the House was cleared of strangers. Great disorder marked the secret sitting, and the quarrels and recriminations amongst the Irish party were such as to cause Mr. Butt's retirement from the leadership. Obstruction continued to be used by the Irish members in regard to other measures, such as the Army Discipline Bill. Exciting scene. Irish University Act. The The Government brought forward and passed an Irish University Act in 1879. By this act an examining body was created, with power to confer degrees upon all approved persons irrespective of their place of education; these graduates, with the existing graduates of the Queen's University, were to form the convocation of the new university; and the senate of the new university were empowered to frame a scheme of exhibitions, prizes, and fellowships, and to ask Parliament to make a grant for their support. The Irish Land League was formed in October 1879 by Mr. Michael Davitt, and an anti-rent agitation was set on foot in Ireland. Davitt and three other leaders were arrested, but released on bail. During the ensuing winter there was severe distress both in England and Ireland. When Parliament met in February, 1880, Mr. Parnell moved an amendment to the Address. The Irish members, however, so protracted the debates on the Address and on the Government bill for the relief of distress in Ireland, that a resolution was passed enabling the House to suspend any member named by the Speaker as guilty of wilful obstruction, and ordering that if a member be suspended three times in one session, his CHAP. III. tion under Queen suspension should continue for a week and as much longer as the House should determine. The Relief of Legisla Distress Act for Ireland was then carried through. Lord Beaconsfield startled the nation by his letter Victoria. written on March 8th, 1880, to the Duke of Marlborough, Dissolution of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, announcing an immediate 1880. dissolution of Parliament. The Premier charged his opponents with endeavouring to disintegrate the empire, and he insinuated that there was complicity between the Liberal party and the Home Rulers and Repealers. The elections gave Mr. Gladstone a majority over the Conservatives and Home Rulers combined, the numbers in the new Parliament being-Liberals, 349 Conservatives, 243; Home Rulers, 60. Lord Beaconsfield resigned, and Mr. Gladstone again became Prime Minister. When Mr. Glad the House of Commons met, the Government announced stone betheir intention of not renewing the Irish Peace Preserva- Premier. tion Act. But they brought in and passed a second Relief of Distress Act for Ireland. One of the original Relief clauses of this act, known as the compensation for disturbance clause, allotted to tenants evicted for nonpayment of rent the compensation due to them had they left for other causes, and its operation was limited to the years 1880 and 1881. The clause was carried in the Commons by 303 to 237, but it was rejected in the Lords by 282 to 51. comes Act. A serious agitation was set on foot in Ireland in the No-rent agitation. autumn of 1880 in consequence of evictions for nonpayment of rent. The movement was organised by the Land League, and many agrarian outrages followed. Mr. Parnell and others were prosecuted for conspiracy in inciting to breaches of the law, but in this Irish State trial the jury could not agree upon a verdict, and were discharged. Irish Early in the session of 1881 Mr. Forster, as Irish SuspenSecretary, introduced the Protection for Life and Pro- sion of perty (Ireland) Bill. On February 2nd, after a sitting members. of forty-one hours, marked by great obstruction, the Speaker declared that a new and exceptional course was VOL. II. 33 Legisla tion under Queen CHAP. III. necessary, and at once put the first reading of the bill, which was carried. Next day thirty-six Irish members, who defied the Speaker's authority, were one by one Victoria. suspended and excluded from the House. Resolutions were next carried giving the Speaker special powers to restrict discussion when "urgency" had been voted in debate. Eventually the Protection of Life and Property Bill and the Peace Preservation (Ireland) Bill were both carried. In April Mr. Gladstone introduced his second great Irish Land Bill. It passed the Commons, and, after some amendments in detail by the Lords, received the royal assent on August 23rd. This act provided that any existing tenant might sell his interest in his holding to the highest bidder, and that the purchaser acquired all the rights of the seller as a present tenant. Every present tenant or his assignee had the right to apply to a court to fix a judicial rent, subject to statutory conditions. This judicial rent could not be altered for fifteen years, nor could the tenant be disturbed, except by his own act. At the end of fifteen years the tenant could apply for another term, subject to revision of rent. The breach of any of the statutory conditions involved the determination of the existing tenancy by compulsory sale, and the new tenant came in without the rights of a present tenant. Future tenants were those who entered into tenancies not then existing. In addition to these main provisions, there were clauses giving special safeguards. For example, English-managed estates were exempted from the act; and a landlord might object to a new tenant, while he had also rights of pre-emption and resumption under conditions to be judged by the court. Further, there were provisions for the establishment of peasant proprietors, of perpetual leaseholders on fee-farm rent, for assisting emigration, and for the benefit of the labourers. In the session of 1882 the House of Lords, by 96 to 53, appointed a committee to inquire into the Irish Land Act and its effect on the condition of the country; but, on the motion of Mr. Gladstone, the Commons condemned the Lords' committee by 300 CHAP. III. to 167. Legislation under Queen of Mr. release. Mr. Parnell and other members of the Land League were arrested on October 13th, 1881, and five days later Victoria. the No-Rent manifesto was issued by the League. On Arrest the 20th the Government proclaimed the Land League Parnell. as an illegal and a criminal association. In May 1882, however, Mr. Gladstone announced that Messrs. Parnell, Dillon, and O'Kelly had been released from Kilmainham His gaol, and that a measure was to be brought in to strengthen the law and remove the difficulties in the way of the administration of justice. It was alleged that a compact, known as the Kilmainham Treaty, had been made with Mr. Parnell, who had promised to use his influence towards the diminution of agrarian crime. Disapproving of the release of the Irish members, the Lord Lieutenant and the Irish Chief Secretary, Lord Cowper and Mr. Forster, resigned. On May 6th England was filled with sorrow and indignation by the news of the assassination of the new Irish Secretary, Lord F. Caven- Assassinadish, and the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Burke, in the tion of Lord F. Phoenix Park, Dublin. Government now introduced a CavenPrevention of Crimes Bill of a very stringent character, and during the debates successfully defended themselves with regard to the alleged Kilmainham Treaty. Mr. Parnell and other Irish members expressed their detestation of the murder of Lord F. Cavendish and Mr. Burke, but they strenuously opposed the Crimes Bill. Crimes After an all-night sitting on June 30th, twenty-five Act. Irish members were suspended for obstructing the passage of the bill through committee. The measure passed, and on July 12th received the royal assent. dish. The Irish Arrears Bill was another important measure Irish Arintroduced by the Premier this session. The bill adopted rears Act. the principle of gift and compulsion instead of that of loan and voluntary arrangement, and proposed to give either landlord or tenant power to apply to the Land Court, under certain conditions, for carrying out a composition with the aid of public funds. Lord Salisbury Legislation under Queen Victoria. Mr. CHAP. III. endeavoured to deprive the tenant of the right to apply to the court without the landlord's consent. The House of Lords at first accepted this amendment, but, as the Government declared that it would be fatal to the bill, the Lords gave way, a collision between the two Houses was averted, and the measure became law. In the session of 1883 Mr. Parnell brought forward a bill to amend the Irish Land Act of 1881. It was opposed by the Government as a virtual reconstruction of the previous act, in which they could not concur, and the bill was rejected by 250 to 63 votes. Early in 1884 the Irish Nationalists revived the Land League under the name of the National League, and Mr. Parnell was elected its president. Land Bill. Irish affairs. Lord Pal As this work closes with the extension of the suffrage in Great Britain and Ireland under the reform measures of 1884-5, subsequent legislation for Ireland, as well as the efforts to secure Home Rule, do not come within our purview. VII. FOREIGN POLICY. Lord Palmerston was our Foreign Minister when the merston's Queen ascended the throne, and when Lord Melbourne's policy. Government fell in 1841 he was the only member of it whose reputation stood higher than when it acceded to office. His policy, which by good fortune was as successful as it was daring, procured him respect, if not fear, abroad. Having in 1834 concluded a treaty by which England and France combined to secure the peace of the Peninsula and to support constitutional government in Spain and Portugal, he next turned his attention to Egypt. Regarding the revolt of Mehemet Ali in Egypt as a grave menace to the integrity of the Turkish empire, in 1835 and 1839 he would have interfered with arms in defence of the Porte, but his colleagues restrained him. However, in 1840 he entered into a league with the Northern Powers, and brilliantly carried through the Syrian war, suppressing Mehemet Ali. With restless activity he intrigued against Russia in Afghanistan, |