In the following November Christian, Duke of Glucksburg, himself succeeded to the throne of Denmark on the death of King Frederick VII., on the extinction of whose dynasty (the house of Oldenburg) Prince Christian took the sovereignty, in accordance with a treaty made in 1852, by which the great powers provided for the integrity of the Danish monarchy by settling the succession on Prince Christian of "Schleswig-HolsteinGlucksburg," whose wife, by virtue of certain family renunciations, became heiress of the royal crown of Denmark. These particulars will presently suggest that "Schleswig-Holstein" difficulty, to which a brief reference will be made in another page. Events in the parliamentary history of the year 1863 were neither very interesting nor remarkably important. The financial statement made by Mr. Gladstone excited considerable attention, but there was little scope for originality in the scheme of the budget. The American war and its effects upon English trade and manufacturing industry had left little room for the further remission of taxation on articles of general consumption, though the distress that still prevailed in the cotton districts made such reductions desirable. At the same time, it was now well understood that the budget for the year would be skilfully designed to afford relief in some directions. The time had arrived when the chancellor of the exchequer had not only reached to the height of a great financial reputation, but had achieved a position where even his opponents acknowledged his consummate ability, and for a time forbore to assail his main proposals. It may be said that at this period Mr. Gladstone was the support of the government of which he was a member, and that had he failed it would have crumbled, not in slow decay, but in immediate ruin. Yet there were two proposals in the budget of 1863 which the house rejected. One was that of charging clubs with a license duty for the wines and spirits sold to members, the same as that imposed on taverns; the other was to include the property of corporate trusts and the endowments of charitable institutions in the assessments for income-tax. It may be easily understood that in a house where the majority of the members probably belonged to more than one club, little regard was shown to the argument that the publichouse was the club of the working-man, and that if places where people met for refreshment and for society were to be taxed, no exceptions should be made. The "club tax" was negatived. In reference to the "tax on charities," as it was called, Mr. Gladstone contended that it would practically be no tax upon charities at all. An influential deputation waited on him, in which the Duke of Cambridge, representing the governors of Christ's Hospital, declared that the proposed scheme would mulct that institution of £2000 a year. The Archbishop of Canterbury urged objections against applying the tax to the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy and the Clergy Orphan Corporation; the Earl of Shaftesbury, several clergymen, and others interested in some of the larger charities, also strongly deprecated the intended application of the tax to the funds of those institutions. Mr. Gladstone listened, received memorials, and heard what the deputation had to say, but would give them no reply, as the proposi tion was coming before the House of Commons the same evening. It was then that he entered into a long and closely argued defence of the scheme, which, though he made it no essential part of the budget, and was willing to leave it to the house to determine, he declared to be a just and politic measure. The question was not understood, and he desired to call attention to the nature of the exemptions it was proposed to remove. As to the character of the charities sought to be dealt with, nineteen-twentieths of them were death-bed bequests—a species of bequest which the law did not favour, and which were essentially different from charities, properly so called, which were subject to taxation. He objected to immunities which encouraged men to immortalize themselves as founders. The loss to the state of the exemptions in question was £216,000 a year, while there was a large and THE BUDGET SCHEME OF 1863. 147 of the endowed charities would be seriously reduced by the imposition of income-tax; but the majority of his hearers evidently thought that to place a tax upon the income derived from charitable endowments would be in effect to tax the amount of relief that should be derived from such charities by the recipients of their bounty. Again, the inquisitorial character of the income-tax had made it, and must always make it, hateful, and the manner of its assessment and collection rendered it, and continue to render it, obnoxious. The great charities which, whatever may have been or may still be their corruptions and shortcomings, the public recognize as representing the larger proportion of beneficent work among the sick and the afflicted, had a pretty sure ground of appeal against their funds. being subject to an impost which was for the most part regarded with detestation by their contributors and subscribers. The income-tax, people were always being told, could only be excused on the ground of its being imposed as a temporary necessity-and yet here was an attempt to fasten it upon the permanent public institutions of the country: while the