enough to return members separately, the working-men would henceforth have a voice in managing the affairs of the nation. In 1868 Bills were carried changing on similar principles the franchise in Scotland and Ireland. In England and Scotland there was also a redistribution of seats, small constituencies being disfranchised and their members given to large ones. 15. Irish Troubles. 1867.-The year of the second Reform Act was one of trouble in Ireland. The discontented in Ireland were now supported by an immense population of Irish in America, the whole of which was hostile to England, and large numbers of which had acquired military discipline in the American Civil War. A secret society, whose members were known as Fenians, sprang up on both sides of the Atlantic. Many of the military Irish returned from America to Ireland, and in March 1867 a general rising was attempted in Ireland. Heavy snow-storms made the movements of the insurgents impossible, and this effort to bring about a complete separation between Ireland and England was suppressed with little bloodshed. Numbers of Irish, as well those residing in England as those who remained in their own country, sympathised with the Fenians. In Manchester, some of these rescued some Fenian prisoners from a prison van, and in the course of the struggle a shot was fired which killed a policeman. Five of the rescuers were tried in November, and three were hanged. In December, other Irishmen blew down with gunpowder the wall of Clerkenwell Prison, in which two Fenians were confined, hoping to liberate the prisoners. 16. The Gladstone Ministry and the Disestablishment of the Irish Church. 1868-1869.—In February 1868, Disraeli became Prime Minister, Lord Derby having resigned in consequence of the state of his health. It had by this time become evident to the principal Liberals that Irish discontent must be caused by grievances which it behoved the British Parliament to remedy. Accordingly. Gladstone proposed and carried resolutions calling for the disestablishment of the Irish Church. Disraeli dissolved Parliament, as he was obliged in any case to do in order to allow the new constituencies created by the Reform Act to choose their representatives. The new Parliament contained a large Liberal majority, and Gladstone became Prime Minister. In 1869 he brought in and carried a Bill disestablishing and disendowing the Protestant Church of Ireland, which was the Church of the minority. 17. The Irish Land Act. 1870. In 1870 the Government attacked the more difficult question of Irish land. An Irish Land 1866-1870 THE NORTH GERMAN CONFEDERATION 963 Act was now passed which obliged landlords to compensate their tenants for improvements made by them, and to give them some payment if they turned them out of their holding for any reason except for not paying their rent. Tenants who desired to buy land from their landlords might receive loans from the Government to enable them to become owners of farms which they had rented. The Act had less effect than was intended, as the landlord, being allowed to come to an agreement with a tenant that the Act should not in his case be enforced, had usually sufficient influence over his tenants to induce them to abandon all claim to the benefits which Parliament intended them to receive. 18. The Education Act. 1870.-In the same year Forster, who was one of the ministers, introduced a new system of education in primary schools in England. Up to this time the Government had been allowed by Parliament to grant money to schools on condition that a sum at least equal to the grant was raised by school fees and local subscriptions, and that the Government inspectors were satisfied that the children were properly taught. By the new Education Act, wherever there was a deficiency in school accommodation, the ratepayers were to elect a School Board with authority to draw upon the rates for the building and maintenance of as many schools as the Committee of the Privy Council appointed to decide on questions of education (see p. 920) thought to be necessary-which School Boards had authority to compel parents who neglected the education of their children to send them either to the Board School or to some other efficient school. At these schools the Bible was to be read and explained, but no religious instruction according to the principles of any special religious body was to be given in school hours. 19. The War between Prussia and Austria. 1866. Whilst these events were occurring in England great changes had taken place on the Continent. In 1866 a war had broken out between Prussia on the one hand, and Austria supported by the great majority of the German states on the other. The Austrians were completely defeated by the Prussians at Sadowa in Bohemia, though at Custozza they defeated the Italians, who had allied themselves with Prussia. The result was that when peace was made, Venetia was ceded to Italy, whilst in Germany, Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Nassau and Frankfort were annexed to Prussia, and the whole of the country to the north of the Main formed into a North German Confederation under Prussian supremacy. 20. War between France and Germany. 1870-1871. The French growing jealous of the success of Prussia, in 1870 the Emperor Napoleon picked a quarrel with the King of Prussia. In the war which followed the whole of Germany sided with Prussia. The German army was thoroughly prepared for war, and had a consummate strategist, Count Moltke, to direct its operations, whilst the French army was in utter confusion. The Germans invaded France, and, after defeating outlying bodies of French troops at Wörth and Forbach, overthrew the main army under Bazaine at Gravelotte. Driving Bazaine into Metz, they left a large part of their force to block him up in the town, whilst they advanced towards Paris with the remainder. On the way, learning that Napoleon was marching to relieve Bazaine, they turned upon him and completely defeated him at Sedan, making both him and his whole army prisoners. On this the Parisians established a Republic, but the Germans pressed on, laid siege to Paris, in the meanwhile forcing the French army in Metz to capitulate. The Republican Government made an heroic resistance, but in March 1871 Paris capitulated and peace was made; France having to pay a large sum of money and to cede to Germany Alsace and the north-eastern part of Lorraine. Before this the southern German princes had agreed to combine with the northern princes in a new German Empire, and William I., king of Prussia, was proclaimed hereditary German Emperor at Versailles. As France had been obliged to call home the garrison which she had hitherto kept at Rome, the Italian troops entered that city, thus completing Italian unity under the constitutional monarchy of Victor Emmanuel. 