THE QUEEN OPENING BLACKFRIARS BRIDGE.
The year closed with gloomy news from Ireland. The electors of Tipperary, acting under Fenian intimidation,[319] had returned the Fenian “convict” Jeremiah O’Donovan, or “O’Donovan Rossa,” as he called himself, to Parliament, an election which was of course void, and which was alleged, by opponents of the Ministry, to demonstrate the futility of Mr. Gladstone’s Irish policy of conciliation. Dark rumours also flew round to the effect that the Government had in contemplation the summoning of Parliament and the suspension of Habeas Corpus in Ireland. The Orangemen, who had resented the disestablishment of the Irish Church by menaces of rebellion, now threatened to stand aloof in any conflict between the Crown and the Fenians.[320] At a time when Englishmen were being persuaded to adopt a conciliatory Irish policy, when, after having disestablished the Church, they were meditating the disestablishment of the rack-renting landlords, the Irish people deemed it wise to increase their demands. They raised the old agitation against the Union. By the Tipperary election, however, they showed that Repeal was meant to be a stepping-stone to an Irish Republic, and it was in vain that English Liberals, who feared lest this extravagance might create a violent anti-Irish feeling in England, remonstrated with the Nationalist leaders. They remained—
“Deafer than the blue-eyed cat,
And thrice as blind as any noonday owl.”
CHAPTER XV.
FALL OF THE SECOND EMPIRE.
Social condition of the Country in 1870—Mr. Bright’s “Six Omnibuses in Temple Bar”—Opening of Parliament—Mr. Gladstone’s Irish Land Bill—Amendments to the Bill—Dual-Ownership Established—The Bill and the House of Lords—The Revolt of Lord Salisbury—The Education Bill—Mutiny of the Liberal Dissenters—Mr. Lowe’s Second Budget—The Civil Service opened to Competition—Mr. Cardwell’s Failure at the War Office—The Queen and the Army—Mr. Childers and Admiralty Reform—Mr. Baxter and Navy Contracts—The Wreck of the Captain—Lord Granville and the Colonies—Death of Lord Clarendon—The Franco-Prussian War—Collapse of the French Armies—Sedan—Fall of the Bonapartist Dynasty—Proclamation of the Third Republic—Investment of Paris—The Government of National Defence at Tours—M. Gambetta Rouses Prostrate France—Gallant Stand of the Mobiles—A Passing Glimpse of Victory—The Queen and the War—Prussia and England—Russia Repudiates the Black Sea Clauses of the Treaty of Paris—Papal Infallibility and the Italian Occupation of Rome—King William Proclaimed German Emperor—Opening of London University—Betrothal of the Princess Louise—Death of General Grey—Death of Dickens—The Novelist and the Queen—Garden Party at Windsor Castle—The Red River Expedition.
If the social condition of Ireland when the year 1870 opened was gloomy, that of England could not be considered bright. Trade was still bad, and desponding critics began to hint that it would not for many years recover from the disaster of 1866. Raw cotton was still scarce and dear, and high prices had rendered the demand for manufactured goods stagnant. The feud between the capitalists and the trades unions was still disturbing the peace of the industrial world, and the political horizon of the Continent was heavy with the bodeful war cloud that broke during the latter half of the year in the sudden storm that wrecked the Second Empire. Irish land tenure, the establishment of a national system of elementary public instruction in England, and the admission of candidates to the Civil Service by competitive examination, were the topics that were most keenly canvassed in the early weeks of the year. From this discussion it was clear that public opinion was set against what was derisively called “the one-horse system of legislation”—that is to say, the exhaustion of the Session by one great measure like the Irish Church Bill. At least four measures were expected from Parliament ere the year closed—the Irish Land Bill, the Primary Education Bill, the Bill abolishing University Tests, and a Bill introducing Election by Ballot. In the end of 1869 a few changes had occurred in the composition of the Ministry. Mr. Layard had been appointed Minister to Madrid. To him Mr. Ayrton succeeded as First Commissioner of Works, while Mr. Stansfeld took Mr. Ayrton’s place as Financial Secretary to the Treasury. Lord Cairns resigned the leadership of his Party in the House of Lords, and it seemed likely that the Duke of Marlborough or the Duke of Abercorn would be his successor. But from this calamity the Tories were saved by the self-denial of Lord Cairns, who withdrew his resignation and resumed his post. Speculation was busy as to the Ministerial programme, and Mr. Bright’s speeches at Birmingham, in which he dwelt on the difficulties of legislation, had a depressing effect on the country. “You cannot drive six omnibuses abreast through Temple Bar,” was the phrase with which Mr. Bright endeavoured to moderate the expectations of the people. On the other hand, Mr. Forster, addressing his constituents at Bradford, endeavoured to neutralise Mr. Bright’s pleas for delay. It was true, he said, that it was hopeless to drive six omnibuses abreast through Temple Bar, but that was no reason why they should not go through one after the other. The “Irish Land Omnibus” said Mr. Forster, must go through first, after which the “Education Omnibus,” driven by himself and Lord de Grey, must follow.