representation that, should its exaction diminish the number of cases relieved by any charity, the loss would soon be repaired by public subscriptions-was only saying that it would be repaired by subscriptions from people whose incomes, from which these subscriptions would be taken, had already been subjected to the same execrable impost. The clauses of the financial project which related to the "taxing of charities" were rejected by the house, nor was there anything to show that they would have been favourably regarded outside Parliament, though the mismanagement and official extortions of some of the large charities were known and resented. growing charge upon the public funds con- | asperity of the representation that the scope nected with the administration of charities, amounting to about £45,000 a year; and with other items, the whole loss to the state was nearly half a million per annum. He then analysed the charities in three groups-small, middle, and large-affirming that amongst the small there was hardly one which, in itself, was deserving of the toleration of the house, and which had not been condemned by three separate commissions of inquiry, as tending to pauperize people who sought it, and to compromise their independence and self-respect. The middle charities, which were distributed in money only, were in the main not charities in the strict sense of the term; while as regarded the larger charities, they were full of abuses, and often mere vehicles for patronage, and were not fit subjects for exemptions, which, in fact, amounted to grants of public money. It was not his intention to make any remarks on the management of endowed hospitals, which the house must regard with so much favour and respect; but when at every turn the threat was flung in his face that if the measure were carried out the number of patients must be diminished, he was obliged to give it particular consideration. He did not believe that the number of beds for patients would be reduced. Those who, in the case of the protected trades, declared that if protection were to be withdrawn they must dismiss so many of their workmen, were not men who told lies. They really believed what they said, but were not aware that more economical arrangements would enable them to keep those workmen, pursue their trade, and make larger profits than before. One of the great evils of the existing system was that, while public money was bestowed on these establishments all public control over them was dispensed with, and thus all effective motives for economy were annulled. Endowed institutions laughed at public opinion. The press knew nothing of their expenditure: Parliament knew nothing of it. It was too much to say that hospitals were managed by angels and archangels, and did not, like the rest of humanity, stand in need of supervision, criticism, and rebuke. Mr. Gladstone seemed to speak with some But the main scheme of the budget remained untouched, and though it offered no very striking financial features, it was accompanied by a lucid and interesting exposition of the condition of the country and the operations of its financial measures during some years. From 1858 to 1860-61 there had been an increase of over £8,000,000 in the ex penditure. The average annual expenditure | leaving a surplus of £3,741,000. The chief from 1859 to 1863, including the charge for fortifications, was £71,195,000. Excluding certain items which in their nature did not increase-namely, the interest for the national debt and the charge for collecting the revenue -the charge for the year 1858-59 was £31,621,000; but in 1860-61 it had risen to £42,125,000, or ten millions and a half in two years. Since 1853, or the time previous to the Russian war, the charge had increased by something like £18,000,000, and the increase had been called for by the public desire to strengthen the defences of the country. The estimates which now had to be made were hopeful, but must be considered with regard to special circumstances, such as the condition of Lancashire. "Towards that Lancashire," said Mr. Gladstone, "to which up to this time every Englishman has referred, if not with pride, yet with satisfaction and thankfulness, as among the most remarkable, or perhaps the most remarkable of all the symbols that could be presented of the power, the progress, and the prosperity of England-towards that Lancashire we feel now more warmly and more thankfully than ever in regard to every moral aspect of its condition. The lessons which within the last twelve months have been conveyed, if in one aspect they have been painful and even bitter, yet in other aspects, and in those, too, which more intimately and permanently relate to the condition and prospects of the country, have been lessons such as I will venture to say none of us could have hoped to learn. For however sanguine may have been the anticipations entertained as to the enduring power and pluck of the English people, I do not think that any one could have estimated that power of endurance, that patience, that true magnanimity in humble life, at a point as high as we now see that it has actually reached." We have already seen what was the attitude of Lancashire during the period of the cotton famine, but there was also dreadful distress in Ireland. The estimated expenditure amounted to £67,749,000 without the cost of fortifications. The revenue