21. Abolition of Army-Purchase. 1871. In these wars England took no part. Government and Parliament continued to pay attention to domestic reforms. Hitherto regimental officers in the army had been allowed, on voluntarily retiring from the service, to receive a sum of money from the senior officer beneath them who was willing or able to pay the price for the creation of a vacancy to which he would be promoted over the heads of officers who, though they were his own seniors, did not pay the money. A poor officer, therefore, could only be promoted when vacancies above him were caused by death. A Government Bill for the abolition of this practice passed the Commons, but was laid aside by the Lords till a complete measure of army-reform, which had been joined to the Bill when it was first brought into the Commons, should be produced. Gladstone, taking this to be equivalent to the rejection of the Bill, obtained from the Queen the withdrawal of the warrant by which purchase was authorised, thus settling by a stroke of the 1871-1872 THE BALLOT ACT 965 prerogative a measure which he had at first hoped to pass by the authority of Parliament. His action on this occasion lost him the good will of some of his best and most independent supporters, whilst large numbers of Dissenters had been alienated from the Government because the Education Act had not entirely put an end to the giving of religious instruction in schools, and thus relieved them from the fear that the religious belief of the children would be influenced by the teaching of Church of England schoolmasters and schoolmistresses. 22. The Ballot Act. 1872.-All members of the Liberal party, however, concurred in supporting a Bill introduced by Forster in 1872 for establishing secret voting by means of the ballot. The Ballot Act, which passed in this year, made it impossible to know how any man's vote was given, and consequently enabled persons dependent on others for their livelihood or advancement to give their votes freely without fear of being deprived of employment if they voted otherwise than their employers wished. The work of the first Gladstone ministry was in some respects like the work of the ministry of Lord Grey after the first Reform Act. In both cases the accession of a new class to a share of power was followed by almost feverish activity in legislation, in the one case in accordance with the ideas of the middle classes, in the other case in accordance with the ideas of the artisans. In both cases vigorous progress was followed by a reaction. Many who had applauded what was done had no desire to see more done in the same direction, and, as always happens when people are no longer in accord with the ideas of a ministry, they fix angrily on mistakes committed and think of unavoidable misfortunes as though they were intentional mistakes. Some of the ministers, moreover, made themselves unpopular by the discourtesy of their language. 23. Foreign Policy of the Ministry. 1871-1872.--The foreign policy of the Government made it unpopular. One result of the great war between France and Germany in 1871 was that Russia refused to be any longer bound by the treaty of 1856 (see p. 948) to abstain from keeping ships of war in the Black Sea, and the English Government, as a matter of necessity, but to its own grievous injury at home, agreed to a conference being held between the representatives of the great Powers in London, at which the stipulations objected to by Russia were annulled. Another cause of the unpopularity of the Government was its agreement in 1871 to refer to arbitration the claims which had been brought forward by the United States for compensation for damages inflicted on their commercial marine by the ravages of the 'Alabama' (see p. 960). In 1872 a Court of Arbitration sat at Geneva and awarded to the United States a sum of 15,000,000 dollars, or rather more than 3,000,000l. The sum was regarded by many in England as excessive, but, whether this was so or not, it was well spent in putting an end to a misunderstanding between the two great branches of the English-speaking race. Since that time there has been an increasing readiness to submit disputes between nations to arbitration; but those who admire this course sometimes forget that it is only in some cases that arbitration is acceptable. When two nations are desirous to live on good terms with one another and are only prevented from doing so by a dispute on some particular question of comparatively slight importance, it is not only possible, but in the highest degree desirable, that they should abide by the decision of arbitrators rather than go to war. Questions reaching to the permanent interests of a nation, and still more, questions touching its honour or its very existence, are not likely to be decided by arbitration. In 1872 England could honourably pay an unduly large sum of money rather than go to war. In 1859 the King of Sardinia could not have been expected to submit to arbitration the question whether the Italian nation should be united or divided. 24. Fall of the First Gladstone Ministry. 1873-1874.—In 1873 the ministry brought in a Bill to establish in Ireland a new University which, in order that it might inspire confidence in Protestants and Catholics alike, was to be forbidden to teach the disputed but important subjects of theology, philosophy, and history. This singular Bill being rejected by the House of Commons, the ministers resigned. As, however, Disraeli refused to take office, they continued to carry on the government. In January 1874, Parliament being dissolved, a large Conservative majority was returned. The ministry then resigned, and Disraeli became Prime Minister a second time. It was the first time since Peel's resignation that the Conservatives had held office, except on sufferance. 25. Colonial Expansion. 1815-1901.- After the great war with France which ended in 1815, the colonies retained and acquired by England were valued either like the West India Islands because they produced sugar, or like the Cape of Good Hope because they afforded stations for British fleets which would be of the highest value in time of war. There were, no doubt, British emigrants who had left their homes to settle in Canada and Australia, but their numbers were not very great, and at the Cape of Good Hope the population was almost entirely of Dutch origin. Since that |