1879] MR. PARNELL'S AGITATION 561 that the idea of the use of physical force was very prevalent. It cannot be said that Mr. Parnell gave any countenance to such a feeling, unless it be found in his failure seriously to reprehend it. After contrasting the various ways in which landlords had been got rid of in other countries of Europe, he said that in Ireland he looked only to peaceful and constitutional means for the settlement of the question, and proceeded to explain what those means were. They were in fact the adoption of the obstructive policy pursued in Parliament. He suggested that farmers should combine and ask for due reductions. "It was then," he said, "the duty of the tenantry to pay no rent until they got the reduction. If they kept a firm grip of their homesteads no power on earth could prevail against them." But he calculated that such conduct would drive the landlords to sell. 66 'They would find," he said, "after one or two seasons like that, that the landlord class would be only too willing to come in and say, ' For God's sake give us the value of our lands, and let us go in peace !' and they could afford to purchase the land, because on account of the present system the land of Ireland was not yet half cultivated." To support his agitation and assist his ends in both directions he proposed, on the one side, the establishment of a national convention consisting of 300 members chosen by popular election; the repeal of the old Convention Act in the last session had rendered such an assembly legal. Its objects were to be political. On the other side he established the Irish Land League, whose primary object was no longer to secure fixity of tenure and fair rents, but peasant proprietorship. For this end subscriptions were to be sought, especially in America, for the purpose of buying out the landlords. This appeal to the American Irish Mr. Parnell undertook himself to carry across the Atlantic. The movement seemed to the Government dangerous enough to require their interference. A meeting at Gurteen in Sligo on November the 2d afforded the required opportunity. The full Arrest of Irish programme of the agitators was there urged in words of leaders. considerable violence. The people were advised to refuse to submit to eviction, to withhold rent, neither to take nor to suffer others to take land from which a man had been evicted; even the resumption, as it was called, by the people of what had originally belonged to them was mentioned with approbation. Mr. Killen, Mr. Daly, and Mr. Michael Davitt, who were the chief speakers, were apprehended on a charge of using seditious language; and subsequently Mr. Brennan, who at a great meeting at Bala in Mayo had adopted Mr. Davitt's VICT. 2 N words, was added to their number. These arrests and the absence of Mr. Parnell somewhat allayed the agitation for a time. His conduct during the mission he had undertaken laid him open to a good deal of Object of Mr. Parnell's visit to America. blame. The distress in Ireland had been increasing, and it was avowedly with the intention of collecting funds to relieve the pressure of want that Mr. Parnell had gone to America At the same time he had always declared that this was but a secondary object, and that he chiefly aimed at exciting the sympathy and support of the Irish in America for their fellow-countrymen in their efforts to change the laws regarding land. Not unnaturally it seemed strange that he should refuse to serve on a committee for the relief of distress, if, as was asserted, famine was not only approaching but had actually come to Ireland. It seemed a perverse and cold-blooded proceeding to postpone the crying needs of the moment to political ends. Yet there was in fact no inconsistency in his conduct. He acted as Mr. Shaw acted in moving an amendment on the Address when the Parliament met in February. He looked beyond the immediate present and desired to attack what he regarded as the permanent cause of recurring distress. of the Conservative Parliament. It was not only the Irish members who took the opportunity of freedom from Parliamentary service to rouse agitation. The Parliament was of necessity drawing towards its close. Its course had been marked by events which render it in some way the most remarkable General review of modern times. Never since the Reform Bill had the Conservative party been able to carry out in so masterful a way the principles by which they were actuated; never had they been able to give the nation so clear a view of the course and consequences of their policy. Although at the instant there was no single great question on which the opinion of the nation could be taken, there was a rivalry both of parties and of individuals, a clearly marked divergence in every principle of government, which promised to give to the decisions at the coming elections a most momentous character. The last Ministry of Mr. Gladstone, the present Ministry of Lord Beaconsfield, complete expositions respectively of the principles of the parties and of their leaders, afforded ample ground on which the constituencies could form a judgment. And both parties thoroughly understood the critical character Autumnal of the occasion. Never before had England resounded with so many utterances of first-rate importance as marked the autumnal recess of 1879. There was no immediate proof of any change in the general feeling of the speeches of 1879 against the Ministry. 1879] THE AUTUMNAL SPEECHES 563 country. The bye elections showed if anything a continued preponderance in favour of the Conservatives. But a considerable number of Liberal successes in the municipal elections seemed to show that among the boroughs at least the tide had begun to turn. The indictment which could be formed against the Ministry was indeed a strong one. It was difficult to repel the assertion that their great foreign policy had resulted in failure. Russia had not been checked, but had been alienated. Turkey had not been saved, but had been stripped of many of its provinces. The acquisition of Cyprus entailed nothing but expense. English influence in Egypt had not been established; on the contrary France had made good its claims to partnership, with the chance of endless complications. South Africa, pacified for a while by forcible annexation and a disastrous war, had not been confederated. Instead of a strong and independent Afghanistan, a broken and rebellious country was scarcely kept in order by the British troops that occupied it. If the foreign policy was unsatisfactory there seemed but little in the management of domestic affairs to compensate for it. No measure of first-rate importance had been added to the statute-book, though there were certain bills, such as the Army Discipline Bill, the Dublin University Bill, and the completion of the Judicature Acts, for which the Government deserved credit. But in the chief characteristic of the Parliamentary warfare of the time they had shown a considerable want of vigour. Obstruction had not been met with much firmness, and even the resolutions which had been passed to limit it had remained unused. Their finance had not been particularly successful. The sinking fund established for the gradual payment of the National Debt had met the fate of all sinking funds, and been employed to meet the deficit caused by the expenses of the foreign policy. The expenditure of the year had risen, especially that on the military and nava services. The Budgets had been of the most unpretending character. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had seemed contented to leave things exactly as they were, and to meet any deficit that arose by the easy machinery of the income-tax or by short loans. The Government was even charged, though with some injustice, with the wave of depression which was passing over the country; confidence it was said had been shaken, with its inevitable consequence, a fall of trade. It was plain however that such charges as these rested upon a basis of opinion only. It was open to the adherents of Govern- Defence of ment to reply that England had never of late years occupied so important a part in the politics of the world: that even at Government. : the risk of some disaster the recognition of its imperial responsibilities was the proper duty of a great nation: that the Eastern question had been settled without war yet without injury to British interests: the very absence of what is called sensational legislation was in itself an advantage after the hurried and injurious violence of the last Ministry the maintenance at their full efficiency of the military services was a matter of necessity for a powerful and imperial nation; and the depression under which England was suffering was to be traced solely to economic causes. It was thus that the country rang from one end to the other with excited oratory, supporting one or other of these views and admired or blamed according to the opinion of the hearers. To which view the majority of the constituencies would incline was to be settled in a few months. Measures to relieve Irish famine. Feb. 1880. A brief session intervened. The Government did nothing important to change the balance of opinion. The means taken to meet the famine in Ireland were explained. The terms on which money was advanced for improvements to landowners had been lowered to one per cent. ; a circular had been issued to Boards of Guardians impressing upon them the necessity of being prepared for possible contingencies; they had been instructed to notify any great distress in their unions, and the LordLieutenant was authorised to summon a meeting of the baronial sessions, at whose instance useful and profitable public works were to be undertaken. As the Government in acting thus had gone beyond their powers, a Bill indemnifying them and authorising the measures taken was introduced early in the session. It met with bitter criticism from the Irish, who seemed unable to understand the extreme difficulty of giving in such a manner as to avoid injury to the selfreliance of the recipients, and were indignant that the landlords should be employed as intermediaries in distributing the public loans. The pressing necessity of these measures placed them first in the programme of the session. They were followed by a show of vigour, in Measures against obstruction. the determined attempt of Government to put an end to obstruction by the introduction of a new standing order, placing upon the Speaker the duty of declaring when obstruction had arisen, but leaving the power of punishing it in the hands of the House. Both the great parties were equally eager for this step, which was therefore taken without serious difficulty. It was very generally supposed that the Government were contemplating, in preparation for the coming election, some sweeping domestic measure probably with regard to land, for which the ground was to be cleared 1880] DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT 565 by the removal of obstruction. But no such measure was proposed. The land legislation which had been promised in the Queen's Speech was limited to a lessening of the expenses of conveyance, and to the placing in the hands of the life tenant of settled property the power under certain restrictions of selling or leasing it. Bill. In none of these debates had there been any appearance of weakness or division in the Conservative party: nor did there seem any particular ground on which to dissolve. It would appear to have been the Metropolitan Water Bill which ultimately fixed the date of dissolution. The Government attempted to consolidate the seven Water Companies of London in the hands of a central body Metropolitan created by Government. It was a large scheme involving Water Works the transference of stock valued at more than £27,000,000. The suggestion was at once assailed upon the ground that the sum to be paid the Water Companies was far too liberal. The contention seemed to be proved by the enormous rise which took place in the value of the stocks in anticipation of the coming change. It was whispered that not only had much legitimate speculation been engendered, but that early knowledge of the intentions of Government had enabled some speculators to make large sums of money. The disapprobation felt outside the House seemed likely to be repeated within its walls, and in order to avoid a possible weakening of their majority the Government considered it desirable to put an end immediately to the Parliament which would in due course have been dissolved in a few months. Lord Beacons field's letter. March 9, 1880. The immediate dissolution was made known on the 8th of March. For a few days longer the Parliament continued its sittings to get through the necessary work of the Budget. But all political interest was now centred in the coming election; one after another in rapid succession the addresses of the party leaders appeared, and again as in the preceding autumn the country rang with political speech-making. The most important utterance of the Premier was contained in a letter addressed to the Duke of Marlborough, the Lord-Lieutenant for Ireland, published on the 9th of March. It was eminently characteristic of the man. be thought of Lord Beaconsfield's policy or of his methods of action, it is impossible to deny the correctness of his foresight. The point of his letter was the danger under Liberal rule of the disintegration of the Empire. His opponents, he asserted, had attempted "to enfeeble our colonies by their policy of decomposition," and now there was every risk that the same process would be carried ever may What |