was estimated at £71,490,000, points of the proposed financial scheme were the reduction of the duty on tea to a shilling a pound, which would take £1,300,000 from the revenue, and a change in the incidence of the income-tax which would include a reduction. It was proposed to make £100 the lowest income which would be assessed for income-tax, and to allow persons whose incomes were below £200 to deduct £60 from the amount, the balance only to be liable to the tax. This involved the removal of the former rating on incomes of £150, and a reduction on incomes under £200. The reduction of the tea duty had been called for, ever since it was promised in a former budget of Mr. Disraeli, and the incidence of the incometax was the cause of widely-spread dissatisfaction, pressing hardly as it did, and as it still does (and perhaps must), upon small professional or precarious earnings, as compared with settled incomes derived from certain classes of property. The review of the financial and commercial position of the country which Mr. Gladstone brought before the house enlisted profound attention. The value of British goods exported to the United States in 1859 was £22,553,000; in 1862 it had fallen to £14,398,000, and thus exhibited a decrease of £8,154,000. The value of foreign and colonial goods exported to the United States from this country had during the same period increased. In 1859 it had been only £1,864,000; in 1862 it had increased to £4,052,000. The augmentation was as much as £2,188,000; but nearly the whole of it was represented by the single article of cotton-wool, which amounted in value to no less than £1,712,000. However, deducting the increase on our foreign and colonial goods from the decrease upon our own export of British goods, there remained an aggregate diminution in our export trade to the United States of about £6,000,000. Taking next the case of our trade with France, it became Mr. Gladstone's pleasant duty to point to a very different state of things. The year 1859 was the last full natural year before the treaty of commerce. In that year the value of British commodities exported to THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT. France was £4,754,000. In the year 1860 the treaty was concluded, and it took effect almost wholly as regarded our imports, but on a very few articles as regarded our exports. The value of British goods exported to France in 1860 was £5,250,000; and thus showed an increase of about £500,000. In 1861 the treaty took effect: as regarded its provisions relating to the duties on imports into France it came into operation late in the year, namely, on the 1st of October. A very large augmentation appeared in our exports; but a part of this was due to the concurrence of a very bad harvest in France, with a large supply of corn in the markets of this country. In consequence we sent a great quantity of corn to France; but in order to a more just calculation, this article was not taken into account. After striking off the sum of £1,750,000 for excess in the export of corn, the value of British goods sent to France in 1851 rose to £7,145,000. It thus showed an increase of £2,391,000 over what it had been the last year anterior to the treaty. Then came the year 1862 with the treaty in operation from its beginning to its close. The value of British exports during the year now amounted to £9,210,000. It thus showed an increase of £4,456,000. In other words the amount of British goods sent to France had about doubled under the operation of the treaty of com merce. But the figures thus named by no means set forth the whole extent of the advantage which the trade of England and France has derived from the treaty; for an augmentation of exports still more remarkable took place in foreign and colonial produce; and the committee were reminded that the foreign and colonial produce which we sent to France was something that we had ourselves obtained elsewhere in exchange for British produce. It therefore followed that every increase in the export of foreign and colonial produce from this country constituted or represented effectively a corresponding increase in the export of British manufactures. The value of foreign and colonial produce sent to France in 1859 was £4,800,000; whereas in 1862 it amounted to no less than £12,614,000. Accordingly the 149 total amount of exports to France, which in 1859 was £9,561,000, had, in 1862, gone up to no less than £21,824,000. In fact, while we had a decrease in the total trade to the United States of £6,618,000, that decrease was a good deal more than made up by the increase in the trade to France, for the augmentation in the French trade was £12,268,000. In a former page the name of Father Mathew and some particulars of the work that he accomplished in the cause of temperance, or rather of total abstinence, have been recorded.1 At the date at which we have now arrived (1864-5) his successors in that cause had begun to make a determined effort to obtain distinct legislation for the purpose of forwarding their views and diminishing the vice of drunkenness by parliamentary interposition restricting the sale of intoxicating drinks, or rather giving the power of restriction to a majority of the inhabitants of any particular district. Of course there were advocates of temperance and of total abstinence before Father Mathew gave to the movement an enormous