A history of England

by Charles Oman

The Land Act of 1881.

The war in the Soudan dealt a heavy blow to the reputation of the Gladstone cabinet. In the mean time, it was beset by even greater difficulties arising out of the Irish question. In 1880 the government brought in a bill forbidding any landlord to evict a tenant without paying him "compensation for disturbance;" the bill was rejected by the House of Lords. In 1881 they brought forward and carried the second Irish Land Bill, appointing a commission or Land Court to fix all rents for fifteen years.

The Land League.—The Phœnix Park murders.

But the peasantry were far from being satisfied, and aimed at making an end of "landlordism" altogether. Their leaders had founded the celebrated "Land League," which organized a system of terrorism all over the country. Outrage grew more and more rampant, and at last the government, abandoning the idea of pacification, seized and imprisoned Parnell and forty other prominent chiefs of the Land League. In revenge for this, the "No-Rent Manifesto" was published by the surviving leaders of the League, and largely acted upon in the south and west of the country. Chaos seemed to have set in, and matters were made no better by the release of Parnell and his friends, under the so-called "Kilmainham Treaty," in which the premier consented to negociate with his prisoners for a cessation of hostilities. Forster, the Irish Secretary, and Lord Spencer, the Viceroy, resigned, to show their disapproval of the cabinet's policy. To replace Forster, Lord Frederic Cavendish was made Secretary for Ireland; but six days after his appointment he and his under-secretary, Mr. Burke, were murdered in broad day in Phoenix Park by some members of a Dublin secret society known as the "Invincibles" (June, 1882).

Universal horror was excited by this murder, but the country did not quiet down, and a stringent Crimes Bill passed in the same autumn did not suffice to stop the agrarian outrages which reigned throughout Ireland. All through the days of the Gladstone cabinet the island remained in the most deplorable condition, and the Irish parliamentary party continued to be a thorn in the side of the government.

The Reform Bill of 1884.

Unhappy both at home and abroad, and fearing the results of a general election, the prime minister reverted to the old Liberal cry of Parliamentary reform, and produced the Reform Bill of 1884, which conferred the franchise on the agricultural labourers, the last considerable class in the country who still lacked the vote. It was urged by the Conservative opposition that "redistribution"—the adjustment of seats to population in due proportion—ought to accompany this change. The House of Lords threw out the Reform Bill on this plea. Mr. Gladstone then consented to combine redistribution with enfranchisement, and the bill was passed in its new shape. The small boroughs with less than 15,000 inhabitants, which had escaped the bill of 1832, were deprived of their members, and the seats thus obtained were divided among the more populous districts and towns.

The Home Rulers and the balance of parties.

In June, 1885, a chance combination of Conservatives and Home Rulers beat the government on the budget. Mr. Gladstone resigned, and the opposition took office, though, like Lord Derby in 1852 and 1866, they had only a minority in the House. Beaconsfield had died in 1882, and the Conservatives were now led by Lord Salisbury, the foreign minister of the years 1878-80. When the session was over, Lord Salisbury dissolved Parliament, and a general election followed. The Liberals gained many of the new county seats, but the Conservatives did so well in the boroughs that the numbers of the two parties in the new Parliament were not far from equal. This put the balance of power into the hands of the Home Rulers, who could give the majority to the party with whom they choose to vote. The first use of their strength was to turn out the Conservative ministry (January, 1886).

The Home Rule Bill.