they were victorious in the battle of Custozza, so serious were their defeats in Germany that they purchased peace in Italy by the virtual surrender of Venetia to Victor Emmanuel. The These European wars had the effect of causing a considerable feeling of anxiety in England. It was known that our regular army was very small in comparison with the huge armies of the great Volunteers. continental states. Accordingly some patriotic men set on foot a movement for supplementing the regular army and militia by increasing the number of volunteer soldiers, who, without giving up their ordinary avocations, should be regularly drilled, armed, and disciplined to act as an additional force in case of invasion. The proposal proved to be extremely popular. Though at first looked on somewhat askance by the regular soldiers, it gradually secured greater recognition; and in time the volunteer regiments have come to be regarded as a very important element in our system of defence, and as a valuable means of moral discipline and physical training for the young men of our great cities and towns. The General In 1865 a general election had been held. It produced no great excitement; and its chief incident was the defeat of Mr. Gladstone for the University of Oxford, and his election for South Lancashire. This event, which is generally regarded as the turning-point in Mr. Gladstone's career, marks the close of the first thirty-three years of his political history, during twenty-seven of which, as a Conservative and a Peelite, he had been regarded as a strong supporter of what were thought to be the interests of the Church, and of Conservative principles in all other matters than Free-trade. During six years he had been a member of Lord Palmerston's government; and his defeat for Oxford and return for a popular constituency mark definitely the beginning of a second period of nearly twenty years, during which he acted as the recognised leader of a united Liberal party. In October 1865 Lord Palmerston died; and as his death had been preceded by those of Cobden, Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Sir James Death of Graham, and Lord Herbert of Lea (formerly Sidney Herbert), room was made for new actors on the political stage, and an era of greater activity began. The death of Lord Palmerston brings to a close a period which may be said to have begun in 1841 with the first ministry of Sir Robert Peel. It was a period when many useful measures were passed, and had witnessed an immense change in our national life. At home, the establishment on a large scale of our railway and steamboat systems, the introduction of the penny post and electric telegraph, the advance of all forms of education, the multiplication of cheap newspapers, had led to a widening of the area of intelligent thought that went to form public opinion. Abroad, the same period had seen the completion of our Indian empire, the grant of self-government to our distant colonies, which tends to make them the colleagues rather than the pupils of Great Britain in the government of the empire; while the increased facilities of communication helped to check the tendency to separation which distance created, and fostered a sentiment of common interest and common aspirations. which were necessary for the maintenance of the unity of the empire. House Suffrage granted to the Towns-Great Legislative Activity under Gladstone-The Russo-Turkish War-Gladstone's Ministry of 1880 to 1885-The Irish Question-The Occupation of Egypt-Lowering of the County Franchise -Home Rule adopted by Mr. Gladstone-Unsuccessful Attempts to carry his Views into Effect-Extension of Popular Government to Counties and Parishes-Lord Rosebery's Ministry-Lord Salisbury's Third MinistryOccupation of Chitral-War in Ashanti-Venezuelan and South African Questions-The Jameson Raid-Armenian Massacres-Affairs in CreteQueen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee-Death of Mr. Gladstone-SpanishAmerican War-China-Japan War-Reconquest of Soudan-South African War-Death of the Queen. ON Lord Palmerston's death the post of First Lord of the Treasury was taken by Earl (formerly Lord John) Russell. He made no important changes in the cabinet, but places in the government were found for W. E. Forster and G. J. Goschen, both of whom lived to play a considerable part in the history of the country; and the appearance of Mr. Gladstone as the recognised leader of strong Liberal opinion in the House of Commons showed that a new era was beginning. For some time the attention of the ministers was engrossed by the Jamaica agitation. This movement arose out of the extraordinary The Jamaica severity and contempt for legality with which the Jamaica Agitation. authorities, under Governor Eyre, had punished a negro riot in that country. The colonial office at once suspended Mr. Eyre; but the attempt of a private association to convict him of murder failed; and eventually the expenses he had incurred in defending himself were paid in 1872 by Mr. Gladstone's government. Russell's Lord Palmerston had never been an ardent advocate of parliamentary reform; and so long as he lived, the government had been content to leave the matter to the advocacy of private members of parliament; but the election of 1865 had revealed the existence second Ministry. of a strong feeling in favour of an extension of the franchise; and in 1866 the government measure of reform was introduced by Mr. Gladstone. The bill, which proposed to lower the county The Whig franchise to £14 and the borough franchise to £7, was a Reform Bill. moderate measure, based on no definite principle, and therefore it pleased nobody. It was disliked by John Bright and the Radicals because it did not go far enough, and by the Conservatives and moderate Whigs because it went too far. The Whig opposition was led by Mr. Robert Lowe, who had been vice-president of the council under Lord Palmerston. He collected round him a small but able band of followers, who were likened by Mr. Bright to the discontented persons whom David gathered together in the cave of Adullam, and were hence called the Adullamites. This band numbered about thirty; and in the committee stage of the bill the government was defeated on a motion brought forward by one of them, Lord Dunkellin, that rating valuation, not rental, should be taken as the basis for the franchise. This was in Ministry. June 1866; and on the resignation of the government Lord Lord Derby's Derby again took office, with Mr. Disraeli as chancellor of third the exchequer and leader of the House of Commons. As yet no special enthusiasm for reform had been shown, but during the autumn two events gave a marked impetus to the progress of the reform movement. One of these was the holding of a large meeting in Hyde Park in favour of reform, which ended in a riot in which many hundred yards of railings were torn down. The other was a speech by Mr. Gladstone, in which he asked the pertinent question-Are not they (the non-voters) our own flesh and blood?' The phrase spread like wildfire, and undoubtedly had great effect in determining the views of the country. The Conservative Reform Bill. Accordingly, when parliament met in 1867, there was a strong feeling that the question ought to be settled as soon as possible. Mr. Disraeli had himself made up his mind to go a long way, and, as he said, had been 'educating his party for the effort.' After some hesitation, Mr. Disraeli introduced a bill which went a step farther than that of the late government, lowering the franchise to £10 and £6 respectively. Mr. Disraeli had not secured its acceptance without difficulty, and Lord Cranborne (afterwards marquess of Salisbury) and Lord Carnarvon resigned their posts rather than agree to it. Nevertheless, Mr. Disraeli persevered, and when he found that his bill did not give satisfaction, decided to 'dish the Whigs' once for all by Household proposing household suffrage in the towns, and £12 in the Suffrage. counties. Household suffrage having been proposed by the Conservatives, it was impossible for the Whigs to resist it, and the measure passed by large majorities in the Commons. In the Lords, Earl Derby described it 'a leap in the dark,' but his followers accepted the plan without much demur. A Distribution of Seats Bill followed, by which, following the precedent of 1832, eleven boroughs were disfranchised, and one member taken from thirty-five others having less than 10,000 inhabitants. By this means additional members were given to large towns and to populous counties. The Act. While the attention of Great Britain was concentrated on parliamentary reform, an act was passed through parliament which was to have the most far-reaching consequences in the future. This was Canadian the Canadian Federation Act, which enabled the scattered Federation British colonies of North America to form themselves into a federation under the title of the Dominion of Canada. This was based on the principle that the local affairs of each colony were to be under the management of its own local assembly, but that the Affairs which touched the general interests of the colonies should be managed by a Dominion parliament at Ottawa, to which a Dominion cabinet should be responsible. The new Dominion included Canada proper, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, to which were subsequently added the old Hudson's Bay Territory, now known as Manitoba, and British Columbia. This great change has had enormous influence in Canada. The necessity for wide views, and the consideration of conflicting interests, has almost eradicated in Canada the provincial spirit, the existence of which has such a dangerous tendency to make small and distant communities prefer their petty interests to the good of the greater community of which they form a part, and has already produced several Canadian statesmen, such as the late Sir John Macdonald, of whom any country might be proud. Its success has encouraged other parts of the empire to consider the advisability of taking a similar step. Already proposals are under consideration for the federation of the Australian colonies, and at no distant day the South African colonies will follow suit, to the great advantage of the whole empire. As is usual with great events, the Canadian Federation Act attracted, at the time, less interest than a petty war which Lord Derby's government were forced to undertake against King Theodore of Abyssinia, who had imprisoned certain missionaries and travellers at his capital, |