impetus, the immediate effects of which seem to have diminished for a time after his death. He himself "signed the pledge" at a temperance tea-meeting at Cork, and nine years previously anti-spirituous and temperance societies had been formed in Belfast and Dublin on the plan of the "American Temperance Society," which was instituted at Boston in the United States in 1826. In 1831 the Dublin Society, which had then become the "National Hibernian," reported 15,000 members, and its secretary was Mr. Crampton, solicitor-general for Ireland, and afterwards Judge Crampton. In Scotland the first society pledging its members to abstain from drinking spirits was formed at Greenock by John Dunlop, whose book on Compulsory Drinking Usages, published about that time, is itself sufficient to prove what enormous advances have been made during recent years with respect to temperance in the observance of social customs. In 1830 a society was formed at Glasgow, and 1 Vol. i. p. 255. this soon developed into the more important | in old days would have been equivalent to a association known as the Scottish Temperance Society. From the Scottish organization the first English societies are said to have been derived through a merchant of Bradford, Mr. Henry Forbes, who established an association in that town in 1830, and societies were soon afterwards started in Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, and Warrington, one being formed at Preston in 1832. The movement then extended in a rather uncertain manner to London, where a temperance advocate, who was known as Boatswain Smith, carried on the work by speaking at meetings at the east end of London, and publishing temperance tracts against spirit - drinking, most of which had first been issued in America. In 1830, however, a "British and Foreign Temperance Society" was organized in London, and soon began to make considerable progress. It should be remembered that these societies were really, as their names implied, "Temperance," and not total abstinence societies. They were opposed to the use of spirits, but permitted wine or beer to be taken in moderation. People had not then learned to declare that there is no such thing as moderation in the use of alcoholic beverages, as some of the advocates of total abstinence now put it. It scarcely needs to be said that in various ages there have been people or small associations of people-occasionally whole tribes like the Rechabites-who abstained from all intoxicating drinks, and in Ireland so early as 1817, in Scotland in 1830, and a little later in some other places, total abstinence societies existed, such as the "Paisley Youths" and the "Tradeston Glasgow Total Abstinence Society." It was at Preston, however, that this exclusive phase of the temperance question first took prominent public shape, and beer was prohibited first by a small section, and afterwards by all the members of the original society. Here, too, the name by which the whole body of total abstainers have since been known was adopted. One of the converts, using an old-fashioned homely expression, said that he was for "tee-total abstinence," meaning to emphasize the word total, or to make it more expressive by a capital "tee," or what capital, namely, a double t (ttotal). Probably the speaker did not know the derivation of his expression, but the name stuck, and the Preston total abstainers thereafter called themselves teetotallers, a title that has lasted for the whole body ever since. The organization increased-societies and branch societies flourished, and beside issuing publications advocating their cause, started various provisions for mutual benefit, many of which have reached to very remarkable proportions, as such associations will if prudently conducted, whether they be founded by total abstainers, or others who think that they may be moderate partakers of wine or beer without intemperance. Many of these societies had in 1864-65 shown what could be achieved by establishing benefit societies for the relief of sick or disabled members, or friendly societies for mutual help; while the principle of life assurance was adopted, and a society of that kind started for the remarkable reason that a prominent abstainer, wishing to take out a policy of life assurance in one of the already existing offices, was informed that he would be charged an extra premium because of his total abstinence. So the movement went on till in 1856 the number of societies in the United Kingdom represented a great and important interest, and by no means a poor one. At that date the two great organizations, the National Temperance Society and the Londou Temperance League, were united in "the National Temperance League," of which Mr. Samuel Bowly of Gloucester was made president. There were, of course, other leagues and associations in the provinces, and branch societies in various districts. The movement had become widely representative, and it was thought that something more decided should be done to influence legislation and to compel people to abstain, by acts of parliament for suppressing the sale of intoxicating liquors. For this purpose the "United Kingdom Alliance" was formed at Manchester in 1853, with Sir Walter C. Trevelyan for its president. It set about a regular and continuous agitation of the question by means of local auxiliary branches, agents, district superintendents, and |