Parliament was opened by Commission on the 8th of February with a Queen’s Speech, from which, at the last moment, paragraphs congratulating France on the re-establishment of constitutional government, and rejoicing over the reception of the Duke of Edinburgh in India, had been mysteriously excised. The Royal Speech promised reduced estimates, an Irish Land Bill, an Education Bill, a Licensing Bill, a Land Transfer Bill, an Intestacy Bill, a Bill to legalise Trades Unions, and a Merchant Shipping Bill. The Ballot Bill was ignored, and the Bill for the abolition of University Tests dimly alluded to, rather than definitely promised. In the House of Lords Opposition criticism was in the main a complaint that the Government had abdicated its functions of maintaining order in Ireland. In the House of Commons Mr. Disraeli admitted that the Irish policy of the Cabinet was not per se the cause of Irish disturbances. But it had been so susceptible to misapprehension that it had sent Ireland into “spontaneous combustion” and “riotous hallucination.” It was a policy which had excited the wildest of false hopes, both as to the Repeal of the Union, and the transference of the landlords’ property to the tillers of the soil. But both Lord Cairns and Mr. Disraeli avoided committing their Party either to a demand for coercive legislation in Ireland, or to any position on the Land Question that would prevent them from attacking or supporting the Ministerial Bill when it was produced. On the Liberal benches, however, it was felt that the only weak point in Mr. Gladstone’s policy touched by his Tory critics was what he called “the discriminating amnesty” to the Fenian prisoners. It was generally admitted that if Ministers had only clearly said at the outset that they did not intend to extend their amnesty, the hopes that had unsettled and agitated the Irish people during the recess would never have been raised.
On the 14th of February Mr. Gladstone introduced his Land Bill, which legalised all Ulster customs of selling tenant-right, gave the tenant a right to compensation for his improvements and for capricious eviction, and provided means for peasants buying their holdings through advances made out of the Irish Church surplus, in cases where the tenant deposited one-fourth of the purchase-money. Mr. Disraeli was, on the whole, generous in his treatment of the Bill. Irish landlords, like Lord Granard, recognised its moderation, and, though they did not quite approve of its principles, they deprecated all factious opposition. It was soon seen that the Tory leaders meant to let the measure pass. But Mr. Disraeli, ever mindful of the great secret of successful leadership, resolved, with masterly strategic skill, to show his followers “sport” by advising them, at a meeting held in Lord Lonsdale’s house, to attack three points. On each of these they were in full accord with him. On one of them they had a chance of winning; on another they might safely yield, and yet get great credit for the highest patriotism; whilst on the third, though defeat was probable, it could not be attended with dishonour. The first point was that police-cess—incurred to protect landlords from assassination—which the Bill divided between landlord and tenant, should be paid by the latter alone. The second was that where there was doubt about an improvement, the law should presume it was made by the landlord, and not, as stipulated, by the tenant. The third was to cut out of the Bill everything that interfered with freedom of contract. In other words, Mr. Disraeli desired to leave landlords and tenants free to contract themselves out of the Bill in a country where the landlord, and not the tenant, was really the only one of the two contracting parties who could be plausibly called free. Upwards of three hundred amendments to the Bill were, however, put down before Easter, and the first clause, legalising Ulster customs, took twelve hours’ debating before it passed the ordeal of Committee. The Government soon found it necessary to modify the measure so as to separate compensation for improvements, from compensation for eviction. Then they struck out a clause which enabled landlords to get rid of all claims by offering a tenant a thirty-one years’ lease. These changes, Mr. Disraeli